Maryland

[cpzilliacus]

That reminds me of Virginia's first attempt to establish HOV lanes on the Dulles Toll Road, by converting one of the three existing through lanes in each direction to HOV-only (in rush hour) use.  The blowback from motorists was fierce, they complained that three general-purpose lanes in each direction was barely adequate, and only two would be grossly inadequate.  VDOT (which then ran the toll road) pulled back, and built a fourth lane in each direction reserved from the outset for HOV.

It was a little more complicated than that.  The original Dulles Toll Road (Va. 267) was two lanes in each direction, and allowed local traffic to use this high-speed corridor.  The lanes quickly filled with traffic, and in the late 1980's and early 1990's, VDOT was looking to expand the HOV network in Northern Virginia.  So a third (HOV) lane was added in each direction on the Toll Road, with plans to start HOV operation in September of the early 1990's (might have been 1992 or 1993).  But as the pavement was completed during the summer, the lanes were opened to all traffic in parts, even though they were built with the assumption that they would be HOV-restricted in the peak-flow directions.  So when the formal opening came in September, motorists in the corridor were very angry when the HOV enforcement started, and that was the end of HOV at that point.

As you correctly mention, a fourth lane was then added in each direction, and those lanes became the  HOV lanes that are there today.

Something like that happened with I-270 in Maryland, which got HOV lanes only when the freeway was widened, and I think also on US 50 between the Beltway and Bowie.  One nice thing about doing it that way is that it gives motorists time to change their travel patterns to take advantage of the new lanes, and gradually shift as general-purpose lane congestion increases, rather than expect motorists to change abruptly as existing lanes are taken away from them.

The HOV lanes on I-270 have a slightly different story. When the corridor was reconstructed to the "Express" and "Local" [Collector-Distributor] lanes in the late 1980's and early 1990's, the left Express lane of the reconstructed freeway was signed as "FUTURE HOV." 

But HOV did not start until 1992 or 1993, when the short section of I-270 between the Tuckerman Lane underpass, Md. 187 (Old Georgetown Road) and I-495 was widened to two general-purpose lanes and one HOV lane.  At that point, the HOV restriction was extended north to the left lane of the southbound Express roadway from I-370, and the left lane of the northbound Express roadway as far as Md. 124, and then on to Md. 121, leading to the "unbalanced" HOV lanes that are there to this very day.  The I-270 Spur [I-270Y] was widened to add a peak-flow HOV lane as well, from Tuckerman Lane south past Democracy Boulevard to I-495 near the Bradley Boulevard overpass, putting in place decently long HOV lanes, and an HOV-only ramp was later added on I-270Y at Westlake Drive.

I have been told that there was so much growth in SOV traffic (as a result of development in Germantown and Clarksburg and probably in Frederick County, Maryland) which resulted in MDOT and SHA deciding not to impose HOV restrictions on the southbound  side of I-270 between Md. 121 and I-370.

The HOV lanes on the John Hanson Highway (U.S. 50) were originally planned to be Maryland's first HOV/Toll lanes in the mid-1990's.  But then-Gov. Parris Glendening decided he did not like priced lanes, so they became HOV lanes instead.  Unlike all other HOV lanes in Maryland and Virginia, these lanes (which run from the U.S. 50/Md. 3/U.S. 301 interchange in Bowie to just before the U.S. 50/I-95/I-495 interchange near New Carrollton) have always had HOV-2 restrictions 24/7.   

[cpzilliacus]

DC constantly tries taking away existing lanes. The bus lanes on 7th and 9th Streets NW are a good example. Everyone (myself included) ignores those restrictions because otherwise you can't get anywhere.

Before the Metrorail system opened, D.C. has many long segments of streets where the right-hand (curb) lane was for buses only.  But the municipal police department of the District of Columbia was never very interested in enforcing those restrictions, and most of them slowly withered away, especially as the Metrorail system grew, and rail replaced bus travel along many of the heavy bus corridors in the city.

The HOV-2 lanes on Washington Street (Va. 400) in the City of Alexandria have a "look and feel" that is similar to the old bus-only curb lanes in D.C., even though the D.C. bus lanes were for buses and right turns only. 

