AAA is forecasting a 1.4 percent increase in Thanksgiving travel over last year's recession-battered holiday, pointing to what appears to be a modest improvement in economic activity.

According to AAA, about 38.4 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles from home between next Wednesday and the Sunday after the hoiliday. Travel by automobile is expected to increase by 2.1 percent to 33.2 milllion.

But air travel is expected to be off by 6.6 percent. Air travel is expected to account for only 6 percent of Thanksgiving travel, continuing a downward trend that has persisted for a decade.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

Are you one of those unlucky souls who will be leaving the Baltimore area by car about midday the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for a family gathering?

Is your destination someplace truly grueling  to reach at peak times such as Long Island, northern  New Jersey or Connecticut? Or, perhaps, Richmond, Raleigh or Charlotte?

Would you be willing to stay in contact by phone or email and describe your ordeal for this blog and an article in the Baltimore Sun?

We'd like to evaluate the different routes and strategies people can employ when they can't avoid the peak hours. If you're willing to participate, please drop a line to michael.dresser@baltsun.com. Make the subject line Travel so it stands out from the spam? Thanks.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: On the roads
        

The Dixon administration is expected to bring two contracts before the Board of Estimates Wednesday cementing its 2-year-old accord with CSX under which the railroad will pay roughly three-quarters of the cost of replacing two of the city’s most deteriorated bridges.

After years of wrangling, the city and CSX reached agreement in principle on the formula for paying for the replacement of the Fort Avenue and Sinclair Lane bridges in Oct. 2007. But it has taken two years to work out details.

The delay, according to city deputy transportation director Jamie Kendrick, was the result of “a thousand details and lots of lawyers but other than that it was easy.”

Under the contracts, which CSX has already signed, the railroad will pay 75 percent of the construction costs and 100 percnet of the engineering costs on the Fort Avenue bridge. The city willl contribute the other quarter of the building costs.

That bridge was the subject of public protests by a Locust Point woman named Karen Johns (above), who became well-known in the city as ‘The Bridge Lady.” Johns badgered elected officials to put pressure on CSX to replace the visibly crumbling bridge, which was built in 1920 and scored 36 points out of 100 – a failing grade -- on a recent inspection.

Sun photo/Kim Hairston

Continue reading "Baltimore, CSX finalize agreement on bridges" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: On the roads
        

After the experience of going through this week's nor'easter with just one bridge to the mainland, Ocean Mayor Rick Meehan said he's going to ask the State Highway Administration to add a second span to the Route 90 bridge (above).

The current bridge, which feeds into the barrier island at 60th Street, has been shut down last month for emergency repairs (below) to an eroded girder.

Adding a new two-lane bridge to supplement the existing span would be a very expensive project, and given the woes of the state transportation budget, the mayor may have a long wait ahead.

SHA spokesman Dave Buck said there are no plans in the works to add capacity to the Route 90 bridge, which at about 35 years old is a relative youngster in infrastructure terms. Buck noted that Worcester County already has some other big-ticket items higher on its priority list, including the rehabilitation or replacement of the U.S. 50 bridge, which is 66 years old and showing its age. If replacement is the option selected, that could be a $500 million project, he said.

                                                                         State Highway Administration photo                   

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

A colleague who works nights encountered a change in her commute  home and wondered what brought it about:

At one time you could turn right on red onto northbound Charles from westbound Mount Royal. Now you cannot do that. The two right lanes or so of Charles north of Mount Royal are torn up now with roadwork. But before that happened, the light was changed so that the two lanes of Mount Royal continuing west across Charles get a green light, while the two right-turning lanes still have a red light.

Is it this way because of the construction? Could (it be OK) to turn right on red after a certain time (7 p.m. seems most common)? Could the light be programmed to allow all the traffic to move thru the intersection at some time if it’s not safe to do so earlier in the day? Thanks. Any light you can shed on this will be appreciated.

Those questions were posed to Kathy Chopper, spokeswoman for the city Department of Transportation, who had this explanation:

At one time, motorists were able to make right turns onto Charles from westbound Mount Royal, but that traffic pattern was recently changed.  The City of Baltimore worked with the University to adjust signal timing and eliminate right turns on red at that intersection due to the heavy amount of pedestrian traffic. 

 The right turns on red were eliminated to provide enough time for pedestrians to cross in a safe manner.  These changes were not related to the construction that is taking place in the area.

My question would be how many pedestrians there are to protect around midnight, when my colleage passes through the intersection.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: On the roads
        

When Adam Pagnucco is on his game, he does as good a job as anyone of explaining transportation politics in Maryland. His posting today on Maryland Politics Watch is a good example of that.

It seems the Montgomery County Council has achieved rare  unanimity in coalescing around an expensive scheme (in the billions though not definitively priced) to add two express toll lanes to Interstate 270 from Shady Grove to Frederick. Pagnucco notes that the idea of a wider I-270 has strong support from elected leaders in Montgomery County and Frederick County.

That should come as no big surprise. Express toll lanes would be a great bargain for residents of those areas. First of all, the tolls collected on I-270 would pay only a fraction of the costs. The up-front costs would probably have to be borne by users of the state's other toll facilities -- who tend to be residents of Maryland jurisdictions other than Montgomery and Frederick.

That's one of many reasons that Pagnucco's link to Baltimore takes you to this blog.

It's time the rest of the state put Montgomery on notice about this project: If you want  it so much, figure out a way to build it without money from the state's other toll facilities. Tolls are already likely to go much higher just to cover existing obligations and more worthy capital projects, and users of the Fort McHenry Tunnel and the Key Bridge aren't going to willingly pay even more for a bay-polluting boondoggle that brings them zero benefit.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: On the roads
        

Carole Feldman of the Associated Press reports that there will be fewer rest stops open for travelers on the interstates this Thanksgiving weekend.

Some states have closed stops in order to cut budgets strapped by recession-related revenue declines. Especially hard hit has been Virginia, which closed 19 of its 42 rest stops.

In Maryland, the rest stops along Interstate 70 on South Mountain near the Frederick-Washington county line have been closed for remodeling and will reopen next year. The Bay Country Welcome Center on U.S. 301 in Queen Anne's County has been closed, along with the Sideling Hill Interpretive Center in Western Maryland, but the rest rooms at both facilities remain open. Other rest stops remain open.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

The Montgomery County Council, led by Chairman Phil Andrews, might just have opened a door they would have preferred to keep closed.

Ben Ross of the Action Committee for Transit points out that the solution Andrews suggested and the Council endorsed for relieving congestion in the Interstate 270 corridor -- the addition of two reversible express lanes between Shady Grove and Frederick -- is not  one of the alternatives included in the State Highway Administration's I-270 Corridor Study.

To move in the direction the Council suggests would require a new study of the plan's costs and feasibilty, Ross notes. So if transportation officials decide to reopen the study to examine one plan, Ross asks, why not open it up to other alternatives -- including ACT's suggestion of an all-transit option for relieving the corridor's stress?

It seems to me that Ross has a point. A lot has happened since transit was last  looked  at, including massive cost increases for some of the alternatives that have been studied. I'd also like to have them take a glance, at least, at my suggestion of a single reversible lane for buses and high-occupancy vans only at peak times. (Let trucks use it off-peak to separate them from cars.)

Some proponents of widening I-270 to the max have dismissed the notion of any further study -- insisting it will only delay the project. But all you have to do is look at the finances of the Maryland Transportation Authority and you'll see it may be a long time before any project of the magnitude of an I-270 widening can be financed.

So let's study away: the Andrews plan, the Ross plan, the off-the-wall-Baltimore-Guy plan, whatever.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

AP Photo                       

The cost estimate for building the Intercounty Connector has held steady over the past year, with no change to last year's estimate of $2.566 billion.

The State Highway Administration and Maryland Transportation Authority  certified that figure last week in its annual report to the Federal Highway Administration. The agencies told the federal government the work on the thrre main contracts for the ICC -- taking it from Interstate 370 to Interstate  95 -- are all on time or slightly ahead of schedule.

Work on the western end of the ICC -- from Georgia Avenue to I-370 -- was 60 percent complete as of September and is expected to be completed in late 2010. (It will be interesting to see if the contractor can finish before the gubernatorial election.)

The other two segments leading to I-95, close to half complete in some places, are expected to open in late 2011 or early 2012.

A short segment leading to U.S. 1 has been delayed until 2013, while some work on the feeder routes from I-95 to the ICC has been pushed back to 2017.

There  are no big surprises here. It's a case where no news is good news.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

Maryland Politics Watch reports that Montgomery County Council President Phil Andrews has come out in favor of a more modest, somewhat less expensive plan to widen Interstate 270 -- the project this blog has dubbed the Sprawlway for its likely effect on northern Montgomery, Frederick County and places even farther from Washington.

Andrews is calling on his colleagues to seek construction of two additional lanes  on I-270 betweeen Shady Grove and Frederick. He would make them reversible, carrying southbound traffic in the morning and northbound  in the  evening -- and would finance them partly by charging tolls  on singly-occupied vehicles in the fast lanes.

To give credit where it's due, Andrews' proposal is less egregious than the county planning board's call to spend  $4.6 billion to add two express toll lanes in each direction. That gold-plated  proposal would be the most costly transportation project ever undertaken in Maryland by far.

Andrews' proposal is more on the order of silver-plated and earns the title of Sprawlway Lite. It would still be enormously expensive and it would still contribute to the outward expansion of McMansions. Also, the proposal would continue to  concentrate growth in an already saturated corridor far from Baltimore instead of leveraging the Intercounty Connector to bring more growth to the center of the state.

Anyone proposing such a project up front must also acknowledge that the tolls for those express lanes are likely to make the charges proposed for the ICC look like a bargain. They also can't relieve congestion too much, because the state can't make money if there are no traffic jams to escape.

Andrews proposes that constructiion of the Corridor Cities Transitway, a mass transit extension of the Metro Red Line through the I-270 corridor to Clarksburg,  take precedence. He is urging colleagues to  endorse Bus Rapid Transit as the mode of travel, a potentially controversial but fiiscallly prudent choice.

Going forward with that project separately from the I-270 widening is wise because the latter will be a hard sell to the rest of the state. Maryland faces a long list of much-needed toll-financed projects to preserve or replace exiisting infrastructure. Any scheme to widen I-270 would have to get in line.

The Montgomery Council could act on Andrews' recommendation as early as Tuesday.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: On the roads
        

Folks for whom it's an article of faith that roads are paid for with the gas tax while transit bleeds the body public might want to ignore this article from DC.StreetsBlog.org on the high cost of highways and who ends up paying for them.

In short, Rep. Mike Kursee says roads cover only a small part of their costs in his state and that taxes raised in the cities go to extend roads out into rural areas. He has some  candid comments about the state of the nation's transportation finances.

