The Baltimore Washington Area Mobility Authority to resolve funding to public transport?

"Will this be an opportunity for the DC Area to follow other global centers of urban growth and economic viability", was the first thought I had when reading the Washington Post Article about our Transportation System in DC:

https://lnkd.in/dEBEFxu

The article states how "LaHood declines to endorse a particular tax or other instrument to provide such funding.The decision reflects his inability to find a consensus within the region, whose top officials are sharply divided over the issue."

I believe the answer is simple, but the implementation requires political courage: Coordinate the transportation services through a Baltimore Washington Area Mobility Authority? Yes, it might be a lengthy process, and I am sure this option has been discussed in the past, but bus transportation at other sites in the BWI area is certainly not doing any better than the Metro system.

Today, it takes me 2 hours and 32mins to use a public transport service to travel 38 miles from my house to the White House. Some of my friends commute the daily 65 miles to the Dulles airport, which would take 3hrs and 47 minutes with public transit, but even by car the commute is often a grueling 2.5 hrs. This is not acceptable anymore for public transportation and this gridlock is holding back economic growth and prosperity.

As shown in the discussion of LaHood, and which is also a common fact at other cities: bus operations is often times not effective and efficient. NTD data shows that $1.3 billion per year is spent on bus transportation in the BWA region. $950 million goes to WMATA and the MTA; the rest goes to about 14 other providers of public transit services. The fare recovery is 22% (meaning that for every trip the authorities subsidize $3.51 and the rider pays $1.03), the average speed of travel is 11.7 miles/hr (I bike faster than that), and the passenger mile per vehicle mile is 11.4 (meaning that there are on average 11.4 people in a bus). Exceptional are some smaller operations with fare recoveries of 8%, and subsidies per passenger above $7 per ride.

In order to stay viable and attractive, the region will need to offer better options for its citizens and businesses. The region needs new mobility options with on-demand services and integrated mobility options combined with parking and congestion management covering the entire area.

It is time now to follow cities like London, Singapore, HongKong, Dubai, Paris and now even upcoming Chinese cities to set up a regional coordination of transportation. It is probably easier to get politicians to fund one system for the entire region with $1.3 billion per year benefiting all 7 Million people living in the area, than to piecemeal all out to various players with all the administrative headaches going along with this. ($1.3billion is less than 10% of the estimated $15 Billion investment for the proposed DC- Baltimore Maglev project, only benefiting a small fraction of the citizens)

With the BWA approach Metro could focus on its rail program and increase the service levels, so that more people will use the transit system again, more jobs will be supported and quality of live will increase. The BWA Mobility Authority could focus on connecting people and jobs in the larger area while using the benefits of the rail systems.

It is time that we overcome political divisions and will join forces and stimulate one of the greatest regions in the US to become the most attractive again.

PS: this should be an easy add-on for Mr Wiedefeld, who was already responsible for the successful growth of the BWI airport.