LAST SUMMER, at least three columns discussed the county's traffic-calming strategy along St. Johns Lane in Ellicott City. Two weeks ago, residents of the Dunloggin neighborhood received a welcome surprise, and several sent me e-mail to tell me about it.

"They removed the triangle [medians] at the St. Johns Lane and Dunloggin Road intersection last Wednesday, the day before the big snow. The stop signs and painted triangles are still there, but I imagine the paint will fade with time. I'm so happy," said Donna Jayanathan.

I spoke with Bill Malone, chief of the traffic engineering division of the county Public Works Department, about the medians. He indicated that the snow did have something to do with the medians' removal.

"The medians were in fact removed because they were designed to deflect a 7-foot-wide vehicle, and were not designed to accommodate 10-foot-wide snowplows," Malone said, although he noted "there was room for them to get through."

Every fall, Howard County evaluates county-maintained roads to identify potential snow-removal problems, so the county cut it pretty close with this one.

According to Ron McCandless, another Dunloggin resident, "the St. Johns Community Association expressed our displeasure over [the medians] so maybe Howard County listened and did something about it."

Well yes, Mr. McCandless, you're partly correct. Malone also said that removing the medians was "what the community obviously wanted" and that their removal was also due to the county's efforts to "work with the community."

Malone also acknowledged that the medians were originally installed for traffic calming, "but that's not necessary if traffic is coming to a complete stop anyway" because of the four-way stop signs that were installed shortly after the medians were put in. So the medians were redundant."

Malone and his staff work with community residents to try to come up with solutions to residential speeding and other neighborhood traffic problems. Call me an apologist, but I applaud their efforts. Despite the temporary inconvenience, everyone seems happy now.

Common-sense exits

Two readers have issues with the new lane markings leading to the ramp from U.S. 29 north to Interstate 70. After the lanes were repaved, the lane markings for vehicles exiting east on I-70 "were revised without any warning, and, in my opinion, against common sense," said Columbia's Patrick Piet, who also calls this "an example of traffic planning at its worst."

Previously, the far-right lane was the exit-only lane for I-70 north, and the center lane split to allow motorists to continue north on U.S. 29 or exit to I-70 east. Now, only the right lane exits onto I-70 east.

Piet noted that drivers who have entered U.S. 29 north from U.S. 40 east wishing to continue north on U.S. 29 past the I-70 east exit "must now fight through a stream of vehicles that were accustomed to using the center lane of [U.S.] 29 to exit east on 70, but now find unexpectedly that they must merge into the one lane to exit, only to have the exit expand again to two lanes almost immediately.

"Another problem is that aggressive drivers are used to staying in the far left lane of [U.S.] 29 and cutting into the center lane at the last moment," Piet said. "Now these drivers find that they have to move over an additional lane, making the chances of an accident even greater."

Barry Schiffer also is concerned about the new lane markings. "I have seen several near-miss accidents occur as drivers have to push their way into an overcrowded right lane while the two left lanes are empty. The reason I am writing, this morning was another near-accident that came far too close to me for comfort," he wrote in an e-mail last week.

"If I were a betting man, I'd lay odds that someone is going to die out there sooner rather than later," he said.

Good news: The State Highway Administration is aware of your concerns about the "weaving problem" there and will be making changes. According to David Buck, an SHA spokesman, these lane markings will be changed back to the way they were originally "soon, within six weeks or so," weather permitting. The catch is that because of the traffic volume on that stretch, work should be completed only at night, and only it is above freezing.

"If that doesn't happen by January, we may try to do the work during the day," he said, despite the grief that could cause daytime motorists.

Buck also said that the "current striping pattern" was necessary to accommodate the work zones in the median and "gore" area -- the grassy area beyond where the ramp to where I-70 east veers away from U.S. 29 north.

"We realize that our 'phase of project' can cause short-term grief for motorists," Buck said. But he emphasized that SHA's traffic engineers always try to find the best and safest possible solutions to problems posed by narrowing lanes and other constraints in work zones, and often have to take into consideration issues that may not be readily apparent to motorists.

What's your traffic trauma? Contact Jody K. Vilschick at elison@us.net or send faxes to 410-715-2816. Technophobes can mail letters to Traffic Talk, The Sun in Howard County, 5570 Sterrett Place, Suite 300, Columbia 21044.