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Here are a few recent articles on the Red Line 4c plan, which has now been endorsed by nearly every major leader in Baltimore and Balto. Co:

Not building Red Line would continue sad status quo – Baltimore Sun

Dixon, Smith endorse route for Baltimore Red Line – The Examiner

Dixon, Smith to back east-west light rail option – Baltimore Sun

While there are plenty of weighty issues that are rightfully getting exposure — tunneling, traffic-light-timing, eminent domain, community traffic patterns, etc., — my burning question is somewhat more personal and greedy: Assuming that it gets built, will getting a bike onto the new light rail be easier than it is with the current Howard Street (north-south) line?

Advocates of a light rail option keep waxing — not poetically, just waxing — about how the newer rail cars would be faster and lower-floored than the vehicles on the clunky north-south route. Nowhere would that change be more welcome than when trying to get a bike on board.

While my decision to stop taking a bike this summer had more to do with the maintenance-created-crowding than with the three rather steep steps in each north-south car, I would imagine that a more bike-friendly Red Line could get many more casual commuters to consider a bike/rail combination. On a more greedy level, it would also mean that I could leave 15 minutes later when going to destinations along the route, since I wouldn’t have to walk once I got there.

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View a map of the Red Line 4c alternative

One of the things that I like most about walking and running in Baltimore is the varied terrain. Baltimore is full of both large and small hills. Few places are those hills more appreciated than on the campus of Morgan State University, where they form a good chunk of the school’s identity.

The Morgan Park/MSU/Hillen route I chose goes down and up and down and up again, but never to any extreme measure. While Morgan State’s campus includes two pedestrian bridges — one over Herring Run and one over Cold Spring Lane — skipping the Cold Spring bridge lets one truly appreciate how much the hills add to the campus.

This 5K route goes through a couple of areas that could be described as rough, but I doubt that they’ll stay that way for long. A case in point: The largest building adjacent to the now-infamous Northwood shopping center, where City Councilman Ken Harris was shot, is slated to become a new building for part of Morgan State’s business school, according to a 2007 newspaper article.

While it’s true that the D.R. article linked above is now a year and a half old, I think it’s still quite likely that the project has some legs: Morgan State is growing so fast that three of the largest buildings on my route were shown on Google Maps as mere construction sites. Two of those sites overlook Morgan State’s distinctive red and blue track, which I was unfortunately unable to access directly.

This route might be a challenge on a bike, but for walking or running, it is recommendable.

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