View Largerīy the time the designs (see 1968 map) for an integrated subway and rail line and proper commissions were set up to move forward with a proposed 71-mile,Ħ3-station hub system, federal money dried up as the country sank into the economic straights of the 1970s-caused, ironically, by the first oil embargo. ▸ A 1968 design for a Baltimore subway system. Gap is 35 percent-making the system one of the most class-segregated in the U.S. Reflects the overall population-the difference in median income for the entire city and transit users is negligible, 2 or 4 percent. Philadelphia half of Washington and Boston and a third of New York-the income gap among users is dramatically different. Not only is ridership here roughly 25 percent less than “Plus, you had real pushback in Baltimore County andĪnne Arundel County, with people complaining that a subway would bring crime,” he says. The impediment to a subway system, Dilts says, was a lack of consistent planning and political will. Perpetuated it-studies have correlated a lack of reliable transit to unemployment in lower income neighborhoods. ![]() “congestion” as far back as 1905-when New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and European cities built subways as electrical lines were placed underground.) Thatįailure has reverberated through the decades, leaving Baltimore with a disconnected system that doesn’t just reflect the city’s inequality, but has (Inexplicably, Baltimore missed its first opportunity at the turn of the 20th century-despite complaints of Larry Hogan cancelled the Woodlawn to Bayview, 14-mile Red Line initiative last year, the late ’60s and early ’70s were the last opportunity toīuild a comprehensive subway/rail/bus system. In a January 1969 column, “A Question of Roads or Rails,” Dilts writes the only real solution to relieveĬongestion into Baltimore’s business districts is mass transit, noting “expressways create as much traffic as they distribute, and are, therefore, obsoleteīefore Gov. Public transportation system and traffic woes. ![]() Massive highway build-up and the lack of a viable mass transit agenda is instructive in hindsight, explaining much of the present state of Baltimore’s poor Re-reading those columns can be disheartening a half-century later because the same intractable problems remain. Who currently serves as The Peale Center’s board president. “That was when the Charles Center got built,” recalls Dilts, Tackling the sweeping urban issues of the day including housing, poverty, and transportation. So, how did we get to this? In the late ’60s and early ’70s, James Dilts, staff writer for The Sun, wrote a column called “The Changing City,” Pulls in at 19th, one spot behind notorious car-centric Los Angeles. You, Newark for being last.) When you combine the overall efficacy of public transportation-that’s transit versus driving and other factors-Baltimore ![]() Transportation Association’s Ridership Report, Baltimore ranks 24th among 25 major cities in terms of our average transit commute time. It’s no secret Baltimore’s mass transit system is a mess, but exactly how bad is it? Based on a 2016 study using U.S. “Baltimoreans could seriously ponder the question of whether the city is more important to live in, or race through.” You can soon The Lost Subways of Baltimore Why you can’t get there from here, but maybe
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