The article doesn't say, but Krusee is a Republican.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: On the roads
        

The Baltimore Department of Transportation will close several blocks of Howard Street and Saratoga Street next week in order to rebuild that intersection.

The department announced that it would close Saratoga Street between Park Avenue and Eutaw Street and Howard Street between Fayette and Mulberry streets has from 9 a.m. Monday through 6 p.m. Friday. The light rail will continue to operate on Howard Street.

The cityt suggested that motoriists use alternate routes such as Franklin or Fayette streets instead of Saratoga. In place of Howard Street, it suggested Paca or Charles streets.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

A reader posted  these questions to the Getting There  blog. I thought they were worth answering by going straight to the source -- Dave Buck of the State Highway Adminiistration. Here are the questions:

I recall hearing that (Gov. Robert L. ) Ehrlich passed a project to widen the West side outer loop of the Beltway to four lanes and it would start around 2009 or 2010.
What's the status on that?

Also, what about the triple bridges connecting I-70 to I-695? A ton of traffic just sits on the ramp from I-70 trying to get onto the Inner Loop of the Beltway. The bridges are also built in such a way that only three lanes in each direction can get through on the Beltway and there is no shoulder. What is the plan to fix that?

Continue reading "Beltway widening projects depend on finding funds" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: On the roads
        

Here's an interesting tidbit from deputy Baltimore transportation director Jamie Kendrick's talk to the Downtown Partnership this morning:

More than 86% of Baltimore’s land area is within ½ mile of a school – and in one month alone, using just two cameras along 33rd street, we issued 1,462 warning citations to drivers going more than 12 mph over the speed limit. We are drop dead serious about reducing unsafe speeds in Baltimore.

Are the 1,462 who received the warnings...

a.) Oppressed victims of Big Brother.

b.) Hard-working Americans who were just in a little bit of a hurry.

c.) Negligent, irresponsible drivers who could have easily moved down a schoolkid and who are lucky to have gotten off with a warning.

Vote here:   

c. _____

c. _____

c. _____

It's good to be the blog king.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: On the roads
        

I pass this alert on just as it came in from my former Sun  colleague Jon Morgan. I see no way I can improve on it:

News Alert

03:30 PM EST Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Evening traffic backups likely in Montgomery

Technicians have yet to resolve a malfunction with the computerized system that

controls 750 traffic lights across Montgomery County, which will probably mean a

repeat of Wednesday morning's massive backups during the evening rush.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

AAA Mid-Atlantic has issued a timely reminder that Maryland's deer population is in the amorous throes of late autumn, when the sex-besotted beasts are especially likely to jump into the path of your vehicle while in the single-minded pursuit of a mate.

The results can be deadly -- and not just for the deer. In 2007, the last year on recoord, two people died and 458 were injured in 1,962 animal-vehicle crashes, according to the Deer-Vehicle Crash Information Clearinghouse.

According to AAA, the average property damage claim from a deer-vehicle crash was $3,300.

“Keep in mind, with increased development, deer habitat has decreased and deer are interacting and living closer to humans,” saiid AAA spokeswoman Ragina Averella.  “Drive defensively and be alert, particularly near wooded areas along local roadways.  Most deer-vehicle collisions occur on two-lane roads bordered by natural habitat."

AAA  offered the following tips for dealing with deer on the road:

• Buckle up and do not speed.  A decrease in speed gives you more time to react. 

                                           AP Photo

Continue reading "AAA warns that deer are out to get you" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

Somewhat belatedly I came across this Sept. 30 editorial  in The Gazette of Montgomery County on the proposed tolls for the Intercounty Connector.

On the one hand, it's a hoot because the Gazette was an unabashed cheerleader for the ICC during the long debate over whether to build it. Yet, in the editorial, it seems to have just awakened to the realization that the state plans to finance it with tolls that would rise periodically to prevent congestion. That has only been public knowledge since 2003, when the Ehrlich administration first floated the idea.

On the other hand, this is a wake-up call that some folks in Montgomery are trying to renegotiate the terms of what should be a done deal. The financing package for the ICC was wrapped up and given the tacit approval of the General Assembly back in 2004-2005. The idea then and now was that users of the ICC would foot a large chunk of the bill. All parties to the deal knew then that the ICC would be an expensive ride. The only question was how much.

The question the Maryland Transportation Authority has to ask is where it will get the revenue to pay off the bonds if it overrules its consultant and grants toll relief to ICC users for purely political reasons. The danger for the Baltimore area is that it would begin looking toward other toll facilities to make up the difference. Those facilities are concentrated in the Baltimore region and are already being milked to help build the ICC.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

Maryland is giving drivers who get caught by speed cameras going too fast in work zones at least  two more weeks to clean up their act before they face $40 fines.

The State Highway Administration, Maryland Transportation Authority and the Maryland State Police said they are extending the one-month grace period  that began when the state's new speed camera law took effect Oct. 1. According to the highway administration, more than 900 warnings have gone out to drivers who were exceeding the speed  limit in work zones by at least 12 mph.

"We are extending the warning phase because our goal isn't to 'catch' speeders, but to give citizens an opportunity to change dangerous driving behaviors" before the State Police and Transportation Authority Police begin issuing tickets, said state Highway Administrator Neil J. Pedersen.

SHA spokeswoman Valerie Burnette Edgar said that the warning period was extended because it took about two weeks after Oct. 1 for the first warnings to be processed  and sent out. She said officials wanted to make sure motorists had fair warning before sending out actual citations.

The extended warning period applies to work zones only and not to  violations  detected by speed cameras in school  zones.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

Sun photo                     

Del. Kumar Barve, a Montgomery County Democrat, is one of the smartest (and funniest) members of the House of Delegates. Largely for that reason, Speaker Michael E. Busch chose him to be majority leader of the House of Delegates.

Barve is also a fierce advocate on behalf of his constituents in the Gaithersburg area and has been a consistent advocate of building the Intercounty Connector. Now, with that road closing in on the opening of its first phase next year, Barve has weighed in on the Maryland Transportation Authority's proposed toll rates. He sent me a copy of his recent testimony on those rates at a public hearing in Gaithersburg. For reasons, I'll state below, I think he's way off base. But first let's give the delegate his say:

For the record: I am Delegate Kumar Barve.  I represent Gaithersburg, Garrett Park and Rockville, Maryland.  I serve as the Majority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates, but more importantly, I am the Chairman of the Revenue Subcommittee of the Ways & Means Committee.  This is important because state tax and transportation policy is under the jurisdiction of that committee.  It is about a major matter of undebated public policy that I wish to discuss.
 

Continue reading "Barve protests ICC toll plan" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

Those of you who have been following the never-ending saga of the Intercounty Connector probably know already that it will open as a toll road without toll booths. Money will be collected either through E-ZPass or by photographing motorists' license plates and sending them a bill.

But here's an interesting tidbit from the consultant's study used by the Maryland Transportation Authority to guide its decision on where to set toll levels: one in five of those who use the ICC without E-ZPass are expected  to be deadbeats.

That's right. Wilbur Smith Associates has adjusted its revenue projections downward to account for "leakage" because  of toll evasion or otherwise uncollectable tolls, It puts the level of leakage for video toll collections at 20 percent, compared with 2 percent of E-ZPass users. That may explain why the ICC bills are expected to include a $3 fee to defray the cost of collecting the toll. Besides encouraging the use of E-ZPass, it may be needed to plug some of that leakage.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

Eight Montgomery county legislators have signed a letter to the County Council questioning an all-transit plan for improving traffic flow in the Interstate 270 corridor. Maryland Politics Watch reports.

To put that in context, there are 32 Montgomery County senators and delegates, so the group organized by Sen. Rob Garagiola makes up one-quarter of the delegation. They also favor light rail as the mode of travel for the proposed Corridor Cities Transitway, which would connect communities in the I-270 corriidor.

MPW does a good job of describing the muddled stance taken bby some Montgomery legislators, some of whom favor the all-transit plan proposed by Action Committee for Transit except when they oppose it.

This would be just another arcane dispute within Montgomery if it weren't for the fact they're wrangling over the fate of a plan to spend $4.6 billion to add two express toll lanes in each direction on I-270 -- a dubious proposition on environmental, fiscal and geographical equity grounds.

The Montgomery delegation is fragmenting over tthe plan largely because some of its members are skeptical of the notion that building ever-wider highways is the solution to traffic congestion problems. There's also a  split between down-county lawmakers, whose constituents would get limited use of the increased road capacity, and up-county legislators whose constituents are stuck  in I-270's legendary backups.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

The R. Adams Cowley Shock-Trauma Center did its best to discourage new customers Thuesday night  in a presentation at the elite Gilman School that the Maryland Highway Safety Foundation wants to bring to the masses.

After a news conference at which the foundation announced its partnership with Shock-Trauma in a bid to expand the educational program to every school system in Maryland,  nurses Debbie Yohn and Beverly Dearing gave the Gilman boys a vivid description of what they can expect to go through if they end up being taken to the center as a result of a traffic crash.

Particularly affecting was a video in which a young man named Sean -- brought to Shock-Trauma with irreversible brain damage he suffered in a crash -- lives out his final hours on a ventilator as his grieving father describes in unsparing terms what led to the crash. Sean,  it turns out, had been smoking marijuana while driving around with a group of friends and ran a stop sign. He and a young woman passenger -- neither of them wearing seat belts -- were fatally injured.

"He thought he was invincible," the unnamed father said. "It's not natural for a parent to bury a child. Don't put your parents through this."

Continue reading "Shock-Trauma program has powerful impact" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

Pardon me while I vent here. Much of my work is taken up with coverage of traffic safety issue. So when I get out of here for a late lunch, all I want is a little peace.

 But the first thing I see when I leave the Sun building is flashing red and blue lights at the corner of Calvert and Centre streets. As I approach the intersection I see a silver SUV overturned on Calvert Street and emergency responders working to extract the driver. (He was alive when loaded into the ambulance, fully strapped down to prevent spinal damage.)

Witnesses said the two-vehicle crash was a case of red-light running by one of the drivers. From the extent of the damage and the fact the SUV rolled, it seemed clear that somebody was going much faster than the speed limit.

Then, as the police worked the scene and I was trying to cross the street with the signal, some joker comes speeding down Centre Street at what must have been 50 mph or more, blows through the red light and nearly knocks me over. Can't a guy just get a little lunch?

Just this morning I had seen another driver run a red light on Baltimore Street.

Forget jousting or lacrosse. It seems clear the real Maryland state sport is Red Light Running.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

What kid wouldn't want to go trick-or-treating as a highway worker?

The State Highway Administration is ready to make that possible by lending out the same type  of bright yellow-green or orange vests that its highway workers wear to trick-or-treaters. The agency suggests that with the addition of a hard hat, jeans and boots, a child's costume dilemma would be solved. Otherwise the adult-sized vests can fit over any princess or superhero costume to keep children visible to drivers. Adults who are accompanying trick-or-treaters can borrow vests as well.

