I-70 lane extension aggravates congestion
When does more road equal worse traffic? When it's at the junction of I-70 and the Baltimore Beltway north of Woodlawn. There has always been a bottleneck there -- three lanes on I-70 eastbound funneling into two lanes to get on the Beltway, one for the inner loop and one for the outer loop. The first lane fed into the southbound part of the Beltway to Glen Burnie; the second lane fed into the northbound part to Towson; and the third lane fed to an extension of 70 that goes into Baltimore via the park & ride on Cook's Lane. Until a year ago or so the bottleneck was on I-70 proper: You had to get out of the third lane before the exit ramps if you wanted to take the Beltway, which most people do. But then they extended the third lane onto the exit ramp, which merely moved the bottleneck from the top part of the 70 stem onto the exit ramps.
Result: The third lane, which previously provided a safety valve for congestion by allowing people (like me) driving into the city to breeze past the Beltway, is clogged up. Now it's not just the cars getting onto the Beltway who back up. It's EVERYBODY, increasing congestion by some huge multiple and making the backup worse than before even if you're heading to the Beltway. Now cars routinely back up to the Patapsco bridge, even at non-peak times. (Like this morning at 9:30.) Bad traffic engineering. Grrr.
Comments
Then there's a sign just before the two lanes become one that says "alternate now".
Yeah,right. That might work somewhere else, but not there.
Posted by: R.Pierre | June 15, 2007 2:11 AM
The real problem is that I-70 stops at the beltway. You can thank Barbara Mikulski for that.
Assuming that I-70 ending at the beltway is not going to change, the two lanes for I-695 North has helped since now we don't have people driving up to the exit in the outside lane and suddenly stopping and trying to merge while other drivers intent upon going to the park 'n' ride bear down on them at 70 MPH.
Posted by: PEM | June 17, 2007 10:35 AM
While I consider Barbara Mikulski to be a great senator, I will never understand why (as a city councilwoman) she blocked the project which would have connected I-70 with I-95 and the former I-170 (now US 40). I think the residents of Canton and Fells Point would agree that it was wise not to extend I-83 along Boston Street, but given the present state of West Baltimore, how could it be any worse had I-70 passed through there?
Posted by: MCG | June 21, 2007 9:35 AM