Aaa Mid Atlantic

SOME OF you might have noticed a change recently in the signal pattern at Route 99 and Maplewood Drive. Dave Buck of the State Highway Administration's communications office said the signal, which was installed almost a year and a half ago at the request of a nearby elementary school, was switched about two weeks ago. When installed, the signal was flashing most of the time, operating only at peak times in the morning and afternoon on weekdays. Now, it is a "fully actuated" signal from early Monday through the rush hour Friday.

The Easter weekend has brought rising gasoline prices — and many Maryland drivers are hitting the brakes. Home health care aide Jennifer Wofford has limited the number of patients she's seeing. Maeghan Thomas is cutting down on going out. More people are using mass transit. And AAA Mid-Atlantic is receiving more roadside calls for assistance from drivers who have run out of gas. Over the past week, prices continued what looks like an inexorable march toward the $4 mark. Maryland prices rose 3 cents to match the national average for a gallon of regular of $3.85 — a dollar more than last year at this time.

For her last spring break next week, Morgan State University senior Tenisha Duke planned a road trip to Florida with friends, the eight of them packed in two cars. That way, they could split the cost of gas. But when violence broke out half a world away, sending gas prices here soaring, even that strategy wasn't frugal enough for Duke. She will be spending her break at her District of Columbia home instead of the beach. "I'll be home," said Duke, who spends $80 a week on gas to commute to Morgan State's North Baltimore campus.

Some red-light camera programs around Maryland might soon have to worry about keeping themselves out of the red. Although larger jurisdictions such as Baltimore City and Montgomery County have steadily expanded their programs and are reaping increasing returns from $75 fines for red-light violations, some cities and counties are experiencing a steady drop in citations and revenue. And some localities, particularly those with only a few cameras, are considering cutting back or dropping their programs altogether.

Thanksgiving travelers surely knew they were in trouble from the moment officials in Delaware announced that everyone should try to avoid Interstate 95 from now through Sunday. That section of Delaware is bad enough, but with construction at the Newark toll plaza and the loss of three of nine travel lanes, holiday traffic will move slower than the last few Brussels sprouts sitting on the holiday table. Thinking about getting in a car Wednesday? The gloom-and-doom prediction for traffic is getting to be as bad as local TV stations' perennial hype about wintry weather every time a few flurries are in the forecast.

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.

As Maryland drivers cruise into the Fourth of July holiday weekend, they can think of their gas tanks as either half-empty or half-full. By historical standards, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline here remains high: $3.56 on Friday, up a third from $2.70 on the same date a year ago, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. But compared with a week ago or a month ago — and especially when measured against the near-record $4.04 registered on May 12 — the current price looks like blessed relief.

"Gas prices are outrageous. " Catherine Bell, a 66-year-old Social Security Administration retiree, was not happy Tuesday as she filled up her Chrysler at a Howard Street BP Amoco gas station in Baltimore. "You'll see when you get to retirement and you're on a fixed income. " The Baltimore resident reflects the feeling of a lot of Maryland motorists. Gasoline prices across the state and the nation are climbing fast, and motorists could see $4 a gallon at the pump in the coming months, fueled by demand in China and India and turmoil in the oil-rich Middle East, analysts say. The average price of regular unleaded gasoline in Maryland this month was $3.56 a gallon - nearly 20 cents more than in January and far above the $1.91 average in February three years ago. In Baltimore, the price averaged $3.59 last week, 50 cents more than a year ago, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Taking to the roads this week for Thanksgiving is shaping up to be a grueling experience, especially for motorists headed north on Interstate 95. While the weather is expected to be pleasant and sunny, the forecast from Delaware is decidedly bleak, with that state's transportation officials suggesting travelers avoid going through the Newark Toll Plaza for much of the holiday weekend. Robert King, a spokesman for the Delaware Department of Transportation, said the northbound toll plaza will be down to six lanes instead of the normal nine because of a reconstruction project that is intended to make traffic flow through the notorious bottleneck better — starting in the summer of 2011.

There are few more joyful sights in the world than a big old dog sticking its head out a car window with a goofy grin, its tongue hanging out and its ears flapping in the breeze. Up until about 15 years ago, that was me in the driver's seat and a golden retriever named Gusty riding behind. A survey released last week brought that image to mind. It showed that dog owners, a group to which I once belonged, by and large do as I once did: They let the animal ride without restraint. After all, who would put a seat belt on a dog?