There was at one (fairly recent) time a remnant of signage and markings along M Street, S.W. between 6th Street and South Capitol Street.

The problem is that DC refuses to enforce other traffic laws in their eagerness to make driving as miserable as possible. So on 9th Street, for example, there are supposed to be two lanes plus a bus lane, but the left lane of the two is always blocked by double-parkers and by the valet parker at Zaytinya. If you obey the bus lane, it means you effectively have a single lane where there used to be three. Fuck that! On 7th Street, the problem is that left turns are allowed but there are no left-turn lanes. So you either go around people using the bus lane or you get stuck.

I try hard to avoid that part of D.C. if at all possible. 

Hopefully Montgomery County will have better sense than to attempt to do it the way DC does. Reducing traffic capacity for a bus lane is a recipe for a driver revolt. (If you take away a lane of parking, and strictly enforce the no-parking rule with bollards or some such while maintaining the same number of lanes for traffic, that's a totally different story. But I doubt that's what Montgomery County has in mind.)

Montgomery County has proposed taking lanes from its own (county-maintained) roads as well as state-maintained (numbered) roads.  In spite of some of the rhetoric, I speculate that the Maryland Department of Transportation is not going to permit something like this to happen on any of the state roads.  So the county will need to do this on one or more of the roads that are under its control, such as Montrose Road/Randolph Road/Cherry Hill Road (east of U.S. 29, Randolph Road becomes Cherry Hill Road, where it continues to the east and south, ultimately reaching the City of College Park in Prince George's County).

That way, accountability is on the county and its elected officials.

I think the biggest two problems with buses are not a lack of dedicated lanes but rather a lack of frequent service and the unreliability of the Metrorail in getting people to the bus. The Fairfax Connector bus that stops half a mile from my house generally runs once an hour. If there's a problem on the Metrorail, it means you're stuck either waiting an hour or paying for a cab (assuming you don't have some other way home). That's simply not a wager most people are willing to make, and I can't blame them. The other thing that has to be remembered is that in the downtown white-collar business community a LOT of people cannot necessarily rely on always leaving at the same time every night, and they often won't know in advance when they might get stuck at the office. Taking a bus is a lot more problematic when you can't plan on keeping to a fixed work schedule. I think a lot of the transitphiles and the anti-car crowd tend to overlook such issues.

Many planners still want to assume that Metrorail is the ultra-reliable, new system that it was in the late 1970's and early 1980's.  It's not.   

You are correct about the limitations of transit, especially in suburban areas.  That's something else that too many planners want to dance around.

Dedicated lanes would make transit service more reliable, but at what cost?  More than government can afford!  Much better to do as Gabriel Roth suggested in his Letter to the Editor (and is being done right now on Md. 200 and will be happening on the I-495 Express Lanes in the very near future) - price lanes (which are then open to any vehicle wanting to pay that price for free-flow traffic), and allow the buses to use those lanes to provide a fast and reliable trip to their customers.

Don't get me wrong, I love having that Fairfax Connector bus as an option when I've needed it (usually when I've taken my 1988 RX-7 to the mechanic in Arlington and he has to keep it overnight while he obtains parts). But I view it as just that–a backup option in a pinch. It would never be my primary mode of transportation unless my circumstances change DRASTICALLY. I think the same is true for a lot of other people.

That is precisely how many people in suburban (and urban) areas view transit.   Or they never, ever use it.

[cpzilliacus]

Baltimore Sun:  City's lucrative speed camera program dogged by problems - Tickets cost drivers millions of dollars, but questions surround the effectiveness — and the evidence

The tractor-trailer hit 70 mph as it passed the Poly-Western high school campus on Cold Spring Lane, barreling down a turn lane at twice the legal speed limit. Or so the $40 citation claimed. Just before Falls Road, a pole-mounted speed camera clocked the truck with radar and snapped some pictures. A ticket soon went out in the mail.

On paper it seemed like just the kind of blatant, dangerous school-zone speeding violation that the ubiquitous enforcement cameras are designed to catch and deter.

