(MDOT)
Zooming around Orbit City in their flying family car, The Jetsons, from the fictitious and futuristic cartoon, seemed to be light years away from our time. However, writers on the television show set the program in the very near future of 2062. This leaves some to wonder what will life be like decades from now and how do we plan for it?
For starters we take a look at how many people are expected to live in Maryland and where they will be. According to the recent 2020 Census, Maryland’s population grew 7% from 2010 to 2020 to about 6.2 million. If this population growth continues, the State is projected to add just over 1 million new residents by 2050 with the Southern Maryland region seeing the largest percentage growth at more than 30%.
That’s a lot more people on the roads and riding transit every day.
To accommodate for the State’s growing population and future transportation needs, the Maryland Department of Transportation spent a year hearing from Marylanders and learning about their priorities. The Department incorporated the feedback into its 2050 Maryland Transportation Plan, also known as The Playbook, which was completed earlier this year. This Plan guides policies and investments for the State’s transportation system for the next 20 years, outlining more than 75 strategies the Department would like to advance, in alignment with the Governor’s State Plan.
MDOT has developed an Action Plan to illustrate each of these strategies based on the goals, ranging from policy decisions to project-level efforts.
The Department’s Office of Planning intends to update the Action Plan each summer and winter, to track progress implementing The Playbook. The Action Plan includes a progress indicator to clearly identify if initiatives have been completed, are on track, are slowly progressing, or if they are behind schedule or not advancing. If actions are behind or slowly progressing, MDOT can then address these items in order to get them on track.
Here is one example of an implementation action:
For each objective in The Playbook, there are strategies and action items as shown above. This example specifically shows progress in advancing Complete Streets initiatives and projects, as well as progress to advance MDOT’s Trails Plan.
For more information on the 2050 Maryland Transportation Plan/ The Playbook, please visit: www.mdot.maryland.gov/OPCP/MTP_Playbook_web.pdf.
To see the 2050 Maryland Transportation Plan/ The Playbook Implementation Action Plan, please visit: https://www.mdot.maryland.gov/OPCP/MTP_Action_Plan_Summer_2024.pdf.
For any questions, or to tell us what you think we can improve on this Action Plan, please contact the Office of Planning: mdotplanning@mdot.maryland.gov.
Michelle D. Martin is Director of the Office of Planning at the Maryland Department of Transportation.
