By: Deborah Kleinmann, Greater Baltimore Sierra Club Group Chair
Photo credit: Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition
The Sierra Club strongly supports the building of the East to West Red Line Light rail project in Baltimore. Building the Red Line is an urgent and necessary measure in the effort to combat the redlining in Baltimore resulting from decades of current and historic systemic racism and is critical to promoting economic development and reducing climate and air pollution.
Baltimore has been facing racially based transportation and housing discrimination known as redlining for generations. Governor Hogan’s cancellation of the Red Line represents a continuation of government policies that disproportionately withhold resources and access to predominantly black communities and further perpetuate racial and income inequities. In East to West Baltimore it takes a resident an average of 1.5 hours to reach a living wage job using public transit. The Red Line mass transit rail project is an essential means to provide residents in a dense and under-resourced area with access to basic human rights including housing, education, employment, and healthcare. The project is also best equipped to dramatically reduce commute times, increase transit oriented development, and boost economic development by bringing 10,000 jobs to the corridor.
The Red Line must also be built to reduce air and climate pollution. Transportation is the number one source of climate change pollution and premature deaths related to air pollution. Baltimore is a city that has one of the highest rates of mortality due to air pollution in the United States. Vehicle miles traveled is the highest it has ever been in Maryland. Building a mass transit line will reduce vehicle trips and congestion in Baltimore, reducing air and climate pollution.
Sierra Club applauds and recognizes the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition and activists that are fighting to build the Red Line.