Research from Johns Hopkins shows how Red Line will significantly impact Baltimore
BALTIMORE -- New research from Johns Hopkins has shown the Red Line project's positive impact on commutes and job access.
What sticks out about this Hopkins study is the impact that will be felt not just where the proposed Red Line stations may go, but throughout the region, specifically in East and West Baltimore.
"This is where the workers live, and this is where the jobs are," Fadil Santosa, a Johns Hopkins University Mathematics professor, explained as WJZ sat down with him to learn more about the project.
The Johns Hopkins mathematicians studied the decade-old Red Line proposal and layered it over today's existing public transportation.
The data they shared with state transportation officials show the east-west transit line would significantly increase accessibility to the region's jobs.
"I think that'll be a big, big thing for the city...for people who don't have vehicles," said Kiara Johnson, a Northwest Baltimore resident.
Kiara is part of the one in three people in Baltimore who don't have a car.
She relies on buses, which she says are not always reliable.
Red Line simulations show people could save more than 20 minutes from their commutes, including Franklintown, which currently takes more than an hour, on average, to get downtown using public transit. The Red Line would shave 21 minutes off that.
This is a project more than 20 years in the making.
A decade ago, it appeared close to getting started, with much of the planning and engineering steps complete.
The state had already spent 300 million dollars before Governor Hogan canceled the project, calling it a "boondoggle". Thus returning 900 million dollars to the federal government.
However, Governor Moore has committed to finishing it. The state's Board of Public Works approved 100 million dollars for an engineering firm to advance the project on Thursday.
"It's needed...Everybody doesn't have money for Ubers. Everybody doesn't have money for cabs and Lyft. [I] Gotta get on the bus. I work so sometimes I get up two to three hours early," Johnson said.
State officials have yet to announce whether it will pursue a bus or light rail option.
The east-west line would connect the Woodlawn area of Baltimore County, West Baltimore communities, downtown Baltimore, Inner Harbor East, Fells Point, Canton, and the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
To learn more about the Red Line project click the link here.