Look to the Continent for solutions to traffic woes

Last summer, I became a student at Heidelberg University, in the city where I was stationed 21 years ago. Among other interesting changes since my Army days there, a regional body, the Verkehrsverein Rhein-Neckar (VRN), was formed to unite and operate the bus and streetcar systems of Heidelberg and Mannheim and two rural systems; soon thereafter other bus systems joined.

VRN partnered with the national railway to operate an S-Bahn (Metro) system for the region. So VRN is a single system that integrates Metro, light rail and buses; a system that you enter with a single ticket and in which you transfer free from mode to mode, with stroller, baby carriage, wheelchair or bicycle even.

The S-Bahn carries the heavy intercity commuter traffic; light rail, the heavy intracity loads and buses, that of outlying areas. Note that I said light rail, because a program of renovating track and signals as well as procuring low floor cars has mostly replaced the streetcar heritage networks. Light rail cars are quiet, operate faster and with less power, and because there are no steps to climb, load and unload more quickly than streetcars and buses. Ride the light rail and you will see buses just arriving or waiting at each transfer point — system punctuality is close to 100 percent.

My argument is that a transport system solution is required for suburban Maryland — Metro, light rail and bus together with other measures to shift traffic away from the private automobile. In the VRN area as well as nearby areas such as Strasbourg and Frankfurt, the problem is recognized as freeing cities from the bad and even fatal effects of the automobile in favor of walking, bicycling and public transport.

The more a shift to public transport is accomplished, the more sidewalks, bike lanes and public safety can be improved. Real estate values rise, pollution is greatly reduced, local businesses flourish and a city regenerates itself. It is thus possible to solicit businesses to raise part of the capital costs — at least shelters, sidewalks and bike lanes and racks. If you want to see downtown Silver Spring, Kensington, Chevy Chase and Bethesda transformed into attractive living communities, public consultation and private-public partnerships that consider long-term transport and livability solutions, not just Band-Aids and ‘‘cheap” solutions, are surely required.

Alas, we Americans dither over immediate costs, whereas Germans consider long-term ones. Consider: German code anticipates a building life of 200 years, utilities are always buried, and old factories and rail lines are usually recycled, not abandoned. Germans think investment, and we, the quick fix.

It is great to imagine a better life for our increasingly urban Maryland, but since the coming of the Model T, the ears of politicians in Annapolis, Rockville and Washington hear mostly the blare of car horns.

Alan Butler, Olney