Except the truck wasn't going 70 mph that September morning – or even fast enough to get a ticket, The Baltimore Sun determined after examining the camera's time-stamped photos and measuring how far the vehicle traveled. Simple math proves the automated camera was off the mark.

[cpzilliacus]

WTOP Radio: Speed cameras vandalized in Silver Spring

Speed enforcement cameras in Silver Spring were targeted by vandals over the weekend, but it wasn't long before technicians had the high-tech devices busting speeders again.

Montgomery County police say the vandals attacked three portable speed cameras on 16th Street early Sunday morning.

[cpzilliacus]

Center Maryland: State funding for new roads approaching zero

Last Tuesday when Warren Deschenaux, Maryland's top government policy and budget analyst, told lawmakers that the state was running out of money for new transportation projects, it might have seemed like an overly dire warning to some.

But to anyone who has been paying close attention to our state's escalating transportation funding crisis, it was hardly a surprise.

Deschenaux's warning to members of the Maryland General Assembly's Spending Affordability Committee quantified the looming inevitability to be derived from decades of stagnating state transportation revenue by forecasting a hard number to swallow — zero.

[cpzilliacus]

On another positive, the Delaware tolls are no longer a surprise, as Maryland has posted "Last Exit Before Toll" on its new Exit 109 signs.

Indeed they have.  I wonder if it was motivated (at least in  part) by the reconstructed Delaware Turnpike toll plaza, with the high-speed E-ZPass lanes in the middle - see the second image below?

Here are some images from September 2012:

[amroad17]

Shouldn't the exit tab read EXITS 109A-B?

[deathtopumpkins]

Shouldn't the exit tab read EXITS 109A-B?

Not necessarily, because it lists the exits in the order you will reach them. If traveling west- or southbound, you would reach 109B before 109A.

In this case however, given that the signs are on I-95 northbound, yes it should be 109A-B.

[cpzilliacus]

More on speed cameras from the Baltimore Sun:

Maryland speed camera investigation brings delays, detours Different issues among jurisdictions; Howard won't supply data

Over months of investigating the proliferation of speed cameras in Maryland, many of The Baltimore Sun's attempts to get data and other information from government officials were met with delays, detours and dead ends.

Howard County, for example, refused to provide the license tag numbers of the vehicles that its cameras have nailed for speeding. By contrast, Baltimore, Baltimore County and the State Highway Administration – which fall under the same public-records law that Howard does – all provided tag numbers, even if it took some prodding and multiple attempts to get the correct figures.

Why the difference? Howard's lawyers said their hands were tied, and invoked a provision of state law that bars government from releasing speed camera photos. While The Sun's wasn't asking for the photos, the images happen to show a vehicle's license plate. So, the lawyers argued, the tag numbers themselves couldn't be released even as part an electronic database – and even though a car's tag doesn't identify its owner or reveal any personal information.

[cpzilliacus]

Baltimore Sun: I-695 crash kills two, stops traffic for nearly five hours - Sedan driven the wrong way collides with a family in an SUV, killing a 3-year-old and the sedan's driver

A sedan driving the wrong way on eastbound Interstate 695 near the Curtis Creek drawbridge struck an SUV carrying a mother and two small children, killing one of them, the sedan's driver, late Sunday.

The sedan, driven by 21-year-old Victoria Lynn DeAngelo of Dundalk, entered the outer loop of 695 near exit 1 driving in the wrong direction around 10 p.m. Sunday and crashed into an SUV, Maryland Transportation Authority Police Sgt. Jonathan Green said. The SUV carried Kimberly Kaye Taylor, 29, of White Marsh, and her two daughters, Lily Joseven Kelley, 3, and Mackenzie Grace Kelley, almost 3 months old.

[cpzilliacus]

Baltimore Sun: Bay Bridge safety upgrades aimed at reducing risk of head-on crashes - Officials hope rumble strips, painted buffer will steer westbound motorists out of danger

Continuous rumble strips and a vividly painted buffer will be added to the Bay Bridge to protect motorists when the westbound span is running with two-way traffic.

The Maryland Transportation Authority board voted unanimously to accept the recommendations of a safety committee that evaluated the conditions surrounding five fatal crashes over the last 12 years and looked at modifications – from permanent barriers to temporary markers – to protect the public.

