sitting in traffic on 695 has brought me to tears on several occasions.

This morning it took me 12 minutes to drive 1/10th of a mile on Light Street. It usually takes me 45 minutes to drive 6 miles to work!

What does congestion mean?

It is irresponsible to report on this study without providing any indication of the methodology used to rank these cities. As far as I can tell, this is just another meaningless ranked list.

What is Governor O'Malley going to do to remedy this nightmare?

Reply to Janet Folmer:

For everyone leaving Federal Hill the issue is:
- The pointless new "Bus Lane" on Pratt St.
- People turning left from Conway St on to Light St. All traffic at that intersection backs up as those turning left on to Light run the red light.
- No Traffic Guards to move traffic along red lights at pedestrian crosswalk in front of Inner Harbor Pavilion at Light/Pratt split.

How would both Baltimore and DC rank together?
We are close enough that there could be some sort of composite of the two.

I believe when you look at the DC/Balto area, we could possibly be enough to warrant top two...

Alfred Foxx (Baltimore City DOT) should have been fired years ago!!! Not a single damn traffic light in this City is in sync. President, Canal, Broadway - can't go 1-2 blocks without hitting a red light. Whatever we pay that man is pure charity.

Baltimore? Big deal, try sitting in DC traffic. I really feel sorry for those who live in Balto and have to commute to DC

How about some traffic cops at the bottom of 83 during rush hour? The 83 & Fayette intersection is constantly blocked with idiots trying to squeeze through the red light preventing traffic from entering/leaving the city and causing major delays - day after day after day this happens and not a single attempt to fix this obvious problem.

How about enforcing the law and stopping the endless stream of illegal tractor trailer trucks coming through the City. We have designated truck routes for a reason, but enforcement is non-existent. So many fixes to our traffic problems exist.

Traffic congestion is one of the hidden taxes imposed on the population when land use planners approve sprawl development. We are the victims of land use decisions that ensure increased automobile dependency and render alternatives to auto transportation infeasible. Other "taxes" imposed by these decisions are found in the fouled air we breath and the dying Bay we say we 'treasure' but by our daily actions continue to degrade.

Regional traffic issues are a culmination of car-based development and the population's personal transportation choices.

rmfelbi - what are YOU doing to remedy the problem?

Janet - LIght St is one of the most bikeable streets in Bmore. Traffic is never an issue.

N8ev:

Have you ever ridden on Light St. south of Conway?
The tracks make it nerve wracking.

South of Key Hwy?
Quick lane shrink to still a high-traffic area with street parking, all the way down to the end by Rub.

Any time I was riding from the Hamburg St. Alley to Ostend St. was the most nervous I have ever been on a bike.

And, for the record, I've ridden on 83 from Eager to Fayette.

That area used to be my route. I will avoid riding a bike on that street if at all possible.

Maybe, just maybe there are too many people.

No, sorry. More people and more cars are not the problem.

Um, I guess everyone knows that the population of the US will double by 2050. No problem.

Tom, the world has too many people, but Baltimore does not.

When Baltimore approaches the population of Bombay or the old Lower East Side, then your assertion will be accurate.

Nate Payer
TRAC

Sitting in congestion is predominantly the result of personal decisions about where to live, where to work/shop/etc., and how to get there. Obviously some pieces are out of our control, but for the most part we make decisions and include congestion as one of the factors in those decisions.

For me, I choose to live in the City and walk, bike, or take transit to work because I couldn't imagine wasting that much time on the Beltway, but that's not the choice many others have made.

Building more lanes on the freeways won't solve the problem, it just makes it easier for more folks to make the same decisions, quickly filling up those lanes.

Instead I would suggest that we need to provide better transit and bicycling options throughout the region, encourage more folks to bike, walk, and take transit, make improvements to schools and crime that make the City more attractive, and build housing, jobs, and retail in ways that make it easier for people to choose location where they have transportation options.

Transit, bicycling, smart growth, walkable communities, and improvements in the City won't eliminate congestion, but they will provide us with better options so we can make choices that allow us to avoid congestion.