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Author Topic: Baltimore Area Local Roads  (Read 5263 times)

mrsman

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Baltimore Area Local Roads
« on: January 21, 2018, 08:49:20 AM »

I was in Baltimore and I noticed several things.

I checked out Potomac Street in Canton, since I had read about a lot of consternation regarding a bike lane that was recently installed on that street. For more information, see:

https://www.bikemore.net/news/potomac-street-victory-lap?rq=potomac

From my own vantage point, it seems that Potomac is a relatively quiet residential street, for a densely packed city, so it can survive just fine with one lane of traffic.  The problem is that the lane, especially between Eastern and Fait, is especially narrow.  It seemed a lot narrower than the 11 feet that was in the manual on the above link.  It seemed like I had to slow to a crawl to avoid hitting the posts protecting the bike lane or some of the longer cars that were parked at angles.

(IMO, they should've made the bike lanes on both Potomac and Ellwood, but each in only one direction, parallel to automobile traffic.  There is enough room on each for one-way protected bike lanes, parallel parking, and a decently wide travel lane.  By making Potomac's bike lane two-way, they severly constricted the width of the street, which is why many of the residents are complaining.)

For Downtown Baltimore, I noticed the bike lane along Maryland/Cathedral/Liberty/Hopkins, which is all one continuous street.  Here, the bike lane seemed wide enough, and the lane of traffic seemed wide enough, but the single lane was really busy.  It seems that within Downtown Baltimore there are many more lanes for northbound traffic than southbound traffic.  It seems this mismatch has been in place along time with Howard and Park Ave being northbound, but it is exacerbated by the fact that a southbound lane was removed from Maryland/Cathedral.

Much of Downtown Baltimore has the pay and display parking meters.  These seem to work great.  They take credit cards and you can pay for the time you need and display the receipt on your dashboard. It seemed that different parts of Downtown were charged at different rates: $1.75/hr , $2/hr, or $2.25/hr.  What is also nice is that they alert you as to when you cannot park and won't accept payment when parking is prohibited.  It also seemed that a lot of Downtown allowed you to park for up to 4 hours.

There were also reserved meters for the handicapped.  While I beleive that the handicapped should not get free parking, I find it unusual that they reserve special spots for them on city streets, from my experience this is only done in parking lots and garages.  IT significantly limited the number of available parking spaces.
 It would''ve been better to make the pay and dispaly meters fully accessible to all.

Lombard, Pratt, Baltimore, and Fayette now have bus lanes through Downtown.  These seemed to be working well and I did not notice any significant backup as I was driving down those streets.

Fell's Point is now extremely crowded.  They should make Eastern and Fleet into one-way pairs so that traffic can move along.
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cpzilliacus

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Re: Baltimore Area Local Roads
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2018, 11:29:03 AM »

Much of the current configuration of streets in Baltimore City can be traced back to the days of Henry Barnes (of the "Barnes Dance" fame), who encouraged making streets run  one-way.
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TheOneKEA

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Re: Baltimore Area Local Roads
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2018, 09:41:17 AM »

Where was Rossville Blvd supposed to go past its intersection with Mace Avenue? Was it supposed to link with the Beltway (now MD 702) or just cross it with no connection?
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froggie

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Re: Baltimore Area Local Roads
« Reply #3 on: January 28, 2018, 08:24:29 AM »

^ The 1964 BMATS plan had nothing extra for Rossville Blvd beyond what was already constructed.  There was to be a freeway extension northeast from the Beltway/702 interchange that was to extend to what is now MD 43, but there was no interchange planned where it crossed Rossville Blvd.
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cpzilliacus

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Re: Baltimore Area Local Roads
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2018, 03:08:21 PM »

Anyone know the origin of the street name Honeygo Boulevard in eastern Baltimore County?
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jwolfer

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Re: Baltimore Area Local Roads
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2018, 04:22:44 PM »

Much of the current configuration of streets in Baltimore City can be traced back to the days of Henry Barnes (of the "Barnes Dance" fame), who encouraged making streets run  one-way.
It's funny I have never heard the term "Barnes dance" before and encountered it 2 times in the past day.. I was looking at an article with historic photos of downtown Jacksonville and it showed a Barnes dance.. all the traffic lights turn red so pedestrians can cross in any direction including f diagonal

Z981

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ixnay

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Re: Baltimore Area Local Roads
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2018, 08:25:22 PM »

Much of the current configuration of streets in Baltimore City can be traced back to the days of Henry Barnes (of the "Barnes Dance" fame), who encouraged making streets run  one-way.
It's funny I have never heard the term "Barnes dance" before and encountered it 2 times in the past day.. I was looking at an article with historic photos of downtown Jacksonville and it showed a Barnes dance.. all the traffic lights turn red so pedestrians can cross in any direction including f diagonal

Z981

I read something about Barnes and his traffic plan some time ago (in a book about old Baltimore trolleys) but forgot his name.  I think Barnes implemented the new downtown Baltimore traffic patterns starting in the late '40s.

ixnay
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TheOneKEA

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Re: Baltimore Area Local Roads
« Reply #7 on: February 13, 2018, 09:07:36 PM »

I found this article with a bunch of really good photos of the Hanover Street drawbridge.

http://darkroom.baltimoresun.com/2017/12/at-101-the-hanover-street-bridge-is-showing-its-age/#1

When was the last time the drawbridge opened on a regular basis, like the Kent Narrows drawbridge on MD 18?
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