Support for the right location

State officials are gauging the university's support for the Purple Line, which will one day more directly connect Montgomery and Prince George's counties via light rail and place a new station right on the campus.

The university strongly supports a street-level (at-grade) Purple Line path across the campus. It will provide access for our students, faculty, staff and visitors and is in line with reducing dependence on the automobile. The state's plan describes the Purple Line running along a dedicated, double-track alignment that will carry the light rail trains at speeds of about 16 mph. As such, it will provide rapid and efficient transportation from Bethesda to Silver Spring, New Carrollton and places in between. To be an effective regional transit system that runs on schedule, the trains' alignment must be restricted. While buses will be allowed to travel along it, and there will be access for service and emergency vehicles between the tracks, pedestrian access will necessarily be strictly limited for safety reasons to designated crossing points.

There is still work to be done, however, in finding a satisfactory route for the line. The university favors an alignment that is consistent with the Master Plan. Our Master Plan calls for closing Campus Drive to traffic in order to allow it to serve as a major pedestrian walking mall. The stated goal of the Master Plan is to promote "unimpeded [pedestrian] movement across the campus." Turning Campus Drive into a dedicated transit way is inconsistent with this vision of free pedestrian transit.

The university favors an alignment north of Campus Drive, dedicated to mass transit and allowing for emergency and service vehicles. Such an alignment would positively impact the entire campus by both providing a dedicated route for the Purple Line and moving current bus traffic off of Campus Drive. Such an alternative plan would provide the same service but would not impede pedestrian traffic across Campus Drive or impact the beauty of the campus entrance. We have asked the State Highway Administration to consider a Stadium Drive alignment, which we believe satisfies both the needs of the Purple Line and the needs of the university.

Our advocacy of a Stadium Drive alignment is based on an analysis of the needs of the campus. With the planned construction of the new university Teaching Center, the additions of the Bioscience Research Building and the new journalism building, the English department moving to Tawes and the transformation of Cole into an academic building, the demands for pedestrian traffic across Campus Drive are increasing. In fact, Campus Drive and its extension beyond Cole are now more central to the academic part of the campus than they were seven years ago, when the Master Plan was developed. Were the Purple Line located there, the addition of fences to control the security of pedestrian traffic across it, which already numbers in the tens of thousands each day, would be inevitable.

A Campus Drive alignment would irreversibly damage the beauty of the campus entrance. It would require overhead wires and would impinge on the circle where the "M" is planted. This iconic place will not remain as special as it is today with such an alignment. The Stadium Drive alignment will protect this signature place.

East Campus, a development that is very important to the university's future, is expected to be opening in the next few years. Its developers have also considered the most reasonable location for the Purple Line. It is their conclusion that holding open an empty right-of-way of 130 feet in the middle of the commercial district for what could be many years of Purple Line planning, debate and funding is not in the best interest of East Campus. They prefer the Paint Branch alignment, which connects readily to the Stadium Drive alternative.

It is my goal to work closely with the Maryland Department of Transportation to assure that the alignment serves those from both inside and outside the university community. In the meantime, it is important that the community understand my views and the reasons for support of the Purple Line in an acceptable location.

Dan Mote is president of the University of Maryland. He can be reached at president@umd.edu.