The reflective  vests will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis through SHA maintenance shops from 8 a.m. through 4 p.m. each day through Friday, Vests must be returned by Nov. 6.

For a list of SHA maintenance shops taking part in the Vests for Visibility program, click below. (Photo courtesy of State Highway Administration)

Continue reading "Highway agency offers vests for Halloween safety" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

There was a time when it looked like smooth sailing for a proposal to widen Interstates 395 and 95 in Northern Virginia by building express toll lanes. But the project has recently run into increasing opposition. The Washington Examiner reports that the Alexandria City Council agreed to a resolution denouncing the project.

Is what we're seeing here just NIMBY opposition or is it part of a general backlash against express toll lane projects? We might be finding that answer in Maryland in the not-too-distant future.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

A reader named Andrew van de Castle spotted some construction work on the Baltimore beltway and raised some good questions. I'll let him explain:

Can you find out why 695 was heavily patch-repaired back in August and is now undergoing a complete resurfacing? The area in question is between the Route 70 interchange and Frederick Avenue, both the inner and outer loop. Seems like a big waste of money to make all of those extensive repairs, this was across all lanes and on both sides of the same area, to only scrape them up a month or so later? The repair patches seemed to be a fix for a poorly done job the last time resurfacing was done in the same section. They weren't so much for fixing holes as they were for 'smoothing' out bumps that popped up. Also the patches were so poorly made that they sunk in and made dips out of what used to be bumps. "Good enough for government work." seems to be called to mind...

Continue reading "Highway patchwork explained" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

Sun photo                    

The Maryland Transportation Authority will hold the first of two public hearings on its tolling plan for the Intercounty Connector Wednesday evening from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. in Beltsville.

The hearing at High Point High School, 3601 Powder Mill Road (Route 212), is the closer to Baltimore of the two hearings the authority will conduct on the toll plan for the highway, now under construction (above) in Prince George''s and Montgomery counties. The other will be held during the same hours Thursday night at Shady Grove Middle School, 8100 Midcounty Highway in Gaithersburg.

Under the plan, motorists driving passenger vehicles could be charged as much as 35 cents a mile during peak driving teams and up to 30 cents a mile for off-peak trips.  That means a trip the full length of the ICC could cost about $6 each way when the road fully opens in 2011-2012.

Continue reading "State to hold hearings on ICC tolls this week" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

 Karen Rosenblatt of Ellicott City spotted something that worried her and sent this note:

For the past several months, work has been ongoing on the bridge on southbound Rt. 29 over I-70 in Ellicott City.  It was taken down to the supports and completely redone.  While the work was being done, I noticed that water was “puddling” on the shoulder lane.  The “puddle” is about 30’ long by 8-10’ wide.  I thought maybe a drain was clogged and this would be fixed when work was complete.  It appears that the work is complete and the puddle is still there.  It rained last weekend and this area has still not dried.  I think this will be a huge hazard when it’s rainy and temperatures dip below freezing.  Is there any way the State Highways Department could have this fixed before the job is marked complete? 

 I sent Mrs. Rosenblatt's inquiry to Dave Buck, spokesman for the State Highway Administration, who sent this prompt reply:

I spoke with our Construction and Bridge engineers.  SHA is aware of the issue Ms. Rosenblatt describes in her email.  Our engineers have been on site over the past few weeks and are in the process of determining the needed modification.  We expect to have some answers very quickly, which I will pass along. 
 
SHA shares in the reader's concern about making the needed repairs prior to any freezing conditions and thanks Ms. Rosenblatt for her astute observations.

My experience suggests that Maryland has a very good highway administration. But with the help of vigilant citizens, they can do  just a little bit better.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

It was just a few weeks ago when Maryland drivers could entertain thoughts that falling gasoline prices might continue to plunge toward the $2 mark. No more. The statewide average price of a gallon of regular now stands at $2.62, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic, after  rising by 13 cents from the past week's average.

Pasadena and the Arundel Mills area are potential places of refuge, as sprices there are running almost 20 cents behind the statewide average, according to MarylandGasPrices. com. Meanwhile, one Shell station in North Potomac has cracked the $3 barrier at $3.04, the web  site reports.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Roland Park will be the site Sunday of the first  field test of a concept known as "Sunday Streets," in which a main drag is given over  to pedestrians, bicyclists, skateboarders and other non-motorized traffic for a few hours on the weekend.

The Roland Park Civic League is working with other sponsors, including One Less Car and the Inn at the Colonnade, to  test a concept that has  its origins in Colombia.

Continue reading "'Sunday Streets' concept to get road test" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

When a reporter covering transportation issues gets around mostly by car, it's easy to slip into what David Alpert of the Greater Greater Washington blog calls a "windshield perspective" -- a tendency to view the world as if everyone was a driver.

Alpert, who does a great job covering metropolitan Washington (and sometimes Baltimore too), tore into two Washington Post reporters for their coverage of parking trends in that area. In this case, I think he has them dead to rights. I, too, had spotted the $100-a-day hypothetical they posed for a day's parking in Friendship Heights  and thought that was fanciful at best.

Reminder to all transpo writers, including myself: Not everyone drives.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

The good times have ceased rolling on the gasoline price front. According to AAA Mid-Atlantic, the average price of regular  in the Baltimore area rose 11 cents -- from $2.35 to $2.46 -- in the past week. Crude oil prices have been rising -- so more increases could be on the way.

The good news is that Baltimore's  gas price lags the national average of $2.56 by a dime. And it looks a lot better than the price in California, where folks are paying more than $3 a gallon.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

The speed limit on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and its approaches, which had been reduced to 50 mph while the new span was being built, has been returned to the 55-mph level that prevails on most of  the Capital Beltway.

The speed limit had been lowered on an 8-mile section of the Beltway in 2005 as the pace of construction picked up on the bridge and on projected interchanges on both sides of the Potomac River. Officials of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project said the majority of work has been completed, making it safe to resume the previous speed.

Work is expected  to continue on the Telegraph Road interchange in Virginia until 2012, but official decided that part of the project would not have as severe an impact on Beltway traffic as previous phases.

Still in effect is an experimental Variable Speed Limit program on the Virginia side of the river in which the maximums change with travel conditions using sensors and computerized formulas.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

A reader named John Dusch sent along an article from the Gazette in Prince George's County on speed cameras, thinking I'd be interested. I was.

It seems the Prince George's County Council has approved plans for speed cameras and has designated the county Revenue Authority to determine the 50 school sites where they will be deployed.

The Revenue Authority? What are these people thinking?

Regular readers of this blog are well aware that I have no objections to speed cameras and wouldn't mind if they were  used on every road in the state. But to maintain the integrity and the  core  purpose of the program -- safety -- decisions on where to post such cameras should be kept strictly separate from revenue considerations.

Camera location is a matter for the police department, the transportation department,  even the health department, but not the revenue arm of local government. Prince George's County's decision reflects badly not just on its own program but others around the state.

The Council should rethink this extremely harmful decision.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: On the roads
        

With anniversary observances  of two wars expected to bring an influx of tourists, Maryland has received a $5.6 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration to improve and market its scenic roads.

The infusion of money for the Maryland's Byways program will help the state prepare for the sesquicentennial of the Civil War starting in 2011 and the 200th anniversay of the War of 1812. Important engagements of both wars were fought on Maryland soil, including the defense of Baltimore in 1814 and the Antietam campaign of 1862.

In addition, Maryland will soon be observing a celebration of the life of Abolitionist leader Harriet Tubman, an Eastern Shore native.

The grant application was a joint effort of the Maryland Office of Tourism and the State Highway Administration. It will go to help fund the Catoctin Mountain Scenic Byway in Frederick County, the Star-Spangled Banner Byway in Baltimore and Baltimore, Prince George's and Calvert counties, and the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway in Dorchester and Caroline counties.

According to the state  Department of Economic Development, the grant to Maryland was the largest awarded by the federal agency in the current competitive process.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Last night it was my pleasure to tape a show with Charles Duffy of Montgomery Municipal Cable's "Political Pulse" down in Kensington. The GPS lady said to take the Capital Beltway. Experience said otherwise, and I took a combination of non-interstate routes through Burtonsville and Wheaton. It worked out fine -- even though I was traveling at rush hour.

One of the main topics was the proposal to spend $4.6 billion on a sprawl-enabling, polluting, futile and wasteful widening of Interstate 270. Duffy was kind enough to give the the opportunity to explain why this is not such a grand idea from a  Baltimore point of view.

But while I was off pontificating, other forces were at work advancing the bank-breaking project, Maryland Politics  Watch reports. It seems that business and labor have formed an unholy alliance in support of what would be the most expensive transportation project in Maryland history.

There is no sign that the O'Malley administration is showing much interest  in the road-widening project, though it is supportive of a transit lline in the I-270 corridor. But there are enough drums beating for the project in Montgomery to warrant vigilance on the part of political leaders from Baltimore and elsewhere in the state.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: On the roads
        

How strange that a death toll of 16,626 people comes as good news. That's because that total represents a record low for half a year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

 The federal agency said that estimated total for the January-June period represents a 7 percent drop from the 17,871 killed on U.S. roads during the first half of 2008.

NHTSA is also projecting a .record low fatality rate of 1.15 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, compared 1.23 deaths during the same period last year.

It's progress, but those numbers are still horrific -- more than the equivalent of five 9/11s between Jan. 1 and June 30. And it's cold comfort to those who have lost family members, friends and colleagues.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

There was a disturbing sight on the way in to Baltimore on Interstate 95 this morning. Just sourth of the city, where I-95 meets the Beltway, there was an SUV on the southbound shoulder, fully engulfed in flames. No emergency crews were on the scene but a fire truck was on its way.

 I wonder how that all played  out. Email if you know.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

During a wide-ranging interview this morning with Maryland Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley, I had the opportunity to ask her whether a $4.6 billion proposal to widen Interstate 270 between Shady Grove and Frederick was in line with the O'Malley administration's priorities.

Swaim-Staley diidn't really answer the question directly, but the way she replied gave me the impression she has little enthusiasm for the idea -- which is being promoted by the Montgomery County Planning Board and local business interests as the cure for congestion in the corridor.

I'm not faulting her for dodging. The corridor is now undergoing a traffic study, and high-ranking department officials generally try to avoid comments that might prejudice the process. But she brought a certain vehemence to her insistence that transit comes first in the corridor that I found reassuring.

"We really are focused on the transit aspects in that corridor," she said -- referring to the proposed Corridor Cities Transitway project that would serve many of the employment centers along the interstate. Any consideration of a wider interstate, she emphasized, is far in the future.

