The two spans of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge

In the summer months, Ocean City, Maryland swells from a sleepy town with a four-digit population to the state’s second largest city. At least 200,000 visitors descend on it each summer weekend. The city spans well over 100 blocks north-to-south and boasts some of Maryland’s tallest buildings outside Baltimore. And Ocean City is just the largest of the Maryland-Delaware resorts.

And for the most part, everyone who goes to any of them drives, every time they go. So many people hit the road for OC each summer weekend that Maryland is considering adding a third span to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

Maybe that’s not the answer. If it were possible to get to Ocean City on transit, how many of those visitors would really need a car once there? Between the boardwalk tram and the Coastal Highway buses, it’s pretty easy to get around car-free. So given that DC-to-beach congestion is getting so bad, and given that Maryand is taking up the topic for study anyway, maybe it’s time to start thinking seriously about a Transitway To The Sea.

Such things are possible. New Jersey transit trains roll to the Jersey shore from both New York and Philadelphia, LIRR trains run to the Hamptons, Los Angeles is going to build a subway straight to Santa Monica, and just a few days ago I rode the N-Judah Muni Metro light rail line to one of San Francisco’s Pacific beaches. People use city-to-beach transit.

Unfortunately, the lack of existing rail tracks between DC and Annapolis or leading directly to Ocean City is a problem. Building a train from DC to the Atlantic would involve far more than just a new span across the Chesapeake. The money it would cost to lay new tracks would most likely be better spent on more urban projects that would serve riders year-round. But if a train is off the table, what about buses? In the BeyondDC Transit Vision the DC-Annapolis corridor was identified as ideal for BRT service. With the right bridge layout and the right investments to Route 50, Maryland might solve its holiday congestion problem (or at least give thousands the opportunity to bypass it).

Of course not everyone who crosses the Bay Bridge is going to Ocean City, nor even to Rehoboth or Bethany, but thousands and thousands of people are. Many of them are happy to ride intercity buses headed to New York, so why shouldn’t people ride a bus line to Ocean City?

Maryland should expand its study of a new span for the Bay Bridge to encompass summer holiday travel in a more general sense. If 200,000 people are making essentially the exact same trip from the DC/Baltimore area to Ocean City every weekend in the summer, it would be far more economical, environmental and convenient to supply them with a quality transitway than expect every one of them to drive. Given that a new bridge would most likely be a billion dollar project, Maryland has a responsibility to at least consider other options.