Aaa Mid Atlantic

Maryland has joined a club to which most don't want to belong: States where the average gas price is $4 or more per gallon. According to AAA Mid-Atlantic Thursday, Maryland's average gas price hit $4 a gallon, or 6 cents than the national average. In Baltimore, motorists pay an average of $3.99 a gallon, down from $3.65 a year ago. The difference between gas prices across the state is about 50 cents. The priciest fuel, at $4.30 a gallon, is sold in Bethesda; while motorists can find gas as low as $3.80 per gallon in Kennedyville on the Upper Eastern Shore to Ridgely in Caroline County, AAA reported.

On Memorial Day weekends, Kim Yates and Albert Kullman measure success by speed. Yates steers her bright yellow tow truck toward trouble, with the goal of getting disabled vehicles out of the roadway or back in business before traffic has time to clog. From his toll booth at the Bay Bridge, Kullman can make change for a $10 or $20 in under 12 seconds. "We want you on your way," Yates said. "Safely. " The summer season kicks off this weekend when 718,200 Marylanders are expected to leave town for the beach or mountains, 1.2 percent fewer than a year ago, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Mara Kaminowitz knows the roads. That's why the professional mapmaker and her husband will be taking the train to New York City to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. "That's our strategy for how to deal with holiday traffic - avoid I-95 at all costs," said Kaminowitz, a Columbia resident who works as a mapmaker for the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, which studies regional issues including transportation. Marylanders will begin heading for the exits this weekend, kicking off the traditional trek to somewhere else to gorge on food and fellowship.

With rampant abuses of automated speed enforcement camera systems across the state well-documented by the news media and AAA Mid-Atlantic, the House Environmental Matters Committee on Tuesday is poised to review a series of bills to fix a broken system. AAA Mid-Atlantic worked with the legislature in 2005 to launch Maryland's first automated speed enforcement program in residential areas and school zones in Montgomery County. Again in 2009, we were before the legislature supporting the expansion of automated speed enforcement camera systems statewide for use in work and school zones.

The average price of gasoline in Maryland has climbed to a two-year high, mirroring higher prices at the pump nationwide, according to a report Tuesday from AAA Mid-Atlantic. The nonprofit automotive travelers association noted that the rise in gasoline prices could discourage travel during the holiday season. In Maryland, the average price climbed to $2.98 a gallon, while prices in Cumberland and Hagerstown have already surpassed the $3 mark, AAA Mid-Atlantic said. Nationally, the average price of gasoline was $2.96 a gallon, a 777-day high.

An Ellicott City man who bilked AAA Mid-Atlantic of Westminster out of $3,600 last summer in a counterfeit check scheme was given a one-year suspended jail sentence and placed on four years of probation in Carroll County Circuit Court yesterday.Anthony J. Greiner, 28, must pay restitution within 18 months and agreed to forfeit a computer and printer that he used to produce the counterfeit check bearing the name of a bogus business.Prosecutors said Greiner purchased travelers' checks from AAA Mid-Atlantic with the counterfeit check and cashed them.

Marylanders may be bucking a holiday travel trend. Despite predictions that July 4th travel will be down nearly 2 percent nationwide, the number of Marylanders expected to travel this holiday weekend will dip - but only by about half of 1 percent, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. About 709,000 Maryland residents will travel 50 miles or more round trip this holiday weekend, with the majority - 633,000 - doing so by car. Still, that number is about 1 percent lower than last year. Air travel appears to be making up the difference, with an increase of 7.7 percent in holiday fliers.

AAA Mid-Atlantic is moving a call and operations center with 250 jobs from Elkton to Newark, Del., a decision that blindsided local and state economic development leaders. The company, best known for roadside assistance, announced the change yesterday and said the relocation was tacked on to a deal to move its headquarters from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Del. AAA Mid-Atlantic was lured by a $6 million performance-based strategic grant from Delaware and about $1 million in incentives from the city of Wilmington.

An Ellicott City man pleaded guilty in Carroll County Circuit Court yesterday to stealing $3,600 in travelers' checks he purchased with a counterfeit check made on his home computer.Anthony J. Greiner, 28, will be sentenced Aug. 21. Prosecutor David Daggett asked Judge Francis M. Arnold to order a presentence investigation to "find out what's happening [with the defendant]."This [scheme] was fairly complicated, well thought out, and [the reproduction of the check was] very realistic," Daggett said.

Banking and finance * SunTrust Bank Mid-Atlantic named A. David Horsman as group manager for commercial real estate in Virginia, Washington and Maryland. * The Columbia Bank appointed David L. Wheeler as senior vice president of branch banking for the Howard County-based institution. He is responsible for the daily operations of 15 branch offices in four counties. * Merrill Lynch & Co. appointed Ryan C.A. Kirby as associate resident director of its Salisbury office. Insurance * AAA Mid-Atlantic selected Donald R. Gagnon as chief executive officer of AAA Mid-Atlantic and the AAA Mid-Atlantic Insurance Co. Professional services * Frederick Ward Associates said Chuck Cooper has joined the architectural division of the Bel Air firm as a senior project manager.

