Maryland?s plan to expand its highways is part of a troubling pattern With a one-mile tunnel below a convention center set to join Las Vegas?s many transportation spectacles, another important detail got sidelined in last week?s hoopla: Vegas might be the Boring Company?s first paying customer, but Maryland?s transportation department is seriously considering building a similar tunnel for cars that would run from Washington D.C. to Baltimore.
The Maryland project was first proposed by Elon Musk as a hyperloop, which would have transported passengers in a frictionless tube at speeds of over 700 miles per hour. But the environmental report commissioned by the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT)?which is open for public comment until June 11?shows a proposal that?s strikingly similar to the Boring Company?s Vegas contract. It?s two 35-mile tunnels for electric vehicles that will only be able to move a paltry 2,000 people per day. (Baltimore?s 18-mile Red Line light-rail project, which was canceled by Republican Governor Larry Hogan in 2017, was expected to move 4,000 people per mile.) The worst part is that this is not the only misguided transportation project being proposed by MDOT, which is engaged in a disinformation campaign to justify widening two major highways through heavily populated corridors in the state.
?Traffic relief can help address climate change,? stated an MDOT tweet last week. ?Nationally recognized EPA model says greenhouse gas emissions dec...