Free buses downtown!
May 29, 2008
Mayor Sheila Dixon announced Wednesday that she plans to add three free bus lines around downtown. One would go north to south; another east to west, and a third would loop from downtown into Fells Point and up to Johns Hopkins Hospital. These runs are supposed to start by the end of the year.
Lots of people were touting the plan at a news conference yesterday to formally announce the service. It’s going to reduce downtown congestion, help tourists get around and cure Dutch elm disease, they said (OK, they didn’t say the last one).
But there are some questions. First, the city wants to pay for this through an increase in the parking tax, which is levied at garages. If you park, the mayor’s office points out, you can take the shuttle around without having to move your car and park again. This could actually save people money, by Dixon’s calculation. But if people are saving money on parking, wouldn’t it stand to reason that the tax might decline as a revenue source? Just a thought.
The Maryland Transit Administration says the buses won’t interfere with their service downtown, but the plan is for the free buses to come once every 10 minutes. We’ve all been behind an MTA bus on these relatively narrow downtown roads, and it’s no picnic. Are you worried about that?
ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer
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