One man’s epic commute
He lives in Baltimore City and commutes to Howard County — without a car. Come along for the journey
Ilive in Baltimore City, commute to Howard County and get there without a car. Let me take you on my daily adventure. jog from Upper Fells to the Camden Station MARC. It’s a nice jog through Perkins, Little Italy, the Inner Harbor and down Pratt Street, where I hop on the train and enjoy about 18 minutes of internet time.
I get to the Dorsey Station in Hanover, where I am usually the only one disembarking.
The Dorsey area is home to a transit-oriented development (TOD); the idea is to add high-density housing that allows people to be less reliant on cars. A couple of weeks ago, The Sun had an article about how Maryland is trying to really take advantage of areas around transit to develop.
Technically, then, what I am about to describe is my commute through a TOD.
After passing through the field, I climb the second fence and finally get to my first paved pedestrian path since getting off the train.
While TOD is about reducing reliance on cars, each house I pass has a two-car garage. Additionally, there is ample street parking, with a parking lot. And that doesn't include the parking garage. The residential roads are wide and built for speed. There is a bike lane, but it connects to nothing, and people sometimes park in it, as if there is not enough parking elsewhere.
As I exit the TOD, I approach the intersection of two five-lane roads. There is no legal pedestrian crossing anywhere on this road; if you want to cross, you are going to have to play a live game of Frogger.
Good luck! Run fast. The next time you read a news article about a pedestrian being killed, look up the location and you might notice similarly dangerous, car-centric designs. While I live in Baltimore, I am more afraid of dying from a speeding car than any street crime.
Unfortunately, things don’t get easier as we briefly cross into Anne Arundel County from Howard. There is only a sidewalk on one side of the four-lane street. Of course, there is no a crosswalk.
I continue up the road and pass Belair Produce, which is one of the most chronic bus lane violators. There are entire Twitter threads of pictures of their trucks parked in the bus lanes in Baltimore, so it is almost poetic that they are located outside one of the least pedestrian friendly transit-oriented developments. I assume that if there were a crosswalk or bus lane in the area, they would be blocking it. But alas, there isn’t.
I once got a tick walking through here, so I wear long pants all year now. There is no legal pedestrian crossing anywhere on this road; if you want to cross, you are going to have to play a live game of Frogger.