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Post by emsguru on Jul 17, 2015 10:59:02 GMT -4
www.qac.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=241QAC Asks Governor to Step-In and Step-Up Efforts to Solve Kent Island Gridlock Bridge Gridlock.jpg “Gridlock on Kent Island means that we need to get going on at least the planning part of this immediately, not sometime in the future,” said Commission Stephen Wilson. The County Commissioners sent a letter to Governor Hogan and Transportation Secretary Pete K. Rahn requesting that the state step in and step up efforts to alleviate the traffic snarls due to transient traffic through our county. “Our citizens are regularly gridlocked by traffic traversing part of the county, such that emergency vehicles, fire and ambulance, are detained; the citizens prevented from leaving and returning to their homes; and our jurisdiction otherwise subjected to persistent inconvenience and jeopardy,” states the letter. Maryland is unique in being divided by a geographical feature, the Chesapeake Bay. This transection is only connected at a single point, midway, by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The traffic burden of this single facility crosses Kent Island, Queen Anne's most densely populated area, on its way from the metropolitan centers to the ocean. The flow proceeds on the only road crossing Kent Island, Route 50; and, as a result of the island's geography, when that highway stalls, it creates perilous circumstances for the safety and well-being of the 20,000 local citizens. Following years of persistent increases in traffic, gridlock is now occurring quite regularly over parts of Route 50 as it passes through Kent Island and down to Route 404 and it will incrementally continue to increase. Traffic flows are now very close to peak capacity both on the Bridge and on this section of highway, leading even minor impediments to cascade into freeze-ups. Our County government is well aware that traffic difficulties and inconvenience are a statewide issue, but our unique situation now exceeds the usual rationalizations of trade and convenience. With no hospital, our medical recourse depends on rapid access, and that is now regularly denied by the quantity of traffic we experience. “So we are requesting removal from the normal queue of Maryland road projects, and ask to be given fast-track in both design and execution of a system to alleviate our increasing difficulties, particularly in the Kent Island corridor,” states the letter. “We are appreciative of the attentions to transportation that are even now in existence, but in the interest of our citizens, and in fairness, we hope you will exert a more timely and forceful response than what is now in prospect.”
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Post by mrb2217 on Jul 19, 2015 18:00:07 GMT -4
This is a letter that should have been sent years ago. It's about time the state quit building in PG and Montgomery (ICC, Purple Line etc.) and do something for this part of the state. I would have rather seen the Purple Line killed and another bay crossing built. Of course this is all wishful thinking since we all know another bay crossing will never get done.....
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Post by emsguru on Jul 19, 2015 21:35:57 GMT -4
This is a letter that should have been sent years ago. It's about time the state quit building in PG and Montgomery (ICC, Purple Line etc.) and do something for this part of the state. I would have rather seen the Purple Line killed and another bay crossing built. Of course this is all wishful thinking since we all know another bay crossing will never get done..... To be a devils advocate here. The capital beltway is a parking lot twice a day for hours at a time. Our island is a parking lot a few times a month in the summer and a handful of times the rest of the year.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2015 9:06:57 GMT -4
The picture used in the link above says it all, it's all about the bay bridge. A third span across the bay is needed, that's the real long term solution to alleviate the traffic congestion here. The first span opened in 1952, the second span in 1973, that was 42 years ago, there's been a whole lot of growth and increases in traffic since then. In 42 years, how many times has I-495 and I-695 beltways, I-270, I-95 been expanded in that time...a lot. When's the last time you heard any discussion on building a third span...here, there or somewhere. It's the real problem that is not being addressed.
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Post by kidoode on Jul 20, 2015 9:20:20 GMT -4
Reach the Beach le deaux?
Third span is the needed, but very likely not affordable. Definitely not with the reduced toll structure. Meantime, it would help if the tourists would actually drive over the bridge at speed, instead of using it as a sightseeing opportunity. Be good if they learned to merge at speed too.
