What If: Reviving Towson Transit

Can you imagine life in Towson without a car?

In the 1980s, some people could. A community group called the Towson Transit Management Association worked with the Maryland Transit Administration to start the Towson Shuttle. For 50 cents a ride, this loop bus rumbled along Kenilworth Drive, York Road and other well-traveled streets.

But while the bus was popular among seniors, it failed to catch on. When the shuttle launched in 1985, it carried 117 passengers a day, according to MTA statistics. By the time it was finally axed in 1990, it was carrying just 14. The MTA still runs similar loops in the Baltimore neighborhoods of Hampden and Mondawmin.

Discussions to bring it back fell flat several years ago, but some officials say they would like to see the Towson Shuttle—or something like it—on the streets again.

One of those officials is Democratic state Del. Stephen W. Lafferty. A former president of the TTMA, he says a shuttle bringing students, seniors and families to downtown Towson would be a boon to merchants in the York Road corridor. At a candidates' forum at Towson University on Wednesday night, Lafferty's Republican colleagues, Dels. Bill Frank and Susan Aumann, also spoke up in favor of bringing back the shuttle.

"If we could get them into the town center more frequently without driving, it could be a good base building up for business activity," Lafferty says. "Right now, the economy is so challenged it's not likely that there's any extra money in the county … to support it."

Today, Towson is served by the MTA's 3, 8, 11 and 55 bus lines. With the exception of the 8 (which travels the York Road corridor), however, none of those services are very frequent, and the buses generally go nowhere near most residential areas. Part of the problem, Lafferty says, is in the perception of mass transit.

"Towson's a very urban community but we're still very suburban in our thinking so we're very auto-dependent," he says. "They don't see MTA buses as accommodating what they want available."

Nancy Hafford, executive director of the Towson Chamber of Commerce, loves the idea and says that in a perfect world, a shuttle service would be a run-away success. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

"People are creatures of habit," she says. "I wouldn't want to invest in any programs where I wouldn't know if anybody was going to be using it."

Baltimore City offers one model, where the Charm City Circulator could be considered a victim of its own success. Funded by city parking taxes, the free bus system serves residents and workers in downtown Baltimore. Its two routes (a third is opening soon) serve an average of more than 5,000 riders per day.

"It works well because it comes extremely frequently," said Nate Payer, vice president of the Transit Riders Action Council, adding that the lines benefit from connections with Baltimore's light rail and subway lines.

However, Baltimore County's structure—there is no parking tax and there are only a handful of county-owned garages in downtown Towson—and current budget situation make an option like the circulator less than feasible. Don Mohler, a county spokesman, said such a service would come with a price tag of roughly $200,000 to $300,000 per year.

"It's been never something that at budget time has never really gotten far beyond the discussion stage," Mohler said. "I think it would depend on what kind of advocacy there is for it, what the budget situation is."

Also in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University operates a free shuttle between its Homewood campus and the medical campus in East Baltimore, a best-kept secret among those who live along its route.

Similarly, Towson University operates five shuttle routes serving Timonium, Cockeysville, Rodgers Forge, downtown Towson garages and numerous surrounding apartment complexes. Those buses are only open to people with a university ID.

Pamela Mooney, director of TU's parking and transportation services, doesn't see that changing any time soon. Besides the costs, she sees problems dealing with the security, logistics and demand of such a shift, not to mention the possibility of stepping on the MTA's toes.

"It's just so many different groups and different demands that one system is hard to pull together to meet all of that," she said. "You start stretching it out too much and people won't ride the buses."

Payer is concerned that the shuttle would not gain ridership because of the parking culture in Towson and its distance from other transit modes, such as light rail.

"Usually circulators don't work that well unless they feed into a regional rapid transit system," he said.

The bottom line, all agree, is money. But as much as the county and state can't afford to make it happen now, Frank said there might come a time when the government can't afford not to do it.

"If it gets people off the roads and decreases traffic and increases mobility, I think we can find the money somewhere," he said.