Purple Line debate intensifies

The Maryland Transit Administration said at an on-campus meeting last night that the state prefers building the planned Purple Line transit rail along Campus Drive - not along Stadium Drive as university President Dan Mote has proposed.

The state's position appears to have deepened the divide between university and state officials over where to build the regional transitway planned to connect Bethesda and New Carrollton by 2015. The university is viewed as a major stop along the Purple Line because of the planned East Campus development and the lack of a Metro Station within walking distance of the campus.

"From a planning perspective, it's the shortest route through campus," said MTA Purple Line project manager Mike Madden. He added that the Campus Drive route also allows for stops at the most convenient locations across from the Stamp Student Union and in the planned East Campus development.

But university officials last night echoed Mote's concerns, saying the Campus Drive route poses a risk to aesthetics and pedestrian safety, despite the fact that the Purple Line could utilize buses similar to Shuttle-UM or be carried over light rail. Planning experts have said light rail trains, which are generally quieter than other forms of mass transit, pose a minimal risk to pedestrians and aesthetics.

The MTA's presentation last night at the campus visitor center was standing room only, with many in attendance voicing opposition to the university's proposal.

Under the MTA plan, Campus Drive would be heavily renovated in front of the student union, from the traffic circle to Union Drive. It would be three lanes and open only to university, emergency, delivery and transit vehicles - including the light rail trains or buses that would make up the Purple Line - and excluding the private vehicles that make up the other 78 percent of traffic that now travels Campus Drive.

But university officials opposed to the plan have proposed running tunnels under the campus to accommodate the Purple Line and, most recently, taking the transitway along Stadium Drive. That alignment, officials say, would avoid the heavy pedestrian concentration along Campus Drive. A recent MTA study showed 25,000 pedestrians crossing that stretch of street in one thirteen-hour period.

Mote cited the campus master plan as reason to oppose the MTA's proposed alignment in a recent letter to the editor.

"The stated goal of the Master Plan is to promote 'unimpeded [pedestrian] movement across the campus,'" Mote wrote. "Turning Campus Drive into a dedicated transit way is inconsistent with this vision of free pedestrian transit."

According to documents on the university website, however, the master plan also states that Campus Drive should be among four roadways that "will be closed to general, daily traffic and configured to support the campus shuttle and pedestrian and bicycle use."

University Vice President for Administrative Affairs Doug Duncan, who attended last night's meeting, agreed that the MTA proposal - which calls for a system of landscaping and walls designed to funnel pedestrians to four marked crosswalks - does not fit in with the university master plan and disagreed even more strongly with a suggestion from the crowd that University Police should enforce crosswalk use.

"We have a culture on campus of pedestrians first, and the idea of giving tickets for jaywalking is offensive. We're not going to herd them through and ticket them," he said.

Other officials cited concerns about event traffic and the potential for students walking in front of trains.

However, Madden said he had "real concerns" about the Purple Line fitting through the narrow spaces and tight curves along Stadium Drive, and student leaders continued to support a central campus stop. He also said safety concerns about light rail were unfounded.

"The trains only move at 10-12 miles per hour. It's not that different than having a bus moving through the heart of campus," he said. Later, responding to a question, he added "I would assume, in most places, the train would stop for pedestrians."

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