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YesIDoBlowCops t1_iy7ye7f wrote

Reply to comment by instantcoffee69 in Elon Musk’s Boring Company Ghosts Cities Across America by bmore

To the victor goes the spoils. Baltimore city didn't elect Hogan so he has a limited incentive to help them out. Also the red line is more focused on a misguided sense of "equity" as opposed to running mass transit through as much high density as possible where it makes sense. Mass transit through low density rowhome neighborhoods like W Baltimore doesn't make nearly as much sense as through neighborhoods where you have 5-10 story buildings.

If you really want mass transit to work like I do, a Towson to Inner Harbor subway is the best shot at making that happen. It could take thousands or tens of thousands of cars off the road every week and that corridor has plenty of density. Couple that with an upzoning of all neighborhoods along the way and you have a workable proposition.

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gaiusjuliusweezer t1_iy83ire wrote

The red line has an existing grade separated right-of-way through W. Baltimore. You also have a lot of zero-car/low income households providing stronger support than an equally dense neighborhood elsewhere.

The Section west of Edmondson Village is of dubious value in terms of residents, but otherwise it does go through downtown and some of the densest neighborhoods.

The problems with the red line is that the new tunnel two blocks south of the Subway downtown is a lot of $ to not connect directly.

Likewise the walkshed in Canton is reduced a lot by running along Boston St

EDIT:

I would absolutely change the alignment if we have to start from scratch.

However, IF the bipartisan Infrastructure bill’s provision that Van Hollen put in to fast track previously approved projects like the Red Line pays off, I would really like to implore the the citizens of Baltimore NOT to look the gift horse in the mouth, because it could take years off of the time to implementation and tons of other planning related costs.

That time, money, and personnel can be used for the north-south project.

Transit lines reinforce one another to create a network greater than the sum of its parts, so a subway from Towson to Port Covington should not be seen as competitor with the Red Line in anything but their order in terms of priority.

They’re literally perpendicular, and they intersect at their midpoints to form a hub and spoke network connecting the richest and poorest neighborhoods alike with the lion’s share of the jobs, medical facilities, higher education, and recreation in the city.

EDIT 2:

Unlike the overstretched 40-mile light rail lines they are building in the postwar sprawl of LA and Seattle, these are <15 miles AND, with the exception of the Highway to Nowhere (featuring a dedicated right of away pre-built) and Woodlawn, almost entirely built through pre-war foot and streetcar-oriented development.

The vast majority of the built structures from that era still there (for better or worse)

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