Two days before Christmas, hundreds of motorists in Harford County found out that the Grinch has taken up a new career in traffic engineering when they became trapped in strip mall parking lot off Route 24 in Abingdon for involuntary stays of two hours or more.
According to a Maryland State Police duty officer, the lot at the Constant Friendship Shopping center was jammed by a influx of holiday shoppers that overwhelmed the capacity of the single exit onto Tollgate Road just off 24.
Maryland Transportation Authority
A reader in Abingdon thought structural changes to Route 24 could be the problem. Here's the message:
I first asked the State Highway Administration for information because 24 is generally under its jurisdiction. But the SHA pointed make to the Maryland Transportation Authority because the road work affecting that area is part of the toll authority's project to improve the interchange at Interstate 95 and 24 to create better traffic flow on northbound I-95. (The interstate in that area is part of the tolled John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway.)
Authority spokeswoman Teri Moss graciously provided a detailed explanation of the project and its affect on traffic in the area:
I'm not going to pretend any familiarity with this shopping center because I don't get out to Harford all that often, but from examining a satellite image on Google Maps, it appears to be a traffic nightmare waiting to happen. You have several big-box stores surrounded by ample parking with only Constant Friendship Boulevard to let people out. It's easy to see that an exit directly from Constant Friendship would join 24 too close to 24. But why planners didn't insist the developers create a second exit onto Winters Run Road -- at least temporarily -- is beyond me. The core problem here appears to be sprawl run amok. Once that happens, it's difficult to fix.
Anyone up that way want to set me straight?