Planning enterprises aplenty

As someone with a background in city and regional planning, I suppose I should be gratified to learn of the many planning enterprises now underway in our area. Certainly, the American Planning Association and kindred professional groups serving city planners, urban designers, civil engineers, traffic analysts and so on should welcome the many opportunities for their members.

Last month I reported on an ambitious transportation plan for the Baltimore-Washington-Richmond region being pursued by the Greater Washington Partnership, a group formed by corporate and civic leaders a little over two years ago. Since then, consider the following:

On March 13, I attended the 2019 Baltimore Region New Mobility Transportation Forum, hosted by the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB), the federally-designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for this area. The BRTB, with staff support from the Baltimore Regional Council, is embarking on the latest update of its regional plan, Maximize 2045.

It is doing so in a dramatically changing environment. This reality was highlighted in an excellent keynote address by Derek Pankratz with Deloitte Services LP. He noted that with the arrival of Zipcar, Uber, Lyft, e-scooters and other services, we have seen a break in the link between car ownership and mobility. We make large investments in our vehicles, and 90 percent of the time they are idle. Maximize 2045 will have to recognize this “new mobility.” The BRTB will be seeking comments on its plan later this spring.

The very next day following the BRTB forum there was a meeting of the Transit Choices group, which featured a presentation by the director of Baltimore City’s Department of Transportation, Michelle Pourciau. I was not able to attend that session, but I did have a chance to review the PowerPoint for that presentation, “An Inside Look at DOT Transportation Plan.”

The main takeaway is that the department has been establishing a baseline for its planning process by taking a comprehensive inventory of all the neighborhood plans prepared within the last decade, particularly those with a transportation component. An interactive map incorporating all these neighborhood plans is one tangible outcome of the process. Armed with that baseline, the department is taking the next step: issuing a Request for Proposals for a transportation plan within the next month or two.

This week there will be a commission meeting of the Central Maryland Regional Transit Plan (RTP). In connection with this initiative, I took an online survey to indicate the priorities I would place on new investment in transit. Perhaps this is a useful start to a venture intended to generate a comprehensive transit plan for the region.

But haven’t I seen this picture before? Indeed, RTP is a response by the Maryland General Assembly, led by Del. Brooke Lierman, to the demise of the 2002 Baltimore Region Rail System Plan. (That demise occurred back in 2015 when Gov. Larry Hogan killed plans for the Red Line light rail while his transportation secretary, Pete K. Rahn determined that Baltimore was “a bus town.” Has anything changed in that regard?)

Other undertakings

While all of this is taking place, one must remember that efforts are still underway to upgrade intercity travel involving Baltimore. This includes Amtrak’s NEC Study, its “Vision for the Northeast Corridor,” calling for a Next Generation of high-speed trains replacing the current Acela Express fleet along with new, dedicated infrastructure for high-speed trains.

At the same time, work is continuing on the Baltimore-Washington Superconducting Maglev project, seen as the first leg of a Washington-New York maglev project. And, of course, serial entrepreneur Elon Musk’s hyperloop is in early development. This technology would have passengers speeding at perhaps 125-150 miles per hour in an underground tunnel running parallel to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway from South Paca Street in Baltimore to a terminal underneath New York Avenue in Washington.

I am sure I have omitted other notable planning initiatives. Perhaps readers can remind me.

I am a proponent of planning. I believe in exploring a wide range of alternatives and then making carefully considered decisions that satisfy various goals established by the community (e.g. travel convenience and connectivity, cost-efficiency, safety, environmental friendliness, among others). But, does this flurry of planning activity constitute an embarrassment of riches? One can only hope it does not turn into an embarrassment.

Joe Nathanson is the retired principal of Urban Information Associates, Inc., a Baltimore-based economic and community development consulting firm. He writes a monthly column for The Daily Record and can be contacted at [email protected].