Maryland

[bluecountry]

It always amazes me how the BW Pkwy has so much congestion given how there are not many exits and it passes through mostly undeveloped green space.

[sprjus4]

It always amazes me how the BW Pkwy has so much congestion given how there are not many exits and it passes through mostly undeveloped green space.

I wonder why... 

[TheOneKEA]

I might be starting a job in the near future based in Annapolis Junction, does Maryland have any plans to relieve the congestion on MD-32?


The freeway is currently only 4 lanes between 95 and the BWP, but clearly has space for more.

There are no plans to fix the chronic congestion along this segment of MD 32. I have to deal with this segment regularly and there are many problems with the current layout:

- The loop ramp from MD 175 west to MD 32 west doesn't have enough room for traffic to accelerate from 15-25mph to 65-70mph.
- The ramp from MD 175 east to MD 32 west has some kind of geometry issue that discourages people from accelerating until they reach the very end of the ramp.
- Both of MD 32's mainline bridges through the MD 175 interchange lack shoulders, which squeezes the travel lanes and causes some drivers to slow down unnecessarily.
- The ramp from MD 198 to MD 32 east also doesn't have enough room for traffic to accelerate from 10-15mph to 65-70mph. Because of the roundabout at the intersection of MD 198 and the ramps, some vehicles are entering the on-ramp at very low speeds.

A LOT of regional traffic travels along MD 198 east to MD 32 east, and from I-95 along MD 32 east, and then exits at MD 175 east to cross the Northeast Corridor and eventually reach MD 3 and I-97. In the opposite direction, a LOT of regional traffic from MD 3 and I-97 funnels down into the loop ramp from MD 175 west to MD 32 west, and then it either exits at MD 198 west or continues further west to I-95. Because of the presence of the North Tract of the Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge, direct access from the B-W Parkway and I-95 to MD 3 and US 301 either requires traveling along MD 32/198 and MD 175, or traveling along MD 197 to MD 450 or US 50. This means that the four-lane segment of MD 32 between MD 198 and MD 175 is forced to carry a lot of regional traffic that would otherwise have used a straighter route through the area that is now part of the Refuge.

The easiest solution IMO would be to widen MD 32 east to three lanes between the MD 198 on-ramp and the MD 175 off-ramp, and to widen MD 32 west between the on-ramp from MD 175 west and the off-ramp to MD 198. There are plans on the books to build a flyover from MD 32 west to MD 198 west that bypasses the entire interchange, and would tie into a proposed four-lane expansion of MD 198 between MD 32 and rhe B-W Parkway, but I suspect that this will only provide modest improvement.

[jmacswimmer]

An interesting graphic tweeted out by MDTA on Valentine's Day, of all days!

Two minor nitpicks (because that's what we do here):
-A few of the agencies listed (such as DelDOT & DRJTBC) use AET at one facility (namely US 301 & the Scudder Falls Bridge, respectively) but still accept cash at their other facilities
-The T in SJTA is Transportation, not Turnpike 

https://twitter.com/TheMDTA/status/1625525282064175105?cxt=HHwWgsDQrbaog48tAAAA

[bluecountry]

It always amazes me how the BW Pkwy has so much congestion given how there are not many exits and it passes through mostly undeveloped green space.

I wonder why... 

Yes why

[sprjus4]

Maybe because it's a 4 lane freeway that carries over 100,000 AADT between Washington and Baltimore, all within a metropolitan area of 10 million people?

[ixnay]

The cover story of this month's Baltimore Magazine is about the sunken freeway on B'more's west side...

https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/businessdevelopment/highway-to-nowhere-baltimore-expressway-demolished-black-neighborhoods/

[1995hoo]

https://twitter.com/adamtuss/status/1626737464625733632

[bluecountry]

Maybe because it's a 4 lane freeway that carries over 100,000 AADT between Washington and Baltimore, all within a metropolitan area of 10 million people?

But there is not any real intense development here, or constant merges and exits.

[Mapmikey]

Maybe because it's a 4 lane freeway that carries over 100,000 AADT between Washington and Baltimore, all within a metropolitan area of 10 million people?

But there is not any real intense development here, or constant merges and exits.

It passes through mostly NPS land or other US Gov't property, so there wouldn't be much development alongside it.

It is, however, an alternative to I-95 between DC and Baltimore and a major commuter route to some of the government facilities it runs through.

[cockroachking]

Maybe because it's a 4 lane freeway that carries over 100,000 AADT between Washington and Baltimore, all within a metropolitan area of 10 million people?

But there is not any real intense development here, or constant merges and exits.

Even if there were no exits along said stretch, it still wouldn't change the fact that 2 lanes can only support a certain LOS at certain volumes.* In this case, the volumes simply exceed the cutoffs for the throughput required to maintain a reasonable LOS.

*The northbound NYS Thruway from Harriman to Kingston on a Friday evening is a perfect example of this; Exit spacing averages roughly 15 miles or so, but there are still volume related slowdowns on and off the whole way, not just at the few exits.

[RoadPelican]

The BW Parkway passes right by a lot of busy places. Fort Meade, Goddard Space Center, Arundel Mills Mall, 2 Casinos, BWI Airport. And at the very end of the road is M&T Bank Stadium and Oriole Park at Camden Yards AND a little further up is Lexington Market.