Continue reading "Transportation chief seems cool toward I-270 notion" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

The city of Baltimore isn't keeping the 51 proposed locations of its first flight of speed cameras under wraps. You can find a full list of intersections that are expected to be equipped with the cameras at this city web site. The list will become final Nov. 2, the day the city stops issuing warnings and begins sending out actual $40 tickets.

It looks as if the Dixon administration has done a good job of distributing them to all parts of the city except for purely industrial areas where there are no schools.

Northern Parkway appears to have grabbed the honors for the street with the most camera locations -- five. Anyone who drives that road can attest the distinction is well-deserved.

The first 51 locations for speed cameras wiil be at intersections  where the city operates red light cameras. Some red light  camera locations are not within a half-mile of a school, as required by the state law authorizing speed cameras.

Slow down and you'll never have to worry about the speed cameras, which cut drivers 12 mph worth of slack before issuing a ticket.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 6:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: On the roads
        

AP photo                      

The State Highway Administration will close one of the two bridges leading into Ocean City for two months so work crews can replace a damaged girder that has already prompted the agency to prohibit truck traffic on the span.

Highway officials said the full closure of the Route 90 bridge will begin next week or early the following week. Traffic will be diverted to the U.S. 50 bridge, which leads to the resort’s downtown.

The Route 90 bridge was closed to all vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds last week after inspectors found that the concrete lining of an 85-foot girder had eroded, exposing the underlying steel to potential corrosion.

The decision to close the bridge was not unexpected. SHA Administrator Neil J. Pedersen said last week that the repairs could be performed more quickly if all lanes were closed.

The 38-year-old, 1.4-mile bridge carries traffic over Assawoman Bay to north Ocean City at 60th Street.

Work crews will remove an 85-foot section of the bridge, replace the steel beams, pour a new deck surface and paint new stripes, the agency said. The highway administration hopes to reopen the bridge by mid-December.

The agency said it is now drawing up engineering specifications and hopes to soon hire a contractor. It said an exact date for the closing will be announced after the contractor is chosen. Highway 90 will remain open to local traffic, including vehicles heading for Ocean Pines and U.S. 113, as far as St. Martin’s Neck Road. The weight restrictions will remain in effect until the bridge closes.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: On the roads
        

So do we really need a racial test for the placement of speed cameras and parking meters? The city NAACP seems to think so.

Baltimore NAACP President Marvin "Doc" Cheatham has called on Mayor Sheila Dixon and City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to convene an independent panel to vet such decisions for any signs of racial bias. The basis for this demand: "concern that discrimination is taking place."

Cheatham offers little evidence of any bias -- except perhaps his own.

On speed cameras, Cheatham raises the tired canard that speed cameras are "Just another way for the city to acquire revenue." Asked and answered in multiple public hearings: No. And what does that question have to do with bias?

Then comes the assertion that "there seems to be  discriminatory factors as to where the speed cameras will be located."  Again, no evidence.

On parking meters, Cheatham cherry-picks a few instances to suggest the city likes Italians and Jews more than it does African-Americans.

The NAACP cited that there is three hours free parking in Little Italy, but meters/2 hours zones/pay to park zones elsewhere in the city.  It is questioned why this part of the city gets such privilege.  Additionally, there are parking meters on 26th street where the NAACP Baltimore City Branch is located, which has both residential and businesses, but there are no meters where the Jewish Museum of Maryland is located on Lloyd Street which also has both residential and business."

Privilege? Does the NAACP think three hours of free parking is a gift to Little Italy residents? They must love competing with vistors for spaces. And what's this business of trying to draw a parallel between his own office and a major Jewish cultural institution over parking meters? Do we really need to go there?

My take: You have a government of Baltimore with an African-American mayor and majority black Council. You ought to let them run the city government with the same administrative discretion exercised by all the white-majority adminstrations and councils before them. Anything else would  be discrimination.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

AAA Mid-Atlantic has announced that it is joining the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety to observe Drive Safely to Work Week today through Friday. The week is a national campaign to emphasize the importance of safe practices  to reduce preventable deaths.

Sadly, the week began with a tragedy that hit far too close to home. Tim Wheatley, The Sun's business editor and a valued colleague, died this morning when his car was struck by a truck in Monkton as he was driving his daughter to school. She was critically injured. The crash is under investigation.

The various traffic safety weeks that crop up through the year are easy to dismiss as a gimmick, and I almost always do. But today's events are a reminder that driving demands constant vigilance. As an AAA spokeswoman wrote, "the time you spend behind the wheel can be the most dangerous part of your day."

Never forget it.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

The price of gasoline continues to fall in Maryland -- with the statewide average dropping from $2.45 to $2.39 in the space of a week. But if you really want to enjoy the low-price action, head over to Ritchie Highway (Route 2)  in Anne Arundel County, where it appears a full-fledged gas price war has broken out.

MarylandGasPrices.com is listing prices as low as $2.18 a gallon along the highway corridor, with several other stations in the Glen Burnie-Pasadena area offering fuel in the low $2.20s. The Laurel area is also a prime area for cheap gas.

But what gives in Montgomery County? A lot of the stations in the Bethesda-Potomac-Rockville area are still above $2.60, according to the web site, with one as high as $2.89. It's long been known that the zone pricing in this state produces some strange variations, but the current price spreads are hard to explain.

Maybe Attorney General Doug Gansler could get some answers.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Don't you just love a good chart? One that really tells a story?

This one comes from the Montgomery County Office of Legislative Oversight's recent report on the county's speed camera program, using data collected by the county police. It shows the number of tickets issued per vehicle -- and it's oddly fascinating.

So two-thirds of the vehicles that were ticketed were caught only once. One might infer that their drivers got the message and slowed down -- at least in the camera zones. Another 19 percent needed another $40 reminder. Together the one-time and two-time losers account for 86 percent of those ticketed.

So who are these other folks? Who is driving the seven vehicles that accumulated 30 or  more tickets within a two-year period? What is going through the heads of the drivers of the 1,667 "frequent flyers" who accumulated more than 10 tickets over 24 months?

Here's a theory: There is a small but very dangerous cadre of drivers who have a total contempt for speed laws combined with an arrogant belief in their invulnerabity and a narcissistic focus on their own convenience at the expense of others' safety. These are people who are highly likely to eventually cause a serious crash but who fiercely resent any government efforts to curb their behavior.

The current speed camera law treats the 30th offense with no more severity than the first offense. Wouldn't it make sense to have an escalating scale of penalties? For instance a fine of $400 for the 10th ticket in a two-year window.

To anticipate an argument, I'm fully aware that the camera program targets vehicles rather than drivers. And certainly people occasionally lend out those vehicles to friends and family. But most drivers do most of the driving in their own cars. And if they are repeatedly lending out their vehicles to dangerous drivers, why should they not be held accountable?

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: On the roads
        

As law enforcement officials in Maryland move forward with the deployment of speed cameras under a new law that takes effect today, there comes new evidence from Montgomery County that the initiative will prove effective.

In a report this week to the Montgomery County Council on that jurisdiction's  pioneering automated speed enforcement program, the Office of Legislative Oversight found that speeding had been cut in half and collisions had fallen 28 percent over one year in school zones and on residential streets where camera have been deployed.

The report found that vehicle speeds in speed camera zones declined by 6 percent after a year in operation. The percentage of vehicles traveling over the speed limit fell from 25 percent to 13 percent.

Continue reading "Montgomery report shows speed cameras work" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: On the roads
        

Sun photo/Barbara Haddock Taylor                     

The most common complaint about speed cameras -- besides the tired nonsense about Big Brother -- is that they're just  a "money grab" by the government that will have no effect on safety.

Several high-ranking transportation and law enforcement officials in state government addressed that issue Wednesday at a news conference called to outline Maryland's plans to deploy the cameras in highway work  zones.

Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley (at podium), State Highway Administrator Neil J. Pedersen (the tall man on the right) and Maryland Transportation Authority Police Chief Marcus Brown (right center background) all vigorously argued that the camera program is all about safety.

Continue reading "Officials say cameras are all about safety" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: On the roads
        

During a recent weekend in Florida, one thing that was particularly striking for a Maryland visitor was the almost total absence of helmets on the heads of motorcyclists in that state.

In Maryyland, you see, motorcycle helmets are the law. In Florida they were once the law, but  the statute was repealed. So now, virtually every motocyclist you see in that state is riding bare-headed. I would estimate that fewer than 20 percent of the bikers I saw wore protective headgear. There was absolutely  no sign that Florida motorcyclists were compensating for their unprotected skulls by driving any safer than Maryland bikers.

My guess is that in the absence of a law, fashion takes over. Nobody wants to be the dweeb wearing a brain bucket.

I'm aware of all the arguments about freedom of choice and yaddah-yah, but as the driver of a passenger vehicle I want the lives of the people I share the road with to be protected from the possibility that I will make a mistake -- or fail to respond to the mistake of another quickly enough. Call its selfish on my part, but I don't want to be carrying around the burden of killing someone. I'm happy to do my part to  look out for motorcyclists but I also appreciate motorcyclists loooking out for themselves. On this issue at least, Maryland's got it right.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: On the roads
        

If you ever travel over the Bay Bridge on U.S. 50 and take a left onto Route 404 to reach the Delaware beaches or the north end of Ocean City, you're probably familiar with the backups that plague the two-lane stretches of that road.

So it may come as some relief that Maryland has begun the process of widening 404 with the  launch today of a project to widen a mile-long segment of 404 between Tuckahoe Creek (the stream that separates Queen Anne's County from Caroline) to Hillsboro. The $15 million job -- funded thhrough the federal stimulus program -- is the first segment of a planned widening of an 11-mile segment of 404 between U.S. 50 and the Denton Bypass.

That's all the good news for now, because two-lane segments east of Denton are on the back burner because of Delaware's reluctance to widen its part of the road. There's hope, though, that by the time the 11 miles are completed in late 2012, we be able to get to the traffic jams a little faster.

The price  of progress is construction delay, and motorists  traveling 404 can expect to encounter lane closings Mondays from noon to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Fridays from 8 a.m. to noon.  Crews wiill not be working on Saturdays or Sundays.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Where are you most likely to run into a backup caused by a truck crash in Maryland?

Here's some answers from the State Highway Administration, taken from its recently released Maryland Statewide Freight Plan. The figures also include crashes of other commercial vehicles such as buses.

The section of the Capital Beltway in Prince Georges' County is the champ, though the segments of Interstate 95 between the Baltimore and Capital beltways in Howard and Baltimore counties rank way up there.

Continue reading "Where the trucks crash" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Reports of a  recent fatal crash on Route 32 in Howard County reminded Matilda Falck of Pikesville of something she learned in her 55 Alive defensive driving course at her senior center.

"When attempting a left turn, never turn your front wheels (until you are ready to make the turn). Always keep them straight, so that if you are rear-ended, your car will not go into the oncoming traffic."

