The Baltimore Metropolitan Council led its annual Chesapeake Connect trip, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, October 13 - Thursday, October 15, 2021. Chesapeake Connect brings leaders from across Baltimore region to a peer region for a three-day learning experience.

Over 60 leaders from across the region traveled by train from Baltimore Penn Station to Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station for the event. The agenda included presentations by Philadelphia leaders, tours of parks and public assets, and visits to non-profits and development sites with lessons for the Baltimore region.

The first day of the program focused on West Philadelphia’s University City, and the decades of cooperative investment by the City of Philadelphia and anchor institutions like the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University. The day ended with a visit to the Enterprise Center, one of the most innovative and successful urban entrepreneurship centers in the entire country.

Our second day started with executive briefings on Philadelphia’s efforts to equitable invest in broadband access and aging city assets. Those briefings were followed by a tour of Dillworth Park, a privately managed park just outside of Philadelphia’s historic City Hall. The group then split into small groups to visit neighborhood development sites, groundbreaking urban trails, a nationally recognized public art effort and the Navy Yard, one of the largest redevelopment efforts on the east coast.

Our final day in Philadelphia began with a discussion of regionalism with leaders from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and the Southeast Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. The program closed with a tour of FDR Park, Philadelphia’s only Olmstead park that is currently in the midst of a strategic redesign to better meet the needs of a growing and diverse immigrant community in South Philadelphia.

The City of Brotherly Love, shares many of the same strengths and challenges of the Baltimore Metropolitan area. Both places boast of vibrant cultural and university districts, some of the world’s leading research institutions and balance of urban living with attractive and desirable suburban communities.

However, both places struggle with the socio-economic impacts of redlining, a crisis of substance abuse, and deep rooted economic, health, and technology based disparities made clearer by the pandemic.

Like Baltimore, Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods, and every neighborhood story is unique. Over the three day event, attendees heard first hand from Philadelphia’s leaders and decision makers about the wins, pitfalls and works in progress that define the Philadelphia region.

The 2021 trip came after the necessary cancellation of the 2020 Chesapeake Connect trip, slated for Minneapolis, Minnesota. In response to the worldwide pandemic and out of an abundance of caution, BMC repurposed the trip into the “Chesapeake Connect Podcast.” The podcast focuses on a deeper exploration of the Baltimore region, through conversations with elected officials, non-profits, local companies and WYPR’s Tom Hall.

Past trips have included Nashville, TN, New Orleans, LA , and Cleveland, OH.

BMC will begin planning for Chesapeake Connect 2022 soon and will announce a destination and dates for the trip next spring. BMC is hopeful for another successful in person event.

The Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO) held their annual conference from Tuesday, October 5th through Friday, October 8th, 2021. The conference attracted over 300 attendees from 80 metropolitan areas.

The BRTB participated in many ways throughout the conference. BRTB Chair, Ramond Robinson, moderated a session on Transit Planning and Travel Behavior, where presenters discussed the Regional Transportation Commission’s (Southern Nevada) On-Board Mobility Plan process and Metropolitan Washington Council of Government’s (MWCOG) strategies on how to encourage commuters to reconsider transportation options and habits.

BRTB Vice Chair, D’Andrea Walker, moderated a session on Transit, where presenters discussed the Fredericksburg Area MPO’s attempt to understand mode choice and MWCOG shared how they are advancing aspirational transit projects.

BMC Transportation Director, Todd Lang, moderated a panel on Activity Based Modeling, exploring AMPO’s ActivitySim consortium model and project progress to date, and more.

BMC Assistant Transportation Director, Regina Aris, moderated sessions on Partnerships and Core Products featuring Memphis Area MPO and the Denver Regional Council of Governments. Presenters shared best practices for Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) planning, programming, project tracking, coordination and using scenario planning for their long-range transportation plan update.

BMC’s Bala Akundi presented on implementing a Safe Systems Approach. This panel discussion explored opportunities for MPO’s to integrate a new FHWA framework, the Safe System Approach.

The BRTB was largely engaged in sessions, participating in many panel discussions while sharing strategies, experiences, learnings and challenges. Our staff and board took advantage of the opportunity to, yet again, be in a space where we could learn from peer MPOs and provide guidance on our unique methodologies that have brought us success over the last year.

Mr. Lang is in the final year of his elected position on the AMPO Board of Directors and with the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) Metropolitan Planning Subcommittee.

The AMPO is a resource for MPOs throughout the country, providing a platform for training, education, case studies, networking, peer-exchange and more.