By Bill Nevel
Late this past summer, County Executive, Laura Neuman, created a 21 member county-wide Transportation Commission. (In a previous assignment in Howard County she successfully dealt with a comparable commission and that is the background for its creation in Anne Arundel County.) About one-half of the members are citizen representatives, including this author, and the other half represent major employers such as the two major hospitals, Ft. Meade, the Naval Academy, Westfield and Arundel Mills Malls, Maryland Live and others.
Ms. Neuman has requested that the Commission focus on Roads and Bridges, Public Transportation, Bicycles and Pedestrians and Program Administration. In each case the County Executive has requested a short-range plan, 10 years or less, and a longer range vision plan for the following 10 years. For Public Transportation, she has requested a recommendation on joining the proposed Regional Transportation Agency (RTA). This would include AA County, The City of Annapolis, The City of Laurel, Prince George’s and Howard Counties. For Program Administration she has asked for recommendations on the delivery of transportation plans and services.
The County Executive’s instructions to the Commission were to send her an Interim Report before the end of the year and a final report in early 2014. Ms Neuman selected two co-chairs to lead the group, Alex Pline from Annapolis and yours truly. Alex was involved in the county’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, and the author in the General Development Plan and the Major Corridors Multi-Modal Transportation Plan.
The Commission has been meeting biweekly and has subdivided its effort into four working committees matching the County Executive’s modal request mentioned above. The meetings are open to the public. Councilman Ladd and BCC President, Pat Lynch, have attended a number of the meetings.
A report will be delivered soon.
