Liz Bobo is “skeptical about Columbia gaining mass transit anytime soon because of high costs.” That’s what Derek Simmonsen wrote in the first of a four part series on General Growths downtown redevelopment plan in the Howard County Times this week anyway.
When I read this I thought,”fat chance we can get any government mass transit dollars for rich old Howard County.” Then I wondered if we can’t get mass transit here “anytime soon” when can we?
And what exactly is anytime soon, five years? Ten years? Twenty years?
I think it makes a difference. GGP is proposing a thirty year development plan for Town Center. At the end of that time, not the beginning, there would be 5,500 new residences. Why can’t we start laying the groundwork now so that in thirty years we’ll be in good shape?
Maybe Liz shouldn’t be so shortsighted and think more long term.
And speaking of transportation Alex Hekimian is claiming that GGP’s Town Center traffic study “is not credible.”
Alex believes he knows better since he is a “retired transportation coordinator” for the Maryland-National Capitol Park and Planning Commission. What exactly is a transportation coordinator?
The title calls to mind someone who manages a motor pool. Would that make him an expert on traffic studies?
It certainly would be valid for Alex to have some objections to certain criteria in the study but to say that a traffic study prepared by a professional traffic engineer is “not credible” is both a little over the top and insulting. Martin Wells, that very traffic engineer responded that he “followed the Howard County design manual that lays out guidelines for traffic engineers and the conclusions were similar to those reached by other firms that have studied downtown.”
You can see Martins Wells traffic credentials here. You can see Alex Hekimians traffic credentials here.
Who looks more credible to you?
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