Doode
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Post by cruzincat on Jul 20, 2015 9:27:28 GMT -4
This is a letter that should have been sent years ago. It's about time the state quit building in PG and Montgomery (ICC, Purple Line etc.) and do something for this part of the state. I would have rather seen the Purple Line killed and another bay crossing built. Of course this is all wishful thinking since we all know another bay crossing will never get done..... To be a devils advocate here. The capital beltway is a parking lot twice a day for hours at a time. Our island is a parking lot a few times a month in the summer and a handful of times the rest of the year. If you make the assumption that mass transit in Washington has been installed in order to alleviate roadway congestion, the money is being wasted. It remains inconvenient for most people to use mass transit, for various reasons. The cost it takes to get one car off the beltway per day, by building mass transit options is probably a whole lot more than it would take just to build the roads to handle the traffic.
In the case of a major bottleneck like KI, for those travelling from one shore to the other, building the infrastructure of a mass transit system would be next to impossible, since everyone's starting and end points are so different. The cost would be prohibitive, relative to the cost of widening the roads and/or adding bridges.
I am not against mass transit. In fact, I am looking forward to my retirement years when I can get on a bus on KI on a weekday and go to the Washington Mall on a weekday, at less than the cost of parking my car there. But right now, I cannot make use of it for commuting, because it just doesn't work for me. If it did I would use it.
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Post by cruzincat on Jul 20, 2015 9:41:06 GMT -4
Then again, there is the "If you build it they will come" mentality, whereas, if you make a commute too easy, more people will locate to that area. There are a lot of people, no matter how long they have lived here, who do not want any more people to move here. Of course these same (type of) people don't want a third span built somewhere else if it connects the western shore to where they live. I guess they would rather force these other folks to live on top of each other over there, rather than live near them here, or see more businesses locate here with jobs
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Post by mrb2217 on Jul 20, 2015 16:13:23 GMT -4
This is a letter that should have been sent years ago. It's about time the state quit building in PG and Montgomery (ICC, Purple Line etc.) and do something for this part of the state. I would have rather seen the Purple Line killed and another bay crossing built. Of course this is all wishful thinking since we all know another bay crossing will never get done..... To be a devils advocate here. The capital beltway is a parking lot twice a day for hours at a time. Our island is a parking lot a few times a month in the summer and a handful of times the rest of the year. I can see your point and I agree that the beltway is a mess most days and I travel it nearly everyday but the difference between the two is that there are multiple ways to go to avoid the beltway during a backup. Not so for us here on Kent Island. I can live and deal with traffic as long as it stays on Rt 50 but I can't stand when 18 and all the other local roads are jammed because people want to jump off of rt 50 and "take a short cut". It should not take me 20 minutes to get from Safeway to Dominion Rd on a Sunday afternoon. But like I said before this is all a moot point since a third span will never get built due to cost (which I can understand to point) and the O'Malley excuse "environmental impact".
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Post by RobMoore on Jul 21, 2015 12:05:02 GMT -4
You want to know how to improve traffic at a cost MUCH lower than building a new span?
Remove the toll booths and raise the speed limit to 65.
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Post by ravens20 on Jul 21, 2015 14:25:00 GMT -4
You want to know how to improve traffic at a cost MUCH lower than building a new span? Remove the toll booths and raise the speed limit to 65. And ticket people that cruise in the left lane.
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Post by kidoode on Jul 21, 2015 16:16:56 GMT -4
You want to know how to improve traffic at a cost MUCH lower than building a new span? Remove the toll booths and raise the speed limit to 65. Didn't work westbound. Toll booths aren't the problem, the real backups east bound are due to lack of lane capacity, especially when there are only two. 65 is a nice speed, and we get there most mornings. Do you really want to run with tourists at that speed? Hell, they can't do 40 uphill now. Need more lanes and better trained drivers.
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Post by RobMoore on Jul 21, 2015 21:42:41 GMT -4
Those "tourists" don't drive any worse than the locals.
Traffic is like fluid through a pipe. If you want to increase the volume but can't increase the diameter, you have to increase the speed.
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Post by oriolesfan on Jul 22, 2015 5:25:11 GMT -4
Raising the speed won't fix anything when it's the sightseeing and driving and taking pictures on the bridge which starts the slow down to begin with.
Even if it's 75 people are going to do 40 to take their pictures
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Post by RobMoore on Jul 22, 2015 7:45:55 GMT -4
Easy fix. Raise the side barriers above 6 feet. As a motorcyclist I sure would appreciate this. They don't have have to be concrete all the way up, just some opaque material to prevent looking out over the side.
