Baltimore County’s population has quadrupled since the 1950s, with residents drawn to the suburbs ringing the city for the well-paying technology jobs in Hunt Valley, the waterfront views in Essex, the music shops in Catonsville and the restaurants in Towson.

The problem is, getting from one of those places to the other requires sitting in horrible traffic, which has worsened since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed on March 26. Some of the roads, particularly in the Dundalk area, have large potholes. Truck traffic continued unabated on them anyway, since most routes have been altered since the collapse. And mass transit exists mostly in the urban cores, such as Towson and Owings Mills; even there, it’s often unreliable and difficult to walk to for those without cars.

Those that represent the more than 800,000 residents of Baltimore County at the local and state level shared these concerns Monday with officials from the Maryland Department of Transportation, which met with a county delegation at Towson University to present the department’s six-year draft Consolidated Transportation Program. The plan outlines how Maryland will spend $18.9 billion over six years to make the state more sustainable, competitive, affordable and safer. It is the blueprint for all transit investments in those six years, and it has had to balance those priorities with a budget shortfall due to less revenue coming into coffers from the state gas tax.

Officeholders appreciated the transportation officials’ commitments to reviving the Red Line as a light-rail route connecting eastern and western Baltimore — a project that former Gov. Larry Hogan killed but that Gov. Wes Moore has brought back — as well as the commitment to rebuild the Key Bridge. But they remained frustrated that crucial priorities from decades ago still haven’t received funding. In particular, county and state officials pointed to Dolfield Boulevard where it meets Interstate 795 in Owings Mills. The area has been a problematic interchange for about two decades, with the state promising to fix it in 2007.

“I feel like I’ve been talking about Dolfield for six years, because I have been,” said Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr., a Democrat who is running for Congress this fall. “I’m really at a loss for words as to why we can’t get Dolfield done.”

Olszewski also asked for an explanation for how the state calculated each county’s transit needs. Though Baltimore County has more than 800,000 residents, the state bases the transit allocation only on the population of Towson, which is close to 60,000.

Maryland Transit Administrator Holly Arnold said the state is tweaking the formula it uses to allocate funds, which now take into account revenue vehicle hours, revenue vehicle miles, the percentage of the population in poverty, and the areas where mass transit already exists. Montgomery County, which has more than 1 million residents, receives $42 million — about 42 times what Baltimore County receives.

Olszewski and others also asked for Highway User Fees to be restored to what they once were. Prior to 2009, the county received $45 million a year in user fees, which flowed back into maintenance. But since then, funds have dropped, and in 2024 the county received only $13.8 million annually. Olszewski calculated that as a $450 million gap.

Various county and state officials approached microphones for over an hour to affirm Olszewski and ask for assistance with certain projects in their districts — among them crosswalks in Rodgers Forge, an extension of the future Red Line to the east side so that it can serve 12,000 new jobs at Tradepoint Atlantic, a walking trail in Catonsville and better walkability at the Milford Mill Metro station in Owings Mills.

Del. Sheila Ruth reported that she waited 45 minutes for a train at a Baltimore Metro station over the weekend, and that her cellphone had no connectivity to alert her family where she was. The Washington, D.C., Metro, she said, has had internet underground for three years already.

Olszewski is sympathetic to tough budget conditions. But he urged state officials to do everything they could to support the region.

“These are critical investments,” he said. “I know there are a lot of challenges out there, but I think that if we anchor ourselves in the notion that, if we are audacious and put out a bold agenda and commit to doing it, I think we can get it done.”

MDOT officials are traveling around the state listening to county leaders about priorities. They have done most of the jurisdictions already and have scheduled meetings for Caroline, Talbot and Dorchester counties on Tuesday, and Prince George’s and Montgomery counties on Thursday. The last meeting will be in Harford County next Monday.

State officials are facing a multibillion-dollar transportation funding hole over the next five years. Lawmakers are looking for new ways to fund major transportation projects; not only is the gas tax revenue shrinking, but prices on construction materials have increased.

Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said he expected to take all of the comments and incorporate them into a plan that his department would submit to the General Assembly on Jan. 15.