The rumble strip installation and paint job, expected to cost less than $500,000, will be carried out next spring in time for summer vacation traffic, officials said. The painted buffer will make lane changes between the left lane and the center lane illegal, even when all three lanes are westbound.

[cpzilliacus]

WBOC-TV: Major Trucking Route Reopens in Federalsburg

Finishing touches were made Monday to the bridge over the Marshyhope Creek in Federalsburg. The bridge, which cost $2.3 million to renovate, opened 5 p.m. Monday for the first time since May.

Michael White of Sharpton said that with tractor-trailers being detoured, small towns have dealt with more traffic than usual while the bridge was under construction.

[cpzilliacus]

WTOP Radio: Md. highway administration defends speed camera program

The Maryland State Highway Administration is defending its speed cameras after a state lawmaker called for local jurisdictions to audit the devices and submit the results to the General Assembly.

"The calibrations are done on the equipment every day," says Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) spokeswoman Valerie Edgar about the department's speed cameras.

While SHA's speed cameras don't record times down to the tenth of a second, Edgar says they are accurate.

[cpzilliacus]

Baltimore Sun: O'Malley: Counties should stop paying speed camera contractors per citation - Governor makes first comments since Sun investigation

Gov. Martin O'Malley said Tuesday that state law bars speed camera contractors from being paid based on the number of citations issued or paid – a so-called bounty system approach used by Baltimore City, Baltimore County and elsewhere in Maryland.

"The law says you're not supposed to charge by volume. I don't think we should charge by volume," O'Malley said. "If any county is, they need to change their program."

In brief comments, O'Malley weighed in for the first time on criticism of speed cameras since The Baltimore Sun published an investigation of the devices, focusing on the city's network of 83 radar-equipped cameras. Several state lawmakers have since proposed changing state law that governs how counties and cities operate speed camera programs. Among the proposals is to add language clearly barring payments per citation.

[cpzilliacus]

TOLLROADSnews: Oldtown Historic Toll Bridge MD-WV looking to get state OK to triple tolls 50c to $1.50 after 35 years

The new owner of the Oldtown MD toll bridge seems likely to get approval from regulators in Baltimore to triple toll rates after 35 years. Lori Roberts a local realtor and businesswoman formed the Historical Oldtown Bridge Preservation LLC company to buy the toll bridge in 2010 for $60,000 from a man fed up with what he called the "endless paperwork" of dealing with regulators. After nearly a year of "paperwork" she has apparently done better with them than the former owner.

The Oldtown toll bridge is a 74 year old crossing of the Potomac between Oldtown Maryland in Allegany County and Green Spring West Virginia in the mountainous panhandle of Maryland.

It is about 100 miles northwest of Washington DC, almost midway, as the crow flies, between Pittsburgh PA and the national capital.

[cpzilliacus]

Baltimore Sun: Md. State Highway speed camera tickets spike overnight

More than 40 percent of all speed camera tickets issued to drivers in Maryland highway work zones have been doled out between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m., times when crews often aren't on the job.

That picture emerged when The Baltimore Sun graphed, hour by hour, all million or so work-zone citations generated by the State Highway Administration between December 2009 and June 30.

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post: Local officials call for "˜huge infusion' of transportation funding from Maryland

[BrianP]

New interchange on I-270 could relieve gridlock on Md. 355

Watkins Mill Interchange in engineering stage

Construction would not begin until 2015 or 2016

The worst part of the MD 124 & 355 intersection is heading south on MD 124.  Even outside of rush hour you may need to wait for more than one green to get past the intersection.

I was hoping that the state was further along with this project.  I was under the impression they had the preconstruction activities completed and were just waiting for construction money.  This has been the #1 priority for Montgomery County since the completion of the ICC and the Montrose Parkway.   

[cpzilliacus]

New interchange on I-270 could relieve gridlock on Md. 355

Watkins Mill Interchange in engineering stage

Construction would not begin until 2015 or 2016

The worst part of the MD 124 & 355 intersection is heading south on MD 124.  Even outside of rush hour you may need to wait for more than one green to get past the intersection.

