Video to show other cities' transit lines
A group of mostly pro-Red Line sponsors will show a film Wednesday evening at the downtown Enoch Pratt Free Library intended to show Baltimoreans what other cities have been doing to integrate transit lines into their communities.
While this presentation will likely play up the virtues of surface light rail, it could be useful information for folks whose only exposure to light rail has been the circa 1991 north-south light rail line along Howard Street.
Whatever decision is made on the Red Line, it shouldn't be based on a notion that the current line is the state of the art.
The release follows below.
What can Baltimoreans learn from other cities building light rail transit lines? Are there lessons from Phoenix, Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles that can help increase public involvement in building the east-west Red Line, mitigate disruptions and respond to community concerns?
A film screening and panel discussion will explore those possibilities on Wednesday, July 8 at the Enoch Pratt Central Library at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free.
The 16-minute film, “Transit Around the Nation,” is an outgrowth of trips last fall by 60 neighborhood activists, elected leaders, developers and government officials to four cities building light rail lines. The travelers reunited a few weeks later to talk about what they saw, heard and learned that could improve communication with neighborhoods and businesses during the Red Line’s planning and construction.
The idea of the 2008 trips was “to expose people to the reality beyond Baltimore City and Baltimore County” in taking on a light-rail project that holds much potential but also prompts reminders of unhappy past experiences, says Otis Rolley III, President and CEO of the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, which sponsored the transit trips along with the Citizens Planning and Housing Association (CPHA), Baltimore City, and the Maryland Transit Administration.
The four transit tours allowed participants to understand more about economic opportunities, transit-oriented development and construction mitigation techniques. They spoke with community activists, housing officials, neighborhood outreach leaders, government officials and people living near the light rail lines.
During the tours, participants posted real-time updates on Twitter, a social networking service, and pictures on Flickrs, a photo sharing service. The Megaphone Project interviewed participants during these trips and afterward and produced the 16-minute documentary.
The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion in Wheeler Auditorium at the Enoch Pratt Central Library, 400 Cathedral Street in downtown Baltimore. The July 8 event begins at 5:30 p.m. and is expected to run until 7 p.m.
Comments
Lets integrate the Red Line into Canton by taking it UNDERGROUND!
http://notraintracksthrucanton.blogspot.com/
Doing anything else will harm Canton gravely. Traffic down Boston Street with train tracks down the middle will be a disaster...spilling into the surrounding neighborhoods.
Dont destroy Boston Street. It is a waterfront asset not a bed for a train track.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 9, 2009 1:25 PM
The waterfront is an asset. Boston street is a treacherous highway thats practically impassible for a pedestrian. A great solution would be removing whizzing traffic lanes and replacing them with a train, forcing commuters and traffic to take legitimate routes into the city designed for commuter traffic, like Rt. 40 and 395.
Posted by: blarg | July 9, 2009 9:19 PM
^Boston St is a legitimate route into the City.
Some traffic needs to come from east of the City to east of downtown, so using I-395 simply adds more traffic to downtown and more vehicle-miles and more pollution.
And why should Rt. 40 (as in Orleans St) get more traffic?--it's bearing a worse brunt than Boston St and is currently inhospitable in a much weaker neighborhood!
It's time we grasp the notion that this concept of traffic "calming" is simply redistributing the air in a balloon.
Someone said this somewhere else: if you want to make Boston more pedestrian and bike friendly, you can do that now, it doesn't require the Red Line to make that happen.
I simply don't by this "making transit better by making auto congestion worse MO". Because when you do that, you also slow down the local bus service as well.
We could accomplish much the same objectives by implementing the Metro extension from JHH to Greektown and Travel Plaza without a ridiculous, ill-serving transit line on Boston St. This would involve less cost and DIRECT connectivity. You can see it at the TRAC website.
Nate Payer
TRAC
Posted by: Nate | July 10, 2009 12:40 AM
Nate,
I agree with you on the green line extension as being a better alternative. Unfortunately, it falls on deaf ears, and I think the current red line alignment is better than nothing, which is the alternative Canton is proposing.
Posted by: blarg | July 10, 2009 11:22 AM
Blarg,
By my accounts, while of course some have proposed nothing, they have also proposed:
a) tunnel under Eastern (or Fleet), like Alternative 4D or HRT
b) tunnel under Boston, though this is less preferable than Eastern
c) Metro extension options to Greektown/Bayview area as proposed by Bob Keith and TRAC
d) streetcar, (though not regional/rapid transit), in conjuction, or not with Metro option
e) build westside rail first, develop a tunnel option for the east at a later point if funds are limited
I think clearly Canton is amenable to a Red Line, and most would favor a grade-separated option.
Nate Payer
TRAC
Posted by: Nate | July 10, 2009 12:24 PM