Adopt fix-it-first, climate-resilient and sustainable transportation priorities

Recently, the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) announced $1.3 billion in cuts to its six-year draft Consolidated Transportation Plan (CTP). Factors cited by MDOT include inflationary construction costs and declining gas tax revenues.

There are calls for more money, but on the whole the long-term challenge is not solved by simply throwing more money at the problem without prioritizing.

Maryland and the country simply cannot afford to continue building new highways and other infrastructure that result in sprawling, sprawling development patterns while attempting to improve existing infrastructure, including aging roads, bridges, transit and other public facilities. to maintain and replace. This is especially true in the age of climate change.

If your home’s roof is leaking and your family budget is tight, consider adding a new home instead of making necessary repairs and preparing for the next big storm. The same must also apply to the state.

Gov. Wes Moore is committed to sustainable growth, and MDOT can support that by prioritizing “fix-it-first” infrastructure investments and ensuring existing roads, bridges and transportation systems can address the impacts of climate change – flooding, heat and rising temperatures sea ​​level – can survive. They must also prioritize investments in transit and transit-oriented development to reduce emissions.

MDOT’s draft CTP is mixed. It proposes cuts to expansions of some highways and major arterials and to costly new interchanges, but also suggests cuts to programs to rehabilitate roads and bridges. The department is working to convert some major arteries into safer streets with bike and bus lanes, but it doesn’t have enough allocations. MDOT is securing capital for Metro and the replacement of some old MTA light rail vehicles, but the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance (CMTA) has pointed out that the proposed $670 million cut to the Maryland Transit Administration’s (MTA) six-year capital budget is primarily The impact is significant maintenance and repair costs.

CMTA notes that the MTA cuts appear to violate the Transit Safety and Investment Act, which was passed three years ago to address MTA’s repair backlog. The law requires MDOT to budget at least $450 million for MTA good health in both fiscal year 2025 and fiscal year 2026, but MDOT only provides $336 million and $376 million each year. Modernizing MTA facilities is essential because Baltimore’s revitalization depends on maintaining a modern, reliable transportation system.

MDOT should make cuts to additional highway expansion projects to meet its proper maintenance obligations.

It may be too late, but the huge allocation – $174 million for the Maryland Route 4/Suitland Parkway interchange in Prince George’s County, on top of the $95 million already spent – should be reconsidered. Paying $269 million for just one transit hub to subsidize development far from frequent mass transit should give us pause. It shows the strain on our transportation budget caused by poor local land use decisions.

Instead, the most cost-effective and sustainable approach would be to create housing close to public transport, jobs and services, saving both the government and households money on transport costs. Maryland’s longstanding smart growth goals, reinvigorated as part of the Governor’s Sustainable Growth Agenda, if fully implemented, would help address the land use root cause of Maryland’s transportation challenges.

To that end, the state is supporting investments in the Metro Blue Line corridor in Prince George’s, and MDOT is seeking to prioritize transit-oriented development (TOD) at light rail and MARC stations and recently released a plan for TOD on the Penn Line .

Investing in walkable, transit-friendly, housing-rich communities and Maryland’s historic Main Street communities is a win-win – for quality of life, sustainability, state and local finances, and healthy infrastructure. The Coalition for Smarter Growth represents this in our Blueprint for a Better Region.

However, proposals to increase transportation funding in Maryland, if made without “fix-it-first” provisions and without the governor’s “whole of government” approach to climate change, would perpetuate the problem the state currently finds itself in. Legislation like the Transportation and Climate Alignment Act would ensure transportation investments reduce climate emissions and provide affordable travel options.

MDOT should also refine its statutory project prioritization process to ensure projects meet goals for sustainable land use, job accessibility, emissions reductions, safety and equity.

According to the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, if applied nationwide, this approach would save local, state and federal governments $2 trillion by 2050. These savings can be used to make existing infrastructure and communities more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

In short, sustainable land use, sustainable transit, and a “fix-it-first” and “resilience-first” approach to transportation and infrastructure spending in Maryland are critical to Maryland’s future.