I was hoping that the state was further along with this project.  I was under the impression they had the preconstruction activities completed and were just waiting for construction money.  This has been the #1 priority for Montgomery County since the completion of the ICC and the Montrose Parkway.   

I don't get to Gaithersburg all that often, but I think you are right about 124 and 355. 

Since that is within the corporate limits of Gaithersburg, their planning process (and not that of M-NCP&PC Montgomery County) controls what happens (or does not happen) at that intersection. Just checked the transportation element of the city plan, which does (correctly) show that intersection as failing (Level-of-service "F"), but it don't call for a grade-separated interchange there.

[Eth]

New interchange on I-270 could relieve gridlock on Md. 355

Watkins Mill Interchange in engineering stage

Construction would not begin until 2015 or 2016

The worst part of the MD 124 & 355 intersection is heading south on MD 124.  Even outside of rush hour you may need to wait for more than one green to get past the intersection.

I was hoping that the state was further along with this project.  I was under the impression they had the preconstruction activities completed and were just waiting for construction money.  This has been the #1 priority for Montgomery County since the completion of the ICC and the Montrose Parkway.   

I don't get to Gaithersburg all that often, but I think you are right about 124 and 355.

Having lived there about a year and a half ago, I can say he's definitely right.  I remember often being frustrated by this on random weekend afternoons trying to get to I-270 via 124 southbound.

[froggie]

Washington Examiner article today on a state senator's proposal to put tolls on US 15 to pay for improvements.  From the article:

Maryland Sen. Ron Young, D-Frederick, introduced legislation that would place a toll on the highway near the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. The toll would pay for widening the road through Frederick, as well as for building interchanges, bridges and underpasses.

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Examiner article today on a state senator's proposal to put tolls on US 15 to pay for improvements.  From the article:

Maryland Sen. Ron Young, D-Frederick, introduced legislation that would place a toll on the highway near the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. The toll would pay for widening the road through Frederick, as well as for building interchanges, bridges and underpasses.

No chance.  Way  too many  ways to shunpike.  And U.S. 15 isn't even a freeway.

The federal government and Congress need to put the states on notice that tolls at or near state borders are not an acceptable substitute for raising motor fuel taxes.  Not that it is ever going to happen.

[hbelkins]

The federal government and Congress need to put the states on notice that tolls at or near state borders are not an acceptable substitute for raising motor fuel taxes.  Not that it is ever going to happen.

Why would -- or should -- the feds have any say in what a state does with its own roads? Yes, FHWA has its rules on what can and cannot be signed as an interstate and how interstates can be tolled, but why can't states decide on their own if they want to toll existing non-interstates?

[cpzilliacus]

The federal government and Congress need to put the states on notice that tolls at or near state borders are not an acceptable substitute for raising motor fuel taxes.  Not that it is ever going to happen.

Why would -- or should -- the feds have any say in what a state does with its own roads? Yes, FHWA has its rules on what can and cannot be signed as an interstate and how interstates can be tolled, but why can't states decide on their own if they want to toll existing non-interstates?

If the road was built or maintained with federal money, then they feds do have a say-so in such matters.

I don't have a problem with tolls and tolling, especially since state and federal elected officials seem to be terrified of increasing motor fuel taxes. 

I do have a problem with Delaware Turnpike-style tolls, where the only traffic that is tolled is crossing a state line (though Delaware gets away with it because there were no federal dollars originally used to build that section of I-95). 

Tolling only traffic crossing a state line is a way for states to collect toll dollars from interstate traffic, thus (as far as those elected officials are concerned) tolling people that don't vote in their elections.

[cpzilliacus]

Maryland: O'Malley frustrated by lack of will to address transportation

Griping about gridlock is common in the Capital region, where commutes can last hours.

But Maryland lawmakers continue to struggle to offer a solution. And whether building more roads or expanding transit options, both require more revenue to refill the state's depleted Transportation Trust Fund.

During a year-end review with reporters this week, Governor Martin O'Malley expressed frustration with state legislators' unwillingness to boost the gas tax, which hasn't been increased since 1992.

O'Malley has set a goal of doubling the number of transit users by 2020.