There's no way to be sure that advice would have made a difference in the outcome of this month's Howard County crash, which did involve the rear-ending of a motorist attempting to make a left turn, but it's a good practice anyway.

Falck said that even though  she has been driving a long time, that tip was news to her. Nor was it covered in my late-1960s driver's ed class.

Maybe we could all use a refresher course.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

The blog Greater Greater Washington does us all a service by passing along a  public service ad campaign from Norway reminding drivers to keep an eye out for motorcyclists.  The spot, entitled "We are Small but We're Not Bugs," reflects a rather grim Norse sense of humor that may  not be to everyone's taste. But this blogger is part Norwegian and thinks it's spot-on.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

When Adam Pagnucco of Maryland Politics Watch steps out of his Montgomery-centric shell, he does some superb reporting on Maryland transportation issues. I highly recommend his deconstruction Monday of the state of the state's transportation program.

It looks like time for a grownup discussion of revenue needs and spending priorities. The chances of that occurring before the next election are dim.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

The advocacy group Environment Maryland reports that Maryland ranked No. 3 among the states in 2008 for its gains in transit ridership over the previous year. The group estimated that state residents saved 60.7 million gallons of gasoline as a result of the more than 15 percent gain in the use of transit.

The gain obviously reflects the huge jump in gasoline prices between 2007 and 2008, but it still reflects well on regional transit agencies that they ranked so high nationally. Only Louisiana and North Carolina reported greater gains as both posted 16 percent increases.

The group's full press release follows:

Continue reading "Maryland ranked No. 3 in transit gains" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

The State Highway Administration will conduct periodic closings of northbound and southbound Interstate 95 in the Beltsville area during the early morning hours starting Monday, Oct. 5 for construction if interchanges linking I-95 to the Intercounty Connector.

The closings, which are scheduled to last no more than 15 minutes at a time between Routes 198 and 212, will continue through spring, the highway agency said. The northbound closures will occur between midnight and 4:30 a.m. while the southbound closings will be confined to the midnight-3:30 a.m. period.

The SHA said there could be up to four such closings a night. According to the highway agency, the closings are necessary to let work crews saely install the structural steel for three new ICC bridges over I-95. Meanwhile workers will also raze the Old Gunpowder Road bridge over the interstate.

Highway officials are urging overnight travelers to use U.S. 1 and Maryland 295 (the Baltimore-Washington parkway) as alternative routes.

The SHA's full release follows:

Continue reading "I-95 overnight closings set for ICC project" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

So at long last the Maryland Transportation Authority has put some numbers behind its plan for tolling on the Intercounty Connector, the first phase of which will open next year. The agency estimates that at peak times, the tolls will range from 25 cents to 35 cents a mile. It scheduled public hearings to get comments on the plan.

What's the significance of this? Nada. Zilch. Zip. Less than nothing.

Under the congestion pricing plan the state adopted for the ICC, neither the authority's estimates nor the public's opinion carries much weight. The market rules with an iron fist. To keep the lanes free-flowing, the tolls have to be high enough to deter a significant number of motorists from using the road. If traffic clogs up at 35 cents a mile, the toll has to rise to 40 cents a mile. Or 50. Or 60. You get it.

The other key to understanding the ICC tolls is that they have nowhere to go but up. The capacity for congestion-free operations is finite. Demand for jam-free roads in the Washington suburbs is seemingly limitless. It's Economics 101.

So people can turn out and holler all they want about the proposed rate ranges -- which are really no more than estimates. The market will overrule both the authority and the public. The hearings are mostly dog-and-pony shows staged for the federal government.

Continue reading "The ICC toll plan: What it means" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: On the roads
        

The Maryland Transportation Authority has unveiled a tolling plan for the Intercounty Connector under which passenger vehicles would pay as much as 35 cents a mile for travel on the highway when the first phase of it opens next year.

The authority also announced a series of public hearings next month to gather coments on the plan.

Since the ICC's revival under the Ehrlich administration, the state has planned to set tolls for the highway at levels that would keep the highway running free of congestion by pricing a certain amount of the east-west traffic onto free local roads. But until now, the Maryland Department of Transportation has balked at providing estimates of what that cost will be.

In its announcement Wednesday, the authority estimated that the cost per mile for two-axle passenger vehicles at peak hours -- 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. -- would likely vary from 25 to 35 cents a mile. It put the cost per mile at off-peak periods at 20 to 30 cents a mile. The agency said the peak periods could be adjusted by as much as an hour earlier or later once the road opens and traffic patterns are established.

The 18.8-mile toll road will link Interstate 270 in Montgomery County with the Interstate 95-U.S. 1 corridor in Prince George's County when it fully opens by 2012. The first phase, a 5.65-mile segment between Georgia Avenue and Shady Grove (Interstate 370), is expected to open next fall.

Continue reading "State announces ICC tolling plan" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: On the roads
        

Russell Hurd, whose testimony about the death of his daughter helped win General Assembly passage of the ban on driving while texting that goes into effect Oct. 1, asked me to pass along that his family and Harford Community College will host a 5-kilometer walk and run Nov. 21 in honor of Heather Hurd.

I'm happy to do so.

Heather Hurd was killed Jan. 3, 2008, in Davenport, Fla., when the car in which she was riding was hit by a tractor-trailer driver who had been texting. His daughter's loss prompted Russell Hurd, who lives in Abingdon, to become involved in efforts to pass legislation addressing issues of distracted driving in Maryland and other states. (Russell and his wife Kim are shown in the photo above during General Assembly testimony earlier this year.)

Enrollment fees for the 8 a.m. event -- $20 for the general public and $15 for HCC students and staff -- will go toward Remembrance Scholarships to honor those killed on Maryland roads.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Can traffic noise near your home kill you? And are the folks at the State Highway Administration who put up those noise barriers that line our highways health care workers? A recent article from the Los Angeles Times suggests it can and they are.

The article points to a Swedish study written up in the journal Environmental Health showing that road noise levels of 60 decibels or more near one's home are associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure among young and middle-aged adults.

I've sometimes wondered whether those noise barriers were a good use of highway money. Now you can make a good case for them as a preventive health measure. Go figure.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

Gas prices have been a non-story since the July 4 weekend as the statewide average has remained amazingly stable -- bouncing aroound between $2.50 and $2.60 for the most part, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

But when I was out and about on Route 2 in Pasadena Thursday, I saw a number of stations offering gas for around $2.35. A check of MarylandGasPrices.com  on Friday shows quite a few stations in Laurel, Pasadena, Catonsville and Bel Air with prices under $2.40.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

It was an interesting commute this morning -- with one near-miss when a fellow driver decided he'd waited long enough to wait to make a left turn onto U.S. 1 and wouldn't be deterred by an oncoming Hyundai. Fortunately nobody was tailgating when emergency braking became necessary.

I couldn't help noticing that while most drivers take a little off their speed in deference to a driving rain and slick roads, there are others who appear entirely oblivious to the weather. They zoom along at the speeds you would expect on a dry, sunny day. Ice and snow get at least some respect in Maryland, but mere rain seems to be greeted with contempt.

It seems every time there's a heavy rain, you see  road closings and delays cause by drivers running into each other. One colleague of mine reported seeing three separate accidents on her way into work this morning.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

Maryland Politics Watch reports that 18 Montgomery County delegates have signed a letter authored by Del. Sheila Hixson -- the Ways and Means chairman and arguably the county's most influential legislator -- supporting study of an all-transit option for relieving congestion on Interstate 270.

Such a study would examine transit alternatives to the $4.6 billion widening of I-270 endorsed by the county planning board but opposed by many environmental groups.

The Action Committee for Transit has proposed an all-transit alternative that deserves a fresh look in light of the escalating costs of Sprawlway project. It might not all be feasible but there are elements that look promising, including a new rail connection to Hagerstown. I mention that because Hagerstown is one of those places in Maryland that really could benefit from growth. It's a great small city that could become as vibrant as Frederick if it catches a few breaks.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 6:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

Adam Pagnucco of the Maryland Politics blog, in the fourth and so-far funniest part of his opus on the proposed widening of Interstate 270, outlines the truly outrageous strategy being adopted by some Montgomery County Council folks to sell their pet $4.6 billion project to widen Interstate 270 between Shady Grove and Frederick: Call its transit.

Some might describe this approach as Orwellian. I see it more as Marxian -- Chico in this case. You know the old saying that if it walks likes a duck and quacks like a duck, your chances are pretty good that it's a duck? Well, the 270 project walks like a wasteful 1970s-style highway boondoggle and quacks like a wasteful  1970s-style highway boondoggle. So certain members of the Montgomery council have heeded the words of Chico: "Vy a duck? Vy not a  chicken?"

Thus, in the poultry logic of Rockville, duck is now chicken and highway is now transit.

Earth to Montgomery: You can sell a dedicated bus lane as transit, but not express toll lanes. Express toll lanes are all about the cars. More specifically, cars driven by those with the means to pay what would certainly be some of the highest tolls in the country so they can live on 5-acre lots on what is now farmland as far away as Pennsylvania.

Pagnucco, by the way, comes close to getting my position on the ICC right. I do think environmentalists ought to advocate for maximum bus use on the ICC. But the ICC is for all intents and purposes existing infrastructure. I don't see how it could be converted now to Bus Rapid Transit with dedicated lanes.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

With the economy in the tank, people are holding onto their cars longer and longer -- and many owners haven't exactly been keeping up with maintenance.

That's why AAA Mid-Atlantic is offering a series of free 40-point checkups for motorists in Maryland, including an event Tuesday in Rosedale.

"Our intention is to help motorists navigate these tough economic times with their cars intact," said AAA spokeswoman Ragina C. Averella. The free AAA program is open to any motorist, not just AAA members, Avarella said.

At the events, technicans will evaluate each vehicle's belts, pulleys, radiators, defroster and heater. They will check power steering, brake and transmission fluids and check the tires and batteries. Each motorist will receive an evaluation reoort.

The closes  event to baltimore will be held Tuesday from 8 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. at

This sounds like a reasonably good deal. You can get more information at the Wawa store at 8731 Pulaski Highway in Rosedale. Information on other events can be found here.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

The inner loop of the Beltway will be closed at Charles Street Wednesday and Thursday nights to allow crews to work on a new bridge over the highway.

The State Highway Administration said it will close two lanes of eastbound Interstate 695 Wednesday at 10 p.m. All lanes will be closed at 11 p.m., with traffic to be detoured onto Charles Street, and the lanes will be reopened by 5 a.m.

Another round of closings with the same hours is scheduled Thursday night and Friday morning,

Posted by Michael Dresser at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

You can't beat this deal: Go out to a bar this Labor Day weekend, drink like a fish and get a taxi ride home. Free. No lawyer fees, no bail, no alcohol  education classes, no fines, no jail time.