Although the program's suspension was announced in July, AAA Mid-Atlantic would like to remind Marylanders that the free Tipsy?Taxi! service will not run this New Year's Eve, says Public and Government Affairs Manager Ragina C. Averella. The last Tipsy?Taxi! service provided in Maryland was for July 4 of this year. The service was established in 2006, and it gave free taxi rides during popular holidays known for their partying. Averella says one of the main reasons for the suspension was lack of funding.

AAA Mid-Atlantic says Baltimore's speed camera "nightmare" was one of the transportation lows of 2012, though the driver advocacy group credited a similar program run by the State Highway Administration with helping to improve safety in construction zones. "The troubles with Baltimore's speed camera system have raised the eyebrows of motorists, legislators and traffic safety advocates and have truly called the integrity of the City's entire program into question," AAA spokeswoman Ragina Averella said in a news release Thursday.

It was so quiet at BWI Marshall Airport Saturday morning, you could hear a little girl in pink singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" as she and her family awaited their luggage at Carousel 3. Unlike the two days leading up to Thanksgiving, when the way out of town was clogged and people were so uptight you could have driven nails with their bodies, Saturday was as relaxed as a pair of jammies with feet. Returning passengers congratulated themselves on their scheduling choice.

Mara Kaminowitz knows the roads. That's why the professional mapmaker and her husband will be taking the train to New York City to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. "That's our strategy for how to deal with holiday traffic - avoid I-95 at all costs," said Kaminowitz, a Columbia resident who works as a mapmaker for the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, which studies regional issues including transportation. Marylanders will begin heading for the exits this weekend, kicking off the traditional trek to somewhere else to gorge on food and fellowship.

With the announcement by Comptroller Peter Franchot last week that the state of Maryland has a $500 million surplus ("State budget surplus greater than expected," Sept. 1), AAA Mid-Atlantic is calling upon Gov. Martin O'Malley and Comptroller Franchot to work together on a plan to dedicate those funds to transportation and return them to the state's Transportation Trust Fund, which is used to fund Maryland's roads and mass transit projects. We have a terrible transportation funding crisis in the state that is so bad that the governor and the legislature impaneled a Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation Funding to spend over a year examining the issues and make recommendations, which it did in its final report of November, 2011.

More Marylanders will be celebrating July Fourth away from home this year, according to AAA, which is forecasting the steepest increase in travel in more than a decade. An estimated 846,000 Marylanders will travel at least 50 miles to their destinations, a 5.3 percent increase from last year, and the majority will drive, the organization said Thursday. Because the holiday falls on a Wednesday, AAA projected six days of travel — one more than last year. Decreasing gas prices are the likely explanation behind the increase in drivers.

What many Baltimore-area drivers have been experiencing this week is now official: The average price of gasoline is under $3. AAA Mid-Atlantic reported yesterday that the average price of regular gas in the Baltimore region dropped to $2.97 from $3.02 Thursday. The statewide average, propped up by higher prices in the Washington suburbs, remains barely above the three-buck line at $3.01. If current trends continue, that average would slip below $3 this weekend. As of last night, some of lowest gas prices in the Baltimore area were spotted in Essex, Reisterstown and Glen Burnie, where regular fuel sold for $2.79 a gallon at a Liberty station, according to marylandgasprices.

The staycation is no match for Grandma this Thanksgiving. The number of Marylanders traveling for the holiday is expected to increase by more than 4 percent over last year, AAA Mid-Atlantic said Friday, with the majority going by car, bus or train. The auto club projected 794,000 people would travel 50 miles or more round trip for Thanksgiving, despite economic concerns. "Although Maryland's unemployment rate continues to remain at a high level and many residents are still experiencing financial hardship, it seems Marylanders have a more positive outlook this year and do not want to miss the opportunity to spend time with loved ones on Thanksgiving Day," said Ragina C. Averella, spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, in a news release.

State transportation officials hope you'll do a lot of sightseeing this Memorial Day weekend. Just not on the Bay Bridge. Travelers headed to the Eastern Shore for the first time since last summer might be surprised. For one thing, the toll has risen to $4 from $2.50. For another, the westbound span is being painted for the first time since it opened in 1973, and scaffolding is likely to be a distraction — and potential hot spot for fender-benders. "You're sightseeing. They're sightseeing.

Maryland has joined a club to which most don't want to belong: States where the average gas price is $4 or more per gallon. According to AAA Mid-Atlantic Thursday, Maryland's average gas price hit $4 a gallon, or 6 cents than the national average. In Baltimore, motorists pay an average of $3.99 a gallon, down from $3.65 a year ago. The difference between gas prices across the state is about 50 cents. The priciest fuel, at $4.30 a gallon, is sold in Bethesda; while motorists can find gas as low as $3.80 per gallon in Kennedyville on the Upper Eastern Shore to Ridgely in Caroline County, AAA reported.