Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley pushes TOD

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley introduced legislation in March to aggressively promote transit-oriented development (TOD). “For decades in our State and in our country, our transportation system has followed land use,” said O’Malley. “Now, we must focus our land use where our transportation systems can best support growth. We need to maximize the benefit of that investment by creating new communities of jobs, housing and retail in walking distance of transit stations, taking advantage of the infrastructure that is in place today.” O’Malley described “transit-oriented communities” as neighborhoods where people could walk from their homes to jobs and the grocery store or to a transit stop where they could board transit carrying them where they needed to go. The legislation now before the Maryland General Assembly (HB373/SB 204) puts investment in transit communities on equal footing with other transportation priorities and removes legal road blocks to using state resources for such communities.