RHA votes for Campus Drive Purple Line alignment

The Residence Hall Association voted last night to support a Campus Drive alignment for the Purple Line, marking the first time an undergraduate student group has supported a route for the proposed light rail system on the campus.

The bicounty transitway has emerged as one of the most controversial issues on campus this year, prompting state transportation officials to lobby in favor of laying light rail tracks along Campus Drive. University President Dan Mote, meanwhile, has rallied faculty and administrators to fight against a Campus Drive alignment, citing complaints ranging from pedestrian safety to preserving the aesthetics of the campus's main artery.

Undergraduate support of any proposed alignment - Mote has proposed three so far - could be crucial to making a final decision about where the light rail train would go on the campus. Planners will likely have to contend with neighborhood groups and other activists opposed to the route in Montgomery County, but the university has been the source of most of dissent about the transit way in Prince George's.

RHA members said they preferred the Campus Drive location because it was furthest from the residence halls - alleviating concerns about the noise the transitway would create for students. They also said the Campus Drive location would be more aesthetically pleasing and closer to the center of the campus.

"It's important for the RHA to do this from a resident's perspective," said the Transportation Committee chair Dan Leydorf and co-sponsor of the bill. "Campus Drive just makes sense. It's also further away from most housing."

The vote on the resolution to support a Campus Drive alignment passed almost unanimously in the RHA, with two members against and three abstaining.

"I don't support either the Preinkert or Stadium Drive alignments because of their proximity to residence halls," RHA President Sumner Handy said. "It's going to be prettier down Campus Drive."

The Maryland Transit Administration has been collecting opinions from university groups on the various proposed alignments since the beginning of the project's planning, said MTA representative Joel Oppenheimer, who gave a presentation on the Purple Line to the RHA last night.

Oppenheimer said the MTA would present all opinions to Secretary of Transportation John Porcari, the former Vice President of Administrative Affairs for the university, who would make a final decision regarding an alignment in September.

The Student Government Association and the University Senate have also heard presentations about the Purple Line alignment options, but have yet to reach a consensus. The Graduate Student Government and the city of College Park have rallied behind a Campus Drive alignment.

"The MTA appreciates input from the students," Oppenheimer said. "They have a sense of what should work on the campus. Their viewpoints are pretty open, they have a good understanding of what the light rail would look like."

RHA senators raised questions about the cost of the project, the cost of fares, how the project would look aesthetically and crime. Handy was also concerned students would have to pay to use the system to go across campus, a service the shuttle buses provide for free.

In response Oppenheimer said MTA would consider giving students free passes.

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