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Post by cranky64 on Jul 22, 2015 9:08:36 GMT -4
The only trouble with increasing the speed is that is also increases the severity of a crash and the possibility of a shove off. I drive this thing 5-6 days a week and I cannot confirm nor deny that I drive over the speed limit. As one mentioned the bridge reaches capacity and at this point the speed only slows down. You can't make it go any Faster.
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Post by alleycat on Jul 22, 2015 9:49:53 GMT -4
Easy fix. Raise the side barriers above 6 feet. As a motorcyclist I sure would appreciate this. They don't have have to be concrete all the way up, just some opaque material to prevent looking out over the side. Takes all the pleasure out of it for the rest of us. Maybe they should have turnouts for scenic view photography. ;-)
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Post by pineapple head on Jul 22, 2015 9:55:37 GMT -4
Easy fix. Raise the side barriers above 6 feet. As a motorcyclist I sure would appreciate this. They don't have have to be concrete all the way up, just some opaque material to prevent looking out over the side. I've said this for a long time. The narrow green posts found at various locations on the beltway, which look like a wall at speed, would work great. ... Hey look, a boat!
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Post by RobMoore on Jul 22, 2015 10:12:37 GMT -4
The only trouble with increasing the speed is that is also increases the severity of a crash and the possibility of a shove off. I drive this thing 5-6 days a week and I cannot confirm nor deny that I drive over the speed limit. As one mentioned the bridge reaches capacity and at this point the speed only slows down. You can't make it go any Faster. Traffic jams don't automatically happen because of volume. They happen as the speed of the left lane decreases. With higher volume increases the likelihood that someone is going slow in the left lane that everyone cannot get around. Once all three lanes are going the same speed everyone behind them has to go slightly slower and slightly slower and slightly slower, and then you have a traffic jam. I think we have all been on the DC beltway, or even the Baltimore Beltway, when traffic was thick the left lane was still going 80 or 85. Then you get one person who goes 55 over there and you have back up for miles. Have you ever been in thick traffic that just suddenly broke up and you can start going faster again for no explainable reason? On a bike I am more able to work my way up to the front of those. I see what is at the front. And normally it's someone talking on their phone in the left-hand lane going the speed limit.
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Post by kidoode on Jul 22, 2015 17:45:06 GMT -4
Easy fix. Raise the side barriers above 6 feet. As a motorcyclist I sure would appreciate this. They don't have have to be concrete all the way up, just some opaque material to prevent looking out over the side. Little disconcerting the fist time over on a bike and you realize the jersey wall is only about as high as your hip. Definitely makes you move to the left third of the lane. Opaque material was tried on the two lane bridge at the curve a couple years ago and was no help. Need big signs that say "STEP ON THE d**n GAS"
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Post by cranky64 on Jul 22, 2015 17:56:14 GMT -4
If the speed stays constant and the volume increases the backups will form. To alleviate the backup the speed will need to increase on a constant with the volume. There is no way to fix this other than another span somewhere. My big gripe is the people on 18 thinking they will save 48 seconds by clogging our roads in a backup.
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kisinceiwas5
Full Member
Chuck Norris CAN touch MC Hammer.
Posts: 230
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Post by kisinceiwas5 on Aug 31, 2015 10:36:19 GMT -4
Build a tunnel? Baltimore City has two... Maybe a Tunnel from Baltimore to Rock Hall haha
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Post by island21638 on Sept 28, 2015 19:32:10 GMT -4
One item to do is the same as they do in Annapolis, post for local traffic only on the side streets. Keep the side roads parallel to 50 open on the weekends for emergency and local traffic only. I got pulled over going east before the bridge for this. I was leaving a friends house so nothing they could do
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Post by rdkntriker on Sept 28, 2015 20:55:55 GMT -4
One item to do is the same as they do in Annapolis, post for local traffic only on the side streets. Keep the side roads parallel to 50 open on the weekends for emergency and local traffic only. I got pulled over going east before the bridge for this. I was leaving a friends house so nothing they could do I may be wrong, but I believe they had to remove those signs.
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Post by oriolesfan on Sept 29, 2015 14:33:00 GMT -4
One item to do is the same as they do in Annapolis, post for local traffic only on the side streets. Keep the side roads parallel to 50 open on the weekends for emergency and local traffic only. I got pulled over going east before the bridge for this. I was leaving a friends house so nothing they could do Unenforceable
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