That's the offer being made by AAA Mid-Atlantic, the State Highway Administration and Yellow Cab this weekend. It's the return of the Tipsy? Taxi! program that was launched to combat drunk driving on major holidays when the booze typically flows freely.

This weekend's program runs from 4 p.m. Monday through 4 a.m. Tuesday. Passengers must be at least 21 and must have been drinking at a restaurant in Baltimore. The rides are free up to a fare of $50.  

Last year, the program provided only 32 Labor Day rides. Surely the boozers of Baltimore can do better than that. You can get a ride by calling 1-877-963-TAXI.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: On the roads
        

Thanks to David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington for his excellent deconstruction of Montgomery County highway advocate Rich Parsons' case for the $4.6 billion proposal to widen Interstate 270.

Alpert deftly exposes the flawed premises Parsons relies on to argue for more of the same old 20th Century highway-centric policies that made metropolitan Washington the commuters' nirvana that it is today.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Fresh from its recent move of a giant transformer to the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant across Harford County last month, the State Highway Administration plans to take on another oversize move next week.

On Tuesday, the first of two million-pound steam generators will be taken off a barge at Port Deposit in Cecil County to begin an almost three-week journey to the Three Mile Island Nuclear Facility outside Harrisburg. The next day, a second 510-ton generator is expected to arrive.

For both humongous cargoes, the first legs of their journey will take them over the roads of Cecil County to the Pennsylvania state line. The equipment will first be transported along Route 222 to the former Bainbridge Naval Training Facility. From that staging area, they will be moved starting Sept. 13 along Route 276, through the roundabout at Route 273, then up U.S. 1 to Pennsylvania.

The SHA said the top speed of the convoy will be 3 mph. The full SHA release can be found below:

Continue reading "SHA takes on another big nuclear move" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Adam Pagnucco of Maryland Politics Watch is reporting on an interesting exchange of emails as Sen. Brian Frosh and Montgomery County highway advocate Richard Parsons compete for allies in the county Senate delegattion over the future of the Interstate 270 corridor.

It's worth noting the tone of urgency in Parsons' appeal. He clearly sees a need to get decisions locked in quickly as the process moves toward a Final Environmental Impact Statement. So far, this project has been examined almost entirely within the I-270 corridor -- with little debate over its statewide implications.

Parsons does make one point that rings true. Express bus service is likely a critical part of the solution. But you don't need two new lanes in each direction to make that possible. And if there's anything that would make express bus service popular, it would be the contrast between free-flowing traffic in the bus lanes and congestion in the general purpose lanes.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

It was gratifying, upon returning from a vacation at wonderful Deep Creek Lake, to learn that the esteemed heads of the State Highway Administration and Maryland Transit Administration have been reading the Getting There columns about Maryland's planning for the Interstate 270 corridor. The two worthy gentlemen actually got together to write a letter to The Sun seeking to "clarify" some matters about I-270.

What's also gratifying is that nowhere in the letter did SHA chief Neil J. Pedersen or MTA top dog Paul J. Wiedefeld point to anything that was incorrect about the columns. It's very clear that they are uncomfortable with the emphasis on the most expensive of the options under consideration -- so uncomfortable that they avoid actually mentioning the $4.6 billion price tag.

Unfortunately for state bureaucrats who would like to study their options at leisure, the Montgomery County Planning Board has jumped the gun and endorsed the gold-plated plan to add two express toll lanes in each direction. It wasn't Getting There that put the issue in play.

Here, for reference, is the officials' letter:

The study of transit and highway improvements to the I-270 corridor has recently attracted some media attention. However, the coverage demands clarification. The state is conducting a long-range planning study that includes a variety of transportation options for the I-270 corridor; we haven't reached the point where a specific proposal will advance and others will retreat. With any comprehensive technical study, some options may prove viable in the future, while others may not. This exercise is comparable to other highway, transit and rail studies under way in regions throughout Maryland. It is important to put a range of planning concepts on the table for consideration, if we aim to address the state's serious transportation challenges.

Continue reading "Clarifying the clarification on I-270" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

Photo by Kara Brown     

Kara Brown of the Medfield neighborhood of Baltimore saw the item here about the State Highway Administration's plans to replace the deck on the McDonogh Road bridge over the Gwynns Falls. She had a funny feeling about the project and sent the folowing inquiry:

I love that bridge, it is a small but great example of art deco, I have never seen anything else like it, and have even photographed it. I drive it every week day, and even talked to a workman there, who seemed to know nothing about the project.  I read your article saying that the bridge is structurally sound, but needs a new deck.  Can you tell me if that means removing the concrete and metal railings?  I have been upset for several weeks since they started working there, not knowing if the aesthetics of the bridge are going to be destroyed.  Since the work is to take so long, I suspect that it does mean destroying all that is visible.

Continue reading "Bad news for a bridge lover" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Here's an interesting tidbit from the State Highway Administration's winter 2009 newsletter on the I270 corridor study: Widening the highway the way the Montgomery County Planning Board wants to do it would kick 251 families out of their homes.

That's right. This $4.6 billion boondoggle would confiscate five times more homes than the Inter-county Connector -- which has required a mere 47 "residential displacements" as tthey are kknown in transportation wonk-speak.

For context, the transit portion of the I-270 study -- known as the Corridor Cities Transiitway -- would take 5-9 homes. The proposed Red Line through the heart of Baltimore would take nobody's home.

The list of reasons for questioning this grandiose project just gets longer and longer the more one looks at it. I'm still waiting for an explanation of how it can be built without raising Baltimore-area tolls. I haven't heard anything yet. Anyone want to enlighten me?

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: On the roads
        

Adam Pagnucco at Maryland Politics Watch is building up a head of steam for his apparent argument that the rest of the state owes Montgomery County $4.6 billion to turn Interstate 270 into the gazillion-lane Maryland Sprawlway.

The theme is that Montgomery County is the "economic engine of the state" and deserves to remain so forever. It appears that if the Baltimore region, Prince George's, Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore don't give Montgomery what it wants (even though it's dubious that all of Montgomery wants it), the entire population of the county will decamp across the Potomac and leave nothing but scorched earth from Takoma Park to Germantown.

"This engine is wearing down. And if it breaks, the state will stop moving," Pagnucco wails.

Uh, Adam, is the federal government going to move to Yucca Mountain, Nevada, if I-270 isn't widened? Don't think so.

Maryland has been flying far too long on a single economic engine. It will fly a lot smoother and straighter if it had one on each wing. Let me suggest that growth be rechanneled toward Interstate 95, where much more of the state can reach the jobs. Montgomery's been pulling too much of the weight for too long. It behooves the rest of the state to give it a break from the arduous task of creating wealth and to absorb some of that traffic stuck in the growth-saturated I-270 corridor.

I can't wait to read Pagnuco's Part 2. The more these Montgomery folks lecture us about their indispensibility, the sooner we'll decide to decommission I-270 and turn it into a hiker-biker trail.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: On the roads
        

Ron Rudolf of Ellicott City posed a timely question about the propects for improvements on Route 404 -- a main route to the Delaware resorts of Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach and Lewes. As we approach Labor Day, many Marylanders can look forward to sitting in traffic on this road through Queen Anne's County, Caroline County and Delaware.

Rudolf wrote:

 A topic that is certain to have very broad appeal among readers is the current status in increasing MD Eastern Shore's Rt. 404 (the highway of death?) from a two lane to a four lane highway.  WIKEPEDIA states that this is to come about as a result of the Obama stimulus package.  I was wondering, just when does this begin?  Will the entire section of Rt 404 become a four lane highway from Rt. 50 all the way to the Delaware Line?  If so, will Delaware extend their portion further toward the beaches?  If not, one wonders why the Feds don't step in top make this happen.

I can answer the last question: The feds just don't do that. They leave local highway decisions to the states.

Continue reading "Route to Delaware beaches will remain a slog" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: On the roads
        

Any illusion of unity in the Montgomery County legislative delegation has been shattered by a letter drafted by Sen. Brian E. Frosh, reported somewhat breathlessly by the Maryland Politics Watch blog, calling on Gov. Martin O'Malley to order a full study of transit alternatives to the $4.6 billion proposal to widen Interstate 270.

Blogger Adam Pagnucco is correct in noting that money is difficult to transfer dollar  for dollar between highways and transit projects, but he's off base when he assumes Frosh's proposal arises from the senator's ignorance of transportation finance. As anyone who has covered the General Assembly knows, Frosh is one of the smartest legislators in Annapolis and a senator whose  expertise  is not confined to the matters before his committee.

Pagnucco also shows a hint of naivete when he writes: "Why would we be daft enough to even hint to the state that we don't want a big transportation project?"

Frosh's letter makes it crystal clear that he does not want to be included in Pagnucco's "we." The senator, perhaps the most dedicated and knowledgeable environmentalist in the General Assembly, is about as likely to join a team promoting a sprawl-inducing road project as he is to sponsor a repeal of the ban on dumping  phosphates in the bay. 

He's  hardly daft. He's a south-county lawmaker who feels secure in the knowledge that his constituents have little interest in a huge, environmentally questionable north county project. Look for his letter to pick up a respectable number of signatures from fellow lawmakers in the Bethesda-Silver Spring-Takoma Park areas of the county.

And by the way, those of us in the rest of the state aren't as dumb as we look to folks from Montgomery. The county's internal division is well-known to political observers in Baltimore and Annapolis. Don't bother to hide your dirty knickers. We've already had a peek.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: On the roads
        

The Washington Examiner is reporting that Virginia has called a halt to its planned addition of express toll lanes to Interstate 395 and Interstate 95 between the Pentagon and Spotsylvania County, citing difficulties in financing the project.

Construction on the project, a public-private venture with Fluor Daniel and Transurban USA, had been exected to begin next year.

This could put a damper on a similar, $4.6 billion scheme to widen Interstate 270 by adding two express toll lanes in each direction. Financing that project could be a challenge, especially if lawmakers from Baltimore and other regions of the  state block the use of increased tolls from their local facilities to underwrite bonds.

In light of these credit issues, Maryland transportation planners may want to take a serious look at an all-transit proposal for easing congestion in that corridor.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

The McDonogh Road Bridge over the Gwynns Falls will be cut down to a single lane to carry two-way traffic next week as the State Highway Administration launches a project to replace the surface of the nearly 70-year old structure.

After the closing of the eastbound lane on or about Tuesday, two-way traffic in the westbound lane will be managed through installation of a temporary signal that will operate around the clock all week. A second phase of the project will involve work on the westbound lane.

The bridge was built in 1940, but the highway administration said it remains structurally safe -- needing only a new deck. Most of the work will be performed between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays, the agency said, but there  will also be some night work.

The project is expected to be completed next spring.

