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Baltimore can’t be a world-class region with a second-class public transportation system. We can boast about our quality of life, our top-notch hospitals and universities, our vibrant arts community and our beautiful Chesapeake Bay, but we sure can’t boast about our transit system. Most of our communities are served by unreliable buses that get stuck in traffic and don’t run often enough. We have a respectable start on a rail system, with 45 subway and light rail stations, but it’s time to do more. The benefits of building a real transit system accrue to all of us, whether we use it or not. Here are some of the reasons we need more transit…
- Public transit takes cars off the road. A full bus eliminates 60 cars; a full subway train takes away hundreds more. 30,000 passengers can be carried on a single subway line in one hour. 10 additional highway lanes would be needed if these riders drove instead.
- Reseachers estimate that an average of 64 more lane miles of streets and freeway are needed to meet a single year’s increase in traffic in major U.S. cities.
- The Baltimore region has a decades-long backlog of highway needs, and we’ve recently heard the only way we’ll get them built is with significant new tolls.
- Downtown Baltimore has been chronically short of parking, and new garages consume public and private capital that could be put to more economically productive uses. Meanwhile, parking fees are expensive for users.
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- Riding the new Green Line, a Morgan State University student could get downtown for an internship in 11 minutes. A Towson University student could make the trip on the new Yellow Line in 17 minutes.
- Transit systems throughout the U.S. are providing choices and luring people from their cars. In Denver, nearly 60% of the riders on the city’s new light rail extension are new to transit.
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- Developers in places as diverse as northern Virginia, Portland, San Diego, Denver, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, St. Louis, northern New Jersey and New York are investing millions in corporate buildings, sports facilities and entertainment complexes around transit stations
- On average, 20% of the people attending a baseball game at Camden Yards come by transit.
- State-of-the-art regional public transportation systems in Atlanta and Salt Lake City were essential to those cities’ successful Olympics bids.
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- Employers around the country are taking advantage of the expanded labor pool that public transportation gives them access to. Almost half of the nation’s Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in America’s transit-intensive metropolitan areas.
- Businesses whose employees use transit experience more employee reliability and less absenteeism and turnover.
- For many current riders, transit is a lifeline. A recent survey showed that more than 20% would not have been able to make the trip without transit, and nearly 70% do not have access to cars at the time their trips are made. Nearly 94% of public assistance recipients do not own cars and rely on public transportation.
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- To a large degree our dirty air is caused by vehicle emissions. Every summer, high smog levels cause some 159,000 trips to the emergency room, 53,000 hospital admissions and 6 million asthma attacks. Baltimore averaged 11 Code Red ozone days during the 1990s.
- Per person, rail transit emits 75% less nitrogen oxide than automobiles, and almost no hydrocarbons or carbon monoxide.
- If we can reduce pollution from cars, this means we can reduce the burden on manufacturers and utilities.
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- A bus with as few as seven passengers is more fuel efficient than the average car with one occupant used for commuting. The fuel efficiency of a fully occupied rail car is 15 times greater than that of the typical commuter’s automobile.
- Each year, public transportation saves 1,500 million gallons in auto fuel consumption.
- Every 10,000 solo commuters who leave their cars at home and commute on public transportation for one year reduce fuel consumption by 2.7 million gallons.
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- The Washington Metro has generated nearly $15 billion in surrounding private development. Between 1980 and 1990 alone, 40% of the region’s retail and office space was built within walking distance of a Metro station.
- Baltimore’s West Side Initiative, the largest redevelopment effort by the city since the Inner Harbor, is aided by the significant concentration of transit services. Many residents of the new apartments don’t own cars, and either walk or take transit for work and recreation.
- When the state offered the parking lots at the Owings Mill Metro Subway Station for a mixed use development, it received half a dozen proposals from strong local and national developers.
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- By 2020, 40% of the U.S. population will be senior citizens; many will be unable to drive. In fact, one-fourth of today’s 75+ age group does not drive. Public transportation is a lifeline for seniors, linking them with family, friends, and medical services.
- As their activities become more extensive and widespread, public transportation plays an increasingly important role in linking young Americans to the larger community, particularly those who are isolated in suburbs that lack the activities they enjoy.
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- The nation’s economic growth is disproportionately due to work of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and new college graduates. These people are drawn to regions rich in recreational opportunities, vibrant cultural offerings, and public amenities like transit.
- Baltimore’s Collegetown Network, which seeks to retain in the region a larger share of the 10,000 people who graduate from our colleges and universities each year, has identified public transit options as a critical component in the decision to stay or settle elsewhere.
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- An investment in public transportation translates into significant increases in business revenues and profits. Every $10 million invested in transit capital projects yields $30 million in business sales, and the same investment in transit operations generates $32 million.
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- For every dollar earned, the average household spends 18 cents on transportation, 98% of which is for buying, maintaining and operating cars, the largest source of household debt after mortgages. For the poorest households, transportation costs can exceed 35% of income.
- Americans living in transit-intensive metropolitan areas save $22 billion annually in transportation costs. Savings add up for everyone: every $10 million invested in public transportation saves more than $15 million, for both highway and transit users. This includes savings of about $1,500 and 200 gallons of gas --per year. Plus, transit availability can reduce the need for additional cars, a yearly expense of between $4,800 and $9,700.
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