Annapolis Regional Transportation Plan....coming soon to a dustbuster near you...

CP testified before City Council on the finally, yes it has been released, Annapolis Regional Transportation Vision and Master Plan….known as ARTVAMP. Yes. ARTVAMP. Two years late. $600,000 later, but who is in charge? Who take ownership? Who will adopt it? Who will adhere to it? It is a state-county-city creation, but since the day it was signed at a ceremony at the Courthouse on Church Circle some four? Five? Years ago, it seems that each of the three governments, some of which changed hands, lost interest. CP told the City Council to do something, take action, follow a plan any plan, just do something!!! It seems that no local elected official is willing to be the champion for real transportation planning. Alderman Sam Shropshire, the man now working to ban plastic bags in supermarkets, took the mike and well, he did a little bit of grandstanding promising to hold a super regional summit Annapolis. Sam also wants a third Bay Bridge crossing but had nothing to say about the city’s plan to stop its bus service over that bridge. Yeah-Sam, what we need is another meeting!. Here is what CP wrote to him the next morning: SAM: I think you were grandstanding last night. There have been more than enough transit summits. There were two major regional transportation conferences in April. Oddly enough, they were two days apart--even those organizers did not know what they were each doing. I informed you and others about them. I was the only Annapolitan at either of them--nobody from city gov't, no local folks, no ARTMA (for whatever that is worth...) [note to readers…ARTMA or the Annapolis Regional Transportation Management Ass’n is a local know nothing, do nothing, but is a local group deeply, deeply concerned about creating an image that they are doing something…about traffic] We do not fit into the larger regional transit picture. We are a bare blip on the radar and will likely always be that. What we don’t need is another meeting. We have been the tail wagging the county dog long enough. We cannot wag a state and regional dog. We are the end of the line (if there ever will be one) and this ARTVAMP thing does not even mention rail. It is not up to our city to push for a bay bridge. It is up to us to have real bike lanes, a real bus system, real links to DC and Baltimore via bus, real bike and walking programs, real incentives to get people out of cars, out of driving to downtown, but you keep focusing on a third bridge and rail. What we need is to take the reins of our ailing transit system, replace the director, join up with the county and work on real funding and reinstating bus service to Baltimore, not dumping the Kent Island shuttle and quit talking about a third bay bridge span ( as is your favorite) and get real local and regional transit. Why is it so hard for you to understand what we as a city can do NOW...on our own??? We don't need a regional transit summit. We need a real city bus system and we need real commitments for walking, biking, vanpooling etc etc and the mayor has steadfastly refused any attempt to get city employees out of their cars!!!!! Instead, she and others rolled over while the state built a new garage in town!!!!