Baltimore Skyline

Having moved to Hampden last summer from downtown Baltimore, I have come to enjoy the neighborhood feeling of the area: wider streets, bigger rowhomes, trees and grass, etc. But I have also realized just how car dependent Hampden and its immediate surroundings really are. It does not take long for the Avenue to get filled with cars in the morning or a busy evening, and traffic can get backed up along Falls Road because of the light signals at the Avenue, and at 41st Street. Hampden is currently served by two local bus routes (22 and 27), the Hampden shuttle, and indirectly by the Woodberry Light Rail station. All of these options have problems that make it difficult for people to reliably use them to access Hampden. Let's explore. The Route 22nd bus only runs along the northern edge of the neighborhood along 40th and 41st Streets. While it does run approximately every 10 minutes during the rush and about 20 minutes during the rest of the day, it does not serve the heart of Hamp...

The Baltimore Regional Rail System Plan that was drafted in 2002 included, besides the Red - which after 11 years has yet to begin construction - also envisioned a separate yellow line that ran parallel to the current light rail, but several blocks east that would connect the Inner Harbor with Mount Vernon and Station North; eventually going up York Rd to Towson before rejoining the current Light Rail right of way at Lutherville. This was a very ambitious plan which looks to be nowhere near feasible in the near (or long term) future given how expensive that would be to build. However, what about building the line just to Penn Station? From Camden Yards to Penn Station would be roughly 2 miles of new tunnel, but would provide rail access to an extremely traffic heavy portion of the city. The 2002 Plan proposed a new station at the Inner Harbor (approx. Conway and Light), a transfer at Charles Center to connect directly to the Metro, a new station in Mount Vernon (approximately at...