We are proud to announce our sanity.
A couple of weeks back, such a claim seemed unimaginable.
Intrepid Commuter had endured too many questions concerning traffic signals, too many accident reports, too many extended conversations with Darrell "Traffic King" Wiles. Sleeplessness, extended fits of inappropriate yodeling, and a loss of memory (do they call that middle light amber or yellow?) were the result.
So we took time off from columnizing, collected our wits, attended the appropriate self-help group, and checked into one of our favorite haunts. After completing the necessary paperwork, we were voluntarily released.
Thus, we are ready to aid Owings Mills commuters, a group not normally associated with the word "sanity." Specifically, we are focusing on Carol Roeder's unfortunate encounters with left turns on Reisterstown Road near Painters Mill Road.
For those unfamiliar with that address, here's the rundown. Reisterstown Road is five lanes for most of this area, two lanes in each direction and a shared center turn lane.
But for 685 feet -- the distance south from Painters Mill to St. Thomas Lane -- the road is different. The center lane is usurped as a dedicated left-turn lane for northbound Reisterstown Road traffic.
The change makes sense. Painters Mill is a popular left turn. But the result is that if a motorist southbound on Reisterstown wants to turn left into C.J.'s restaurant, a dry cleaners or a couple of fast-food outlets -- all located on that 685-foot strip -- they can't use the center turn lane.
Instead, the cars must turn from the left through lane, holding up traffic and causing conflicts as other southbound motorists try to get past them. Ms. Roeder has seen numerous accidents and near misses in the area, all related to the left turns.
"My solution," she writes, "is to put up a barrier between the north-and southbound lanes from Painters Mill to just north of St. Thomas."
"There is a barrier just north of this area at Owings Mills Boulevard so I know it can be done," she adds.
We forwarded Ms. Roeder's recommendation to who else but the aforementioned Mr. Wiles of the State Highway Administration. After careful consideration over a two-month period, including a traffic count and a review of police accident reports, he has decided not to erect the barrier.
But he agrees the situation is a hazard. In a two-hour period, his crew spotted 60 vehicles making the left turn from southbound Reisterstown. Yet, prohibiting the left turn would create a hardship for the businesses along that strip.
He also questions how dangerous the situation has become. Police counted three southbound accidents there last year, two involving a left turn and one a sideswipe. None produced injury. That isn't a high accident rate for the volume of traffic on Reisterstown.
Essentially, there are two potential solutions -- create the barrier Ms. Roeder recommends or widen Reisterstown Road. Mr. Wiles believes neither course is justified.
"Her points are good ones, but you have to ask, 'Does the problem warrant the expenditure?' " Mr. Wiles says. "It also raises the issue about maintaining convenient access to the businesses."
The Owings Mills Boulevard barrier did not interfere with access to local business, he notes.
Mr. Wiles says his office will continue to watch the situation to see if the problem worsens.
I-95 traffic sees between the lines
Nancy Swierk is seeing double.
Nancy Swierk is seeing double.
Normally, we would pass such a problem to another columnist, The Intrepid Ophthalmologist, perhaps, until we realized that we have seen double, too.
Driving south on Interstate 95 near the Chesapeake House in Cecil County not too long ago, the Owings Mills resident was annoyed to discover two sets of lane markers. There were newer, shorter ones and older, longer ones six to eight inches apart.
"It drives a driver crazy," Ms. Swierk says. "If they were repainting lines, they really missed the spot.
"Of course," she adds, "if they tell me there aren't two sets of lines then I'm in trouble."
We confronted officials at the Maryland Transportation Authority, which maintains I-95 north of Baltimore.
It turns out that this double line thing occurs frequently. It's a result of pavement resurfacing.
Here's how it works -- at least according to Jack Moeller, the authority's director of engineering:
When a contractor resurfaces, he generally puts down temporary lane markers made of adhesive plastic until permanent marks are painted.
He can't put the temporary markers in exactly the right spot. Otherwise, they would get in the way of painting crews. So they are often six to eight inches off.
When the lines are finally painted, it takes time for workers to return and pull up the temporary markings by hand. During that period, you see double.
The authority recently finished resurfacing I-95 from the Susquehanna River to the Delaware line.