The project is somewhat unusual because McDonogh Road is not a state highway.  According to  SHA spokesman Charlie Gischlar, the road apart from the bridge was transferred to Baltimore County's control in the 1990s. Gischlar said  that once the bridge work is complete, it too would be transferred to county ownership.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

The $2.5 billion Inter-county Connector project will start being felt by drivers on Interstate 95 as the  State  Highway Administration begins a series of lane closings and traffic shifts to allow for construction of the interchange of the two highways.

The lane closings, which will affect the stretch of I-95 between Route 198 in Laurel and Route 212 in Beltsville,  will continue through Sept. 29. Changes in the traffic pattern will remain in place until July 2011.

Northbound single-lane closings will start at 8 p.m., while southbound closings will start at 7 p.m. Double lane closings will start in both directions at 11 p.m. The  highway administration is warning motorists to expect delays.

Lanes will be  shifted to the left, using the inside median as a travel lane, so that new feeder lanes can be built on the right sides of I-95 to lead to the ICC.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: On the roads
        

Baltimore's Board of Estimates gave its final approval today to a contract for the operation of speed cameras under authority granted to local jurisdictions by the General Assembly earlier this year.

According to the city's deputy transportation chief, Jamie Kendrick, that means the cameras will be up and running Oct. 1. "We're going full steam," he said.

So if  you're near a school or in a work zone, where such cameras are permitted, save yourself $40 and slow down.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

It is a source of great pride that Blair Lee, the longtime rabid Baltimore-basher from Montgomery County, has seen fit to bestow on me -- or at least my alter ego Baltimore Guy -- the title of "knucklehead" for blowing the whistle on that county's $4.6 billion plan to raid the state's coffers to widen Interstate 270. I thus join a long line of distinguished Baltimoreans who have been vilified by Lee. I am not worthy.

One can only imagine the schoolyard taunts Lee will dredge up if he reads the Monday Getting There column  explaining how Baltimore-area toll payers (and others from eastern Maryland) could end up stuck with much of the bill for a project that contributes nothing to prosperity outside the I-270 corridor.

It's distressing, however, to see Lee and other Montgomery County observers working themselves into a lather about Baltimore's Red Line. There has been little opposition voiced in Baltimore to the Washington region's Purple Line -- perhaps because our political leaders realize the two transit projects move forward most easily in tandem rather than seperately.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

In a June 8 column, Getting There recounted how super-lobbyist, convicted felon, disbarred lawyer and anti-speed camera activist Bruce C. Bereano had harvested 22 tickets for moving violations in Maryland over the past 13 years.

Make that 23.

On July 15, Bereano was pulled over once again -- this time for going 76 mph in a 55-mph zone on Route 413 in Somerset County. From the time and location it appears he was in a hurry to get to the J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake in Crisfield.

The new ticket is the 15th he has received on the Eastern Shore --  his personal dragstrip -- in the past 13 years. One can only speculate that he enjoys the company of rural state troopers.

Bereano's court date is Sept. 1. But before then, the lead-footed lobbyist has another appointment Aug. 18 to answer charges that he was going 85 mph in a 55-mph zone in Montgomery County. Kinda makes a ticket for going 21 mph over the limit seem kind of nitpicky, doesn't it.

Anyway, Bereano has pretty good luck over the years in beating the rap -- either through not guilty findings or probation before  judgment. His most  recent District Court date -- in Dorchester County in June -- didn't turn out so well though. A few more guilty findings and he could be looking at some steep insurance bills on that Mercedes and that Porsche. But on last year's earnings of $806,250.01, he can probably swing it.

I left a message for Bereano in order to ask him about his troubles with the traffic laws, but he hasn't been returning my calls for better than five years now. I'll let you know if that changes. (And, Bruce, you can always just post to this blog and avoid that conversation.)

Baltimore Sun file photo 2006

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: On the roads
        

Joy knows no bounds in Hampstean, where work on its long-awaited bypass is now complete, according to the State Highway Administration. A ribbon-cutting on the $83 million project, which carries Route 30 around downtown Hampstead, is planned Thursday -- with State Highway Administrator joining local elected officials for the festivities.

This is the project where the SHA employed goats to control vegetation and thus protect the endangered bog turtle. Instead of having a bunch of officials hack away with a scissors, wouldn't it be more fun to let the goats have a ribbon-chewing?

Posted by Michael Dresser at 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: On the roads
        

The Ocean City Council will cast a final vote tonight on a proposal to require people who ride rental scooters at the beach resort to wear helmets while operating them on city streets.

The measure, which would exempt, scooters operated by their owners, has already received preliminary approval and is expected to win final passage.

Under state law, motorcycle riders are required to wear helmets, but operators of motor scooters and their passengers are exempt.

City Councilman Douglas Cymek said the move was prompted by some serious accidents involving scooters.

"We've had a remendous amount of scooter-related accidents in Ocean City," Cymek said. "I attribute that to the proliferation of rental businesses."

Under the proposed ordinance, renters of motorized minibikes or mopeds would be required  to provide helmets to customers. Operators of the vehicles and their passengers would be required to wear them.

The measure also calls for rental firms to clearly display the business' name and telephone number on the vehicle.

Cymek said the exemption for owners was based on the premise that they are likely to be more experienced in the use of the vehicles than renters.

Council President Joe Mitrecic acknowledged  that the exemption  could lead to a scenario in whichtwo people riding together -- one on a rental scooter and another on his or her own -- would be treated differently.

A police officer "would in fact stop one and  let the other  one go," Mitrecic said.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 8:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

Baltimore drivers heading to or through the Tysons Corner-Fairfax areas of Northern Virginia outside peak hours are likely to encounter lane closings on the Capital Beltway starting next week.

The State Highway Administration said it will begin resurfacing work on the 4-mile stretch of Interstate 495 between Interstate 270 and the American Legion Bridge. The $7.4 million project, which the agency said is being financed with federal stimulus funds, is expected to be completed next summer.

The roadwork wil bring with it single lane closures on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays. Double and triple lane closings are  possible between 10 p.m.  and 5 p.m.

The full SHA news release follows:

Continue reading "State to repave stretch of Capital Beltway" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

The State Highway Administration has announced plans to reconfigure travel patterns between the park-and-ride at the eastern terminus of Interstate 70 and the Beltway in an effort to slow traffic and deter illegal street racing on that stretch of highway.

The decision to rework that section of I-70, where low traffic volumes at night often attract racers and spectators, follows the June 21 crash in which two people were killed and two critically injured after a vehicle that had apparently been in a speed contest went out of control.

Killed were spectators Mary-Kathryn Michele Abernathy, 21, of Columbia, and Jonathan Robert Henderson, 20, of La Plata, Charles County

State highway officials will begin work Thursday to close one lane on the westbound stretch between the parking lot and the Beltway, where the crash took place. After that morning's rush hour crews will move barriers so that motorists entering from Ingleside Avenue will no longer have a clear lane but will have to  merge into the westbound lane leading from the park-and-ride. Workers will also change pavement markings and install reflective barriers.

Officials said the change will significantly reduce the attractiveness of the site for street racing without impeding normal traffic flow. State highway officials said they worked closely with the Maryland State Police to decide which changes to make.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: On the roads
        

Here, for loyal blog readers, is a sneak preview of Monday's Getting There column:

Most days I try to play the role of neutral Maryland reporter, but every once in a while an alter ego named Baltimore Guy breaks out.

Baltimore Guy isn’t worried about what’s good for the whole state. When you talk about spending public money, he wants to know what’s in it for Baltimore.

Anyway, news about a proposal to spend $4.6 billion to widen a road between Montgomery and Frederick counties got Baltimore Guy’s attention. He has a few questions for the folks who want to spend a record amount on a project few Baltimoreans are likely to use.

It’s not like Baltimore Guy resents every roundabout built in Montgomery or traffic light installed in Frederick, but money like that – even if it’s partly provided by tolls — could fill all the potholes on Patapsco Avenue and have change left over.

Baltimore Guy was struck by some of the reasons being given for spending all those simoleons. One quote that caught his eye was from Montgomery County Council President Phil Andrews, who said: “The argument will be made that the I-270 corridor is the economic engine of the state and the state has an interest in continuing to see that’s the case.”

Here’s what Baltimore Guy wants to know:

What interest does Baltimore have in the I-270 corridor remaining the economic engine of the state forever? If it’s going to cost $4.6 billion to keep that engine purring, should Maryland be looking for a trade-in somewhere else? Maybe Baltimore?

Read the rest of my column (and background on the I-270 project) and then come back here. What are your thoughts? Do you agree with Baltimore Guy?

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: On the roads
        

ICC under construction near Derwood.        

For many decades, the Maryland environmental movement has hated the Inter-county Connector with a blinding passion. It was their worst nightmare, and the symbol of all that was short-sighted, backward and crassly commercial. They fought it in the county councils at the polls and in the General Assembly and the courts. They almost had it killed in the 1990s, but like some horror story zombie it wouldn't stay dead. The opponents finally lost on all counts, and the ICC is now well on its way to completion.

So now it's time for the greens to fall in love with what they once hated.

Ridiculous, you think? Consider: The ICC is now, for all intents and purposes, existing infrastructure. And one of the central tenets of smart growth is that existing infrastructure is to be cherished. It should be put to maximum possible use so you don't have to build more new infrastructure. That means true environmentalists should stop moping about The Lost Cause and fight to get best use out of the ICC that they can.

But there's more. The ICC is a potential ally in the next big environment-vs.-roads fight in Maryland -- the one over a $4.6 billion plan to add two new lanes in each direction to Interstate 270 between Shady Grove and Frederick.

Continue reading "Greens must learn to love the ICC" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

The Baltimore County Department of Public Works will hold a public forum Tuesday to seek opinions about proposed improvements to the congested intersection of Shawan Road and Cuba Road in Hunt Valley.

The meeting is set for 6  p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Sequoia Room in the Park Lodge at Oregon Ridge Park.

According to the department, the intersection is "a perennial  traffic headache"  with long delays. It said the meeting is one of a series at which it will seek community views on a new road design. Those who can't make the meeting can send comments to publicworks@baltimorecountymd.gov.

Hmmm. Could there be a roundabout in Hunt Valley's  future?

Continue reading "Views sought on Shawan intersection" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

That was quite a gully-washer that swept through Baltimore during the morning commute today. Upon getting to work I heard a number of complaints about how terrible conditions were on the roads this morning.

I guess I missed it. I was on U.S. 1 this morning to gas up, so missed the usualy I-95 follies. When the deluge struck,  I was getting on I-95 on Caton Avenue. The interstate seemed no worse than usual except for the pickup truck stalled out at I-395 just before Conway Street. But the drivers in the left lane showed atypical courtesy and I got by just fine.

So did Dave Buck, spokesman for the State Highway Administration, whom I turn to for the official word on whether it's been a really bad morning in traffic terms.

