A handful of Anne Arundel County residents told transportation officials Wednesday they want more and better transit service in their county.
“We need transit … that doesn?t turn a one-hour commute into a three-hour odyssey,” Odenton resident Doreen Strothman said.
The residents were responding to the Baltimore Metropolitan Council?s draft of a transportation plan for the metropolitan area addressing road and transit needs through 2035.
The plan has 49 road projects and only five major transit projects. The only proposed transit project in the county is improvements to the Penn Line MARC train service. Most of the funding goes toward road improvements, including the widening of Interstates 97 and 695.
But the roughly two dozen people who attended an afternoon public hearing in Annapolis wanted more mass transit, particularly light and heavy rail.
“It has gotten bad here,” Annapolis resident Vicky Owens said. “I feel so congested here … We need to get more people out of cars and using rail systems.”
Transportation officials said buses would be more effective as a transit option, thoughmost people want rails.
“Rails are fixed lines ? once they?re in the ground, they can?t move,” county senior transportation planner Harvey Gold said. “You can?t follow population or demand changes with rails.”
Congestion on Route 50 has hindered tourism and business in downtown Annapolis, residents told the transportation officials.
“People don?t want to come to Annapolis because of Route 50,” said Annapolis City Alderman Sam Shropshire, Ward-7.
Gold said the plan is a proposal and the council?s executive transportation board, which comprises Baltimore-area county executives and mayors, could be influenced to alter the plan.
