Blog broods over I-270 but misses key point
NOTE: An earlier version of this posting indicated that Adam Pagnucco made an error in Part One of his Interstate 270 coverage. He has since convinced me he was correct on that point.
Adam Pagnucco has published more of his musings on the proposed widening of Interstate 270 on the Maryland Politics Watch blog. If you have an interest in Maryland's transportation future, they're well worth reading -- not so much because they're wise but because they provide an insight into thinking in Montgomery County these days. It would be funny if they weren't talking about doing all of this promiscuous paving with our money.
In Part One, Pagnucco provides a fairly straightforward background to the project. It's Part Two where Pagnucco really misses the point.
He outlines three challenges he thinks proponents of the project face: 1) The opponents are louder. 2.) Montgomery is disadvantaged in Annapolis. and 3) Project cost. Alas, he leaves out the big 4.) It's a very bad project.
All of the other problems flow from that one. The opposition is loud because the Sprawlway would encourage the worst sort of Dumb Growth. Montgomery County, with the largest delegation in Maryland, is only disadvantaged in Annapolis because some of its leading lawmakers know it's a bad project. And the cost is a particularly galling issue because widening I-270 to accommodate more private passenger vehicle would only attract more private passenger vehicles. You don't have to be a parochial Baltimorean to dislike the idea of throwing away 4.6 billion 21st Century dollars on a 20th Century solution to a transportation problem.
One point on which I do agree with Pagnucco is that it's not too early to start talking about financing such a project. It's clearly a topic that state transportation officials want to avoid for now, which is all the more reason to force the issue. Pagnucco notes that about half the financing for the ICC came from toll-backed bonds (backed by tolls paid disproportionately by Baltimore-area residents) and one-third by GARVEE bonds. GARVEEs, by the way, aren't Green Stamps. They have to be repaid out of future federal aid that could otherwise have been used for other priorities.
Until state officials show us a different financing structure for the I-270 express toll lane project, Baltimoreans should remain suspicious that they will attempt to replicate an ICC model that would be highly disadvantageous for people who live around Baltimore.
