Blame lobbyists for Maryland’s big transportation failures

Thank you for including a list of all the legislative lobbyists and their corresponding hobby horses (“Who paid lobbyists a total of $48.8 million to influence Maryland lawmaking, and what did they get?” July 27). My only complaint is that you should also include the lobbyists and interested parties constituting the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board, which is responsible for the spending blueprint known as Resilience 2050.

As Samuel Jordan, Eric Norton and Michael Scepaniak ably outlined in their recent commentary, the blueprint represents the same insanity of spending priorities on cars and highways (“Baltimore region’s new transportation blueprint: more of the same car-focused bad ideas,” July 21). This has always failed the Baltimore region in times past. After reading their op-ed, two thoughts come to mind.

First, if the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board is to have any credibility, it cannot include “elected and appointed officials from across the region” who have an interest in the status quo of keeping the lion’s share of revenue going to support more cars and traffic. I wonder how many people on their board actually use or rely on public transit or bicycling.

Second, I did a deep dive into the last time light rail or the Baltimore subway system was expanded, and it turns out that although Baltimore was one of the earlier cities in the nation to get a light rail system (1992), it is the only regional light rail system in the country that has not been expanded since the mid-1990s when it extended northbound and southbound to Hunt Valley and Baltimore-Washington International Airport. That expansion resulted in a 35% increase in ridership.

The subway, too, has not increased its track since 1996 when new stops to the Shot Tower and Johns Hopkins Hospital were finally implemented. I’d like to see a corresponding limit on expanding highways for the next 30 years. Don’t worry about the highway lobby. Neither they nor their lobbyists will starve as they will have plenty of work simply fixing their mistakes.