A tale of two circulators: The lessons Baltimore’s Charm City Circulator can teach the Towson Loop

This article was first published on July 27, 2021. As Baltimore’s Circulator plans are still in flux we wanted to share this piece with you again.

As Central Maryland moves towards a more closely integrated regional transit system, one of its greatest sets of challenges has become not just how to move people from one part of the region to another but how best to move people within those parts. For both Baltimore City and Baltimore County, one answer appears to be “circulators,” buses focused on moving people around within very specific areas.

Circulators in both jurisdictions are in the process of change. Baltimore City is beginning the process of reimagining its 12-year old system, the Downtown-centric Charm City Circulator, around a more racial equity-focused lens. Meanwhile, Baltimore County launched its own fixed-route bus service, the Towson Loop, in October 2021. While the systems are very different, each circulator contains plenty of lessons for the other.

Charm City Circulator, 12 years later

One of the best things about having an older cousin: you can learn from their mistakes.

The Charm City Circulator (CCC for short) debuted in 2010, as an attempt to relieve congestion in Downtown Baltimore and encourage people to use city-owned garages further from the center of Downtown. The service was celebrated for 10-minute headways, hybrid-electric buses, Baltimore’s first dedicated bus lanes, and its own app (years before the Maryland Transit Administration and the Transit app joined forces).

But in the ensuing decade, CCC faced problems: from too much overlap with the MTA’s own bus lines; declining revenue from the parking garages that were supposed to fund the system; troubles with multiple bus operators; and criticism from multiple corners that the CCC focused too much on downtown at the expense of the rest of the city’s majority-Black population.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott criticized the Baltimore City Department of Transportation (BCDOT) on that last point during his eight years on City Council. After Scott’s election last November, “reconfigure the Charm City Circulator” was among four key transportation-related recommendations Scott’s team suggested in his February Transition Report for his first year in office.

Anikwenze Ogbue, a transportation expert on Scott’s transition team, said part of the problem with the CCC is that it’s suffered from what he calls “mission creep.” For instance, Ogbue said that the CCC’s best performing routes in terms of ridership are the Purple and Orange lines, which run through high-density north-south and east-west routes. But, he said, the other two routes don’t serve as many people, calling into question how much coverage should be provided — particularly in light of coverage overlap with MTA buses. “The question is: is the city positioned well to provide that kind of coverage versus ridership?” Ogbue said.

BCDOT is working on its own recommendations on reimagining the CCC as part of a full transit development plan that will be released later this year, said spokesperson German Vigil. The recommendations are:

• “Improve access to transit for Baltimore neighborhoods outside of the Central Business District,”
• “Improve equity of transit ridership,”
• “Coordinate service plans with MTA and university/private sector shuttles,” and
• “strengthen Baltimore’s role in Maryland’s transit partnership.”

New circulator, old ideas

As Baltimore reexamines its circulator, Towson now has its own — and it’s been a long time coming. The idea of a circulator to serve Baltimore County’s seat of government, which is home to two colleges and multiple hospitals and shopping centers, dates back at least a decade.

A 2015 study examined the possibility of a Towson Circulator, but the late Kevin Kamenetz, former Baltimore County Executive, never acted on it. County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. made the project one of his campaign promises during his campaign in 2018. The two specific routes that make up The Loop — a Purple Route running north-south from the Towson Town Center shopping mall to the Sheppard Pratt psychiatric hospital, and an Orange Route running east-west between two other shopping centers — were announced late in June 2021. The service will start out free of charge thanks to a 2019 grant from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation.

So, with Baltimore setting recommendations for its own Circulator after 11 years of lessons learned, how does Towson’s plan stack up to those recommendations?

The Loop’s routes contrast with the recommendation in nearby Baltimore that the Charm City Circulator improve transit access outside Baltimore’s Central Business District. With two prominent shopping malls, a pair of sizable mixed-use developments nearing completion in central Towson, and three major hospitals nearby, downtown Towson IS Baltimore County’s “central business district.” Current plans for the route don’t reach far into residential areas, nor do they expand beyond Towson’s borders. Then again, given CCC’s issues with “mission creep,” that might be a deliberate start.

Previous attempts to get a Towson circulator off the ground meant that The Loop was appealing to Baltimore County officials because it pretty much came ready-made with its own existing plan.

“One thing I’ve learned about transportation is you have to have a plan,” said Elisabeth Sachs, Director of Government Reform and Strategic Initiatives in Olszewski’s office, and a key official involved in the rollout of the Towson Loop. Sachs said the 2015 study made it easier to start pursuing federal funding.

If the Towson Loop proves successful and Baltimore County can secure additional money, Sachs said there are plans to launch similar Loop buses in other parts of Baltimore County (a recent Baltimore Sun editorial suggested Owings Mills, White Marsh, and Sparrows Point as possibilities). Expanding the circulator’s service area could also help Baltimore County improve equity, another priority in Baltimore (Towson’s population is whiter and wealthier than Baltimore County as a whole).

Finally, Towson’s location directly north of the Baltimore City/County line allows for the Loop to check off the final two of the recommendations Baltimore City is seeking to apply to the Charm City Circulator: to work better with other transit services, and to “strengthen Baltimore’s role in Maryland’s transit partnership.” Nine different MTA routes pass through Towson linking the area with Baltimore City, and Towson University offers its own shuttle, TUTigerRide.

Those linkages made avoiding bus stop duplication especially important when planning the Towson Loop’s initial two routes, said Jasmine Clemons, a senior policy manager in Olszewski’s office also involved in shaping the Towson Loop. “There are some shared stops with MTA but our service will be, in some instances, more frequent and also free, so we’re serving different demographics with the frequency and the price. But there was a very conscientious effort not to duplicate or even interfere with the existing service, and we’re in constant communication with the MTA.”