I recently had the use of my sister’s car for almost a month. During that
time, I didn’t rely on the MTA for my transportation needs, and I was
reminded again just how inadequate Baltimore’s public transportation
system is.
I like the idea of public transportation. It’s a more efficient method of
travel, in terms of energy expended and pollution generated per person. I
like the idea of settling back to read a book while someone else drives me
to my destination. I even like walking from place to place, provided it’s
not too far. (“Too far” varies depending on my level of interest, but
generally runs between 10 and 30 minutes of walking.)
In an ideal city, public transportation would be a useful way to travel
around, smoothly moving you from place to place without inconveniencing
you as you traveled. The city would have a subway or elevated train
system with several lines that connected disparate portions of the city.
Traveling within the city would generally be as simple as walking a few
blocks to a subway stop, changing trains once or, at most, twice, and
walking a few more blocks to your destination. Buses would fill in what
gaps were left, as well as servicing the outlying areas that didn’t have a
subway extension or light rail nearby. Naturally, those trains and buses
would have reasonable schedules that provided frequent and timely
service while the organization running things would keep signs and
scheduled up to date and inform riders of any problems with the service.
I don’t live in that city. I live in Baltimore. Baltimore has one subway
that allows people to travel between Johns Hopkins, Lexington Market, and
Owings Mills. It has one set of Light Rail tracks (on which it tries to
run three different lines) that will take you anywhere you want, as long
as it’s BWI, Linthicum, Howard Street, Timonium, or Hunt Valley. Most of
the city is only accessible by bus, and those buses are frequently
off-schedule. In some cases, such as the #8 route, the schedule serves
only to give a rough idea of the travel time between two points; the buses
are so erratic that the schedule cannot be relied upon to indicate when
one will arrive.
The city is also bad at communicating with its riders. Light Rail
passengers are occasionally forced to wait through several scheduled train
arrivals for a vehicle, with no feedback from the MTA on what the problem
was or when service would resume, despite the presence of public-address
systems at every stop. (Not to mention the mailing list, where the timely
and useful messages from the MARC division arrive in stark contrast to the
mute silence from the Light Rail devision.) Bus routes get diverted
without any effort to update the signs and schedules along the affected
portion of the route. I’ve waited and I’ve seen others wait at stops that
declare buses from such-and-such route will be by at so-and-so time, only
to be disappointed, enraged, and disheartened when bus after bus fails to
show.
I used to declare that when I got a new car I’d eschew its use for
day-to-day purposes and continue to rely on public transportation, giving
me time to relax and read while allowing me to spend less money per month
(a monthly bus pass costs less than a month’s worth of gas for me). Much
as that would be a good and ecologically sound idea in an ideal city, it’s
one that’s far too annoying in a city as inconvenient as Baltimore.