Addressing Traffic Along Our Main Corridors

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I ask the community for fresh ideas and practical solutions every chance I get. And just about everything we’ve accomplished during the first year of our administration has been backed by large numbers of engaged county residents.

I believe that communities in Anne Arundel County are probably among the strongest and most engaged anywhere in the state. People really care about what is happening here, and they want to see positive change. A couple weeks back, during my first transportation town hall meeting, the community had many concerns, ideas and thoughts to share - so much so that the meeting went into overtime!

That evening, I asked for community feedback on a broad range of the county’s toughest transportation challenges. Boy, did I get an earful, especially when it came to Route 2 and Route 3 congestion and whether we should impose a moratorium on development along the two corridors. When asked how many folks would support a moratorium, the vast majority of hands in the room shot up.

I’ve asked the Anne Arundel County Office of Law to explore the legal issues around a moratorium while we look at all our options to address traffic congestion and failing intersections along these routes. Another potential action would be revising our ordinance on adequate public facilities as a way to responsibly control growth.

To impose a moratorium would involve a three-part justification process: 1) producing the data that demonstrates failing intersections, etc. 2) limiting the time period to a period of two years or less, and perhaps most importantly 3) having a game plan to solve the problem once the moratorium ends.

Last year, there were more than 300 accidents on Route 3. On average, that’s an accident almost every day. According to the state’s latest highway mobility report, Route 2 is in the top 10 of congested roadways anywhere in the state during the evening rush hour.

Traffic congestion in a huge quality of life problem in Anne Arundel County. It’s among the most important issues in the county, and yet it’s the hardest to fix. I wish there was a magic bullet.

We’re all frustrated that there is barely a dribble of money coming to our county’s state road improvements from state funding anymore. The governor’s staff has made clear that even though revenues from the gas tax are declining with increased fuel efficiency, we should not expect the governor's administration to put forth a new funding formula that addresses transportation infrastructure needs.

So what do we do? Most folks who attended the town hall told me they want more investment in public transit and bike and pedestrian trails. They want a greater input into state studies that they say don’t reflect what’s actually happening on the ground. And they also support legislation that would give our county the same veto power over new road and bridge tolls that Eastern Shore counties enjoy.

It’s time for a central Maryland campaign for accountability in transportation planning that puts all these pieces on the table plus a few more. Last month, the county council unanimously passed Move Anne Arundel! - the county’s first multi-modal comprehensive transportation plan. The plan will be a critical part of a new approach to the county’s General Development Plan, known as Anne Arundel 2040.

On December 3, exactly one year after I was sworn into office, I stood with our planning department, our Citizens Advisory Committee, and state Smart Growth experts to outline our process for the upcoming General Development Plan. To return to Small Area planning, we will split the county into nine regional areas and form stakeholder advisory groups for each one. This process will truly return us to community driven planning - like residents want and expect.

A draft is expected to be ready by the spring of 2020, with a more complete version going before the county council in fall 2020.

More than just plans, Move Anne Arundel! and Anne Arundel 2040 will arguably have more impact on our environmental policy, climate change, and our quality of life in the years to come than practically anything we do. They will be Anne Arundel’s living documents.

Plans are not scintillating reads necessarily, but a well-conceived plan that is chock full of smart priorities and buoyed by surging community engagement will be the high-water mark of public policy during the Pittman administration years, but also for many years to come.

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