Plus, you have explosive growth in the counties it passes thru: Anne Arundel and Howard.

AND it has interchanges with SEVEN other freeways: I-495, MD 32, MD 100, I-195, I-695, I-895 and I-95.

The BW Parkway is certainly not a laidback country interstate such as I-10 in northern Florida.

[kernals12]

The television show Motorweek briefly in the mid 80s used a section of uncompleted highway to do its performance tests, does anyone know where this is? This would've been in 1982

[amroad17]

The television show Motorweek briefly in the mid 80s used a section of uncompleted highway to do its performance tests, does anyone know where this is? This would've been in 1982

Just read a Wikipedia article about this show after reading the above post.  In the article, under Road Test, it was mentioned that these performance tests were done at a "then unfinished highway at an undisclosed location" before the 75-80 Dragway in Frederick, MD became its main test track.

At first, I thought that the freeway test track used was where I-795 is now since the show was produced in Owings Mills, MD.  However, looking at GSV, I cannot seemingly find a similar area along I-795, so I do not have an idea as to where these tests were filmed.

[davewiecking]

I always thought it was along unopened I-795. Because of the orientation of the yellow/black striped sign in the lower picture, it appears the car is going the opposite direction of the eventual traffic. I think it's about 2 miles north of the beltway, where the highway curves over the train tracks. Street view below is from after light rail was added to the median. I'm too lazy to search for the actual video...
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.4026926,-76.766468,3a,75y,162.18h,84.05t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s_qLiTc5PxGc3j15VPnwVwQ!2e0!5s20211001T000000!7i16384!8i8192

[Mapmikey]

Don't believe I-795 is correct.  Bridge at GMSV is dated 1984 and does not match the bridge railing in the video.  If the 1982 date is accurate, I-795 wasn't built yet.

[1995hoo]

Do we know for sure those are in Maryland? The first place I thought of is the never-finished stub end of PA-23 in the Bridgeport/King of Prussia area, although I don't think that's right because of the bridge–that stub of PA-23 doesn't appear to have one anywhere. Assuming the Wikipedia article's wording has any significance (which is not always the case), the words "then unfinished highway" ("then unfinished" should be hyphenated, but whatever) would appear to rule out never-completed roads.

Edited to add: OK, I see that show is an MPT production based in Owings Mills. That would certainly suggest Maryland. I assume none of what is now I-97 existed at that time. The road looks wide enough to be somewhere on the northern portion of what is now I-97 (between MD-32 and I-695), but it seems likely to be too long ago. MD-32 and MD-100 have both been extended multiple times–perhaps one of them? The other possibility that comes to mind, though I highly doubt this one, would be somewhere along I-95 in Baltimore because that road was virtually unused prior to the Fort McHenry Tunnel opening just before Thanksgiving in 1985.

[jmacswimmer]

The 2nd screenshot from Kernals' post reminds me of I-70 departing what is now the park-&-ride, but I-70's Wikipedia page notes that the stretch from I-695 to Security Blvd was completed in 1969 so that timeline might not work. Unless the westbound lanes east of the Ingleside Ave onramp were never fully opened until after I-70's fate in Baltimore was sealed? A quick historic aerials check shows that the park-&-ride was setup sometime between 1981 & 1989.

[Mapmikey]

If you watch the video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMsXLYFU0pU  you will see it is clearly I-70 at what is now the park and ride.

[kernals12]

If it helps, here's some footage starting at 1:15

[kernals12]

I-70 definitely makes the most sense given the width of the road being shown. Also, the location was described as being "unopened" not "under contruction".

[jmacswimmer]

I-70 definitely makes the most sense given the width of the road being shown. Also, the location was described as being "unopened" not "under contruction".

Agreed with you & Mapmikey that it definitely is - the additional video you posted clearly shows the sudden end of pavement and what appears to be the offramp to Security Blvd northbound. Some of the shots facing west appear to show live traffic on the eastbound side with "road closed"-type barricades forcing traffic to the right, which would make sense with eastbound traffic being forced off at Security Blvd prior to the park-&-ride being created (in addition to my speculation in my earlier post that westbound wasn't open upstream of the onramp from Ingleside Ave).

[kernals12]

Welp, I, jmacswimmer and mapmikey were wrong. It was 795.



Given that 795 goes by Owings Mills, that makes sense

[Mapmikey]

Welp, I, jmacswimmer and mapmikey were wrong. It was 795.



Given that 795 goes by Owings Mills, that makes sense

The 1982 historic aerials show no part of 795 in existence (not even land cleared), the bridges are dated 1983 or 1984 and are the wrong railing type.  Also the concrete in the video is not new.

The video clearly shows the I-70 freeway EB being forced off at Security Blvd (and if it is not that, what part of 795 was traffic using?).

Also the pavement and bridge surface in the 2nd still shot above matches this view exactly https://goo.gl/maps/BFjjHyMgawXnqA4s5

While they may have used 795 at some point, they did not do so in 1982.

[plain]

That lady is probably got something mixed up. That was definitely I-70 in that vid.