Buses Take Lanes From Cars In Baltimore

By Cathy Duchamp

For the first time ever, the city of Baltimore is taking lanes of traffic away from cars, to make way for it's new Charm City Circulator bus service.

No doubt, some people who drive near the Baltimore Inner Harbor will be mad. But Jamie Kendrick with the city transportation department says things need to change.

"We are giving a place for transit riders and transit riders only, and bicyclists who are equally important. Because the environment is too important, the health of our bay is too important. We've got to shift the behavior to get people out of their cars by themselves and to a more sustainable form of transportation," says Kendrick.

To entice people, the Charm City Circulator buses will look hip, and be hybrid. They'll come every ten minutes, and most important, they'll be free. Laurie Schwartz runs the downtown waterfront partnership:

"We talked a lot about whether to charge a quarter of 50 cents," says Schwartz."Well, we want get people on board, and not charging anything makes it easy as possible."

Service starts January 11th.