It turns out that in terms of collisions, it wasn't that bad at all. "We didn't  have that  many coming though this morning," he said. Nor was there an unusual amount of congestion, he said.

Buck saiid it was fortunate that the rains came at a time when many people are on vacation. He said traffic levels are typically down 8-10 percent between July 4 and Labor Day -- easing the pressure when a "weather event" occurs.

Maybe it was different on county roads.

A reader who goes by the handle TW gives an account indicating it might have been worse for those coming south.

The Inner-Outer loops in the north end and the JFX were a mess. The cloud seemed to hang over the City/County line. A 25-minute commute turned into an hour and five minutes. . . Two disabled vehicles southbound and an ambulance on the northbound JFX didn't help matters. I've always known Baltimoreans can't drive in the snow, but now I'm learning that rain is challenging.

My usual complaint with Baltimore drivers in the rain is that a significant percentage of them ignore the weather completely and keep to the same breakneck speeds at which they drive when it's  dry and sunny. Then you inevitably have a rash of collisions, leading to lane closings and backups.

I'm impressed that Baltimore drivers slowed down enough this morning to avoid that. And thanks to the truck drivers who didn't jack-knife their tractor-trailers  this morning. It seems that weather like this morning's usually brings at least one of those. Bottom line, we're  not meant to get to our destinations as fast in a heavy rain. Just get there in one piece.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: On the roads
        

The statewide average price of regular gasoline leveled off at $2.414, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic, but this morning (Thursday), the three stations at the highly competitive corner of Montgomery Road and U.S. 1 in Elkridge all stood at $2.29.

It was a year ago today that prices finally fell below $4 to register a  statewide average of $3.999. Wasn't that a glorious day?

Posted by Michael Dresser at 9:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

An inquisitive reader wants to know:

Why is Pratt Street closed, east of President Street? Since this morning, all traffic going east on Pratt has been forced to go either north or south on President Street, and not allowed to continue on. I asked the traffic officers, and they didn’t know and/or wouldn’t say.

Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for the city public works department, said it was an emergency repair to a broken pipe affecting 30 customers in the 1000 block East Pratt Street. He said the work should be wrapped up by 5 p.m.

In other words: Everything's fine. Please move along, sir. Don't block the sidewalk.

Update from our correspondent:

(C)ity traffic enforcement officers are standing there, giving tickets to people who are taking illegal U-turns from southbound President Street.  A great scene outside my window.

Somebody needs some work to do.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

The report this week that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been sitting on research it conducted in 2002-2003 on the safety implications of cell phone use while driving is prompting a leading Maryland advocacy group to reconsider its stance on the issue.

The Maryland Highway Safety Foundation had previously urged the Maryland  General Assembly to adopt a ban on the use of hand-held cell phones. But according to co-chairman David Nevins, the news of NHTSA's long  suppressed findings will put the question of a total ban on cell phone use behind the wheel on the foundation board's agenda.

In a draft report that was not released for fear of offending Congress, NHTSA researchers wrote: "We recommend that drivers not use these devices when driving, except in an emergency. Moreover, we are convinced that legislation forbidding the use of handheld cell phones while driving may not be effective in improving highway safety since it will not address the problem. In fact, such legislation may erroneously imply that hands-free phones are safe to use while driving,”

They based  their recommendation on  findings that there is "little, if any, difference between the use of hand-held and hands-free phones in contributing to the risk of a crash while driving distracted. Hands-free or hand-held, we have found that the cognitive distraction is significant enough to degrade a driver's performance."

The research found that about 25 percent of crashes reported  to police were the result of driver distraction.

For many years, the General Assembly has regularly defeated any form of cell phone  ban for adult drivers, though it did pass a law this year banning texting while driving.

Nevins said he is not sure what the foundation board will decide to put on its legislative agenda.

"We want to advocate for that which we can achieve," he said.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Photo by Bob Shilling

Bob Shilling of Mays Chapel spotted this sign combination on Chatterton Road just east of Jenifer Road. He found it "perplexing" I think it says something about the human condition.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 5:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

The Friday evening rush hour is expected to be an ordeal for motorists attempting to escape downtown as big-time soccer comes to M&T Bank Stadium.

The Maryland Transportation Authority warned that a sellout crowd of 72,000  is expected to attend the  World Football Challenge - not the kind of football the Ravens play. The parking lots open at 4 p.m. and the stadium gates at 6:30 p.m. for the 8 p.m. event -- perfectly times to tie traffic on Interstate 395, parts Interstate 95 and Russell Street into knots.

The authority, predicting congestion, is urging motorists who aren't going to the game to use alternate routes -- not that there are many good choices for folks attempting to head south on Interstate 95 or Russell Street. (Getting There readers can share my backdoor route of U.S. 40 west to Hilton Street south, to Wilkens Street west to Caton Avenue south and then connecting with southbound I-95.)

The authority also notes that it would be a  good day to use light rail to get into and out of downtown. That's not a bad recommendation. If you're not familiar with the light rail system, and you live south of town, try parking at North Linthicum and catching a train from there. It's right off the Beltway at Camp Meade Road, and it's well-signed.

Of course, leaving work about 3 p.m. on a Friday is not at all uncommon -- as I've found from calling many government offices at that time.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

The Maryland Transportation Authority is going to take a second stab at shifting the traffic pattern at the Interstate 95-895 split Sunday. If you remember last week's comic turn of events, the authority canceled the planned July 12 change-over because of forecasts of bad weather. Naturally the weather turned out to be sunny and bright.

The change, part of the state's project of adding express toll lanes to I-95 between the Beltway and White Marsh, will eliminate the need to exit the main roadway to stay on southbound I-95 toward the Fort McHenry Tunnel. After the change, it will be travelers who want to head for the half-as-busy Harbor Tunnel who will have to use the exit ramp.

As always, the authority cautions that the change will take place weather permitting. Let's just hope it isn't again forecast-permitting.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Backups on Interstate  95 between Baltimore and Washington are an everyday occurrence, but  this morning's  jam-up on southbound I-95 was off the charts. A two-car crash just south of Route 100 in Howard County  just before  8 a.m. closed lanes and had traffic backed up all the way past the Interstate 195 interchange in Baltimore  County.

It was a bit of a guilty pleasure to be in the  uncongested northbound lanes. No word on the severity of the crash.

9:04 a.m.: This just in from Dave Buck of State Highway Administration:

Injury crash occurred at 7:45 a.m.  SHA arrived at 7:52 a.m. Additional SHA units on scene at 8:20 a.m.  Two vehicles involved.  One passenger car, one SUV overturned. Three left lanes blocked on SB I-95.  One left lane blocked on NB I-95.
At 8:35 a.m. only the left lane remained blocked along SB I-95 between MD 100 and MD 175. 
All lanes were open at 8:45 a.m.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

If you're planning to go downtown this weekend, be warned that it's likely to be a traffic nightmare. You might want to drive to the nearest transit station and leave your car there.

Central Baltimore will be in the grips of a triple whammy of traffic nightmaress. First, starting tomorrow, much of Lombard Street will close for a  resurfacfing project. Then there's Artscape, which willl close streets and generally tie up traffic Friday through Sunday in the Mount Royal-University of Baltimore area. Meanwhile, downtown will host a conference known as Otakon, whose participants dress up in comic-inspired costumes and wander the streets inspiring rear-end collisions as drivers become distracted.

The Downtown Partnership has spelled out the gory details of street closings below. But rather than trying to negotiate around  the closings, you might want to consider taking Maryland Transit Administration  light rail, Metro subway or even a city bus.

Continue reading "Triple whammy for downtown traffic this weekend" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Here's a classic good news-bad news study  from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

It appears that more than three decades of strong anti-drunk driving messages and stronger enforcement are having some impact. In a 2007 survey, NHTSA found that the percentage of drivers on weekend nights who have a blood-alcohol level higher than the prevailing national limit of .08 percent has fallen to 2.2 percent. (Shown in NHTSA graphic at right.) It's still pretty scary that one in 50 drivers on the road is drunk at those times, but that's an improvement from the downright terrifying 7.5 percent that prevailed in 1973, when the first such survey was taken.

During the daytime, the roadside survey found  that only 0.1 percent of the drivers on the road were legally drunk. But what your mama told you about being on the road when the bars let out  is true: 4.8 percent of drivers were found  to exceed .08 between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on weekends. That's nearly  one in 20. (NHTSA doesn't  measure this, but if it's 2 a.m. Sunday down the road from a biker bar, you can figure it's more than one in 10.)

The news was less encouraging when it comes to drugs, screening for which was included in in the surveys for the first time in the 2007 survey. The survey, based on oral fluid samples and blood samples, found that 16.3 percent of the drivers on the road on weekend nights tested positive for drugs. That dooesn't mean they were actively high while driving, because some of the tests -- such as those for marijuana -- can yield positive findings  weeks after actual use. Still, that's a lot of Cheeches and Chongs with whom to be sharing the highways.

Continue reading "NHTSA: Fewer drunks on road, but lots get high" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: On the roads
        

The $2.41-a-gallon gasoline along U.S. 1 in Elkridge was tempting this morning, but I decided to hold out and see what Halethorpe and Lansdowne would bring. Patience paid off as the Royal Farm stores there each were selling regular at $2.39 -- well below the statewide average of $2.48 reported by AAA Mid-Atlantic.

The best prices in Maryland, according to MarylandGasPrices.com, can be found in northern Calvert County, where what appears to be a gas war in the Dunkirk area has driven prices down as far as $2.21. If you're heading to lower Montgomery County, gas  up before you go  because some stations are  still charging as  high as $3.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Based on forecasts of miserable weather, the Maryland Transportation Authority postponed its plans to make its big traffic pattern change at the  Interstate 95-Interstate 895 split Sunday morning for one week.

Naturally the weather Sunday morning proved to be near-perfect -- sunny and dry (unless the weather was way different from in Howard County). The way I figure it, the authority has just about guaranteed that next weekend will be a washout. Thanks, guys, and stop watching the Weather Channel.

Posted by Michael Dresser at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

Because of the likelihood of bad weather this weekend, the Maryland Transportation Authority has pushed back the planned change in the traffic pattern at the junction of Interstate 95 and Interstate 895 on Baltimore's  east side.

Originally planned for this Sunday, the lane shift is now scheduled for Sunday,  July 19. The change will eliminate the need to merge right and exit for southbound travelers on I-95 who are heading toward the Fort McHenry Tunnel.

The full news release appears below.

Continue reading "Lane shift at I-95 & I-895 postponed a week" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: On the roads
        

The city just announced that the Lombard Street rebuilding project, which will tie up downtown traffic for a long time, is on again after having been delayed by a water main break.  Originally scheduled to go forward in the spring, the project is now expected to begin Wednesday.

 Here's the city's press release:

Continue reading "Lombard Street project to begin -- finally" »

Posted by Michael Dresser at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: On the roads
        

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