Improvements to Columbia?s transit system could ease the congestion expected to accompany the redevelopment of downtown Columbia into an urban center, some residents and local leaders said.
Columbia could not support the maximum level of proposed growth ? up to 5,500 additional apartments and up to 6.5 million square feet of office space ? according to a traffic study by Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin Lopez Rinehart Inc. in June.
However, “very little was done to promote transit in the traffic study,” said Alex Hekimian, a member of the Downtown Columbia Focus Group who helped pen a rebuttal to the study and works with developers and the Planning and Zoning Department to plan the Town Center?s redevelopment.
“The assumption was that Columbia is too small to support transit,”he said.
The rebuttal said shuttle, bus, light rail and MARC connections should be used to divert traffic from downtown.
Shortening the waiting time between stops on the Howard County Transit bus system could relieve traffic, said Carl Balser, transportation chief for the Planning and Zoning Department.
The bus system increased its ridership by 13.1 percent last year, and Columbia?s 88,254 residents could support a more robust system, Balser said.
Lowering the waiting time from every hour to every half an hour initially would cost about $4 million or $5 million, he said. Transit also requires annual operating expenses, because bus ticket sales cover only about 10 percent of cost.
AT A GLANCE
Howard County transit users:
Fiscal 2006 total: 727,311
Average weekday: 2,466
Average Saturday: 1,297
Average Sunday: 493
Source: Howard County Department of Planning and Zoning Transportation Chief Carl Balser
