Park And Ride

IT SOMETIMES amazes your Intrepid One how many comments come in about commuting and travel issues. But this seemed like a good time, dear drivers, to open the mailbag and share comments.On the matter of commuter parking lots -- particularly crime at Mass Transit Administration Park and Ride areas, as highlighted in last week's column -- a letter arrived Wednesday spelling out a problem at a Carney Park and Ride.Helen M. Erdman parked there in December to attend a Ravens game at Memorial Stadium, only to return and find her rear passenger window smashed in a halfhearted, unsuccessful attempt to steal her compact disc player.

The State Highway Administration will more than double the number of parking spots at the Davidsonville Park and Ride lot, a move officials say is a response to increased demand. Plans call for adding 240 spaces to the 210 now there. Construction, likely to start next summer, is expected to be completed next fall, said SHA spokesman David Buck. Some days the free lot — on Route 424 off U.S. 50 — is so full that drivers who don't find a space leave vehicles lined up along the lot's inner curbs and grassy islands.

SECOND AND 10.That's what traffic engineers face Aug. 24 when they get another chance to please Ravens fans migrating to the big birds' nest at Camden Yards for the team's National Football League exhibition game against the Eagles.What happened before the Aug. 8 exhibition opener can only be described as caged madness as gridlock touched air, land and water.Let's go to the videotape: A perilous traffic jam clogged the air as news helicopters and fixed-wing airplanes towing advertising banners flew 400 to 1,000 feet above the 185-foot-high top deck of the yet-to-be-named stadium; long, slow-moving lines jammed water taxi stands; and in the now-infamous light rail debacle, the little transit system that couldn't stranded thousands of riders before and after the game.

Maryland State Police say a 26-year-old Pikesville man has been charged in connection with a June crash at an I-70 park-and-ride that killed two. State police say Donneil Raeburn, 26, was indicted on charges including negligent manslaughter by auto, negligent homicide by auto and driving under the influence of alcohol. State police say he was arrested at his Pikesville home Sunday and is being held on $100,000 bond. The crash killed Mary-Kathryn Abernathy, 21, of Columbia, and Jonathan Henderson, 20, of La Plata.

Maryland State Police say a 26-year-old Pikesville man has been charged in connection with a June crash at an I-70 park-and-ride that killed two. State police say Donneil Raeburn, 26, was indicted on charges including negligent manslaughter by auto, negligent homicide by auto and driving under the influence of alcohol. State police say he was arrested at his Pikesville home Sunday and is being held on $100,000 bond. The crash killed Mary-Kathryn Abernathy, 21, of Columbia, and Jonathan Henderson, 20, of La Plata.

The State Highway Administration has completed the 416-space park-and-ride lot along Maryland Route 216, Scaggsville Road in Howard County.The project also includes an access road with acceleration and deceleration lanes along Route 216 west of U.S. 29 to accommodate park-and-ride traffic and lighting.The Mass Transit Administration's 929 Bus Route, Columbia to Silver Spring to Washington, will begin operating from the lot today. The park-and-ride replaces the stop across the street off U.S. 29. The schedule and one-way $3 fare remain the same.

Howard County commuters will have a new 325-space lot to use at the park-and-ride near the Route 32 and Broken Land Parkway interchange by the end of this year, state transportation officials say.The $1.3 million project, which begins this month, also will include a left turn lane from Broken Land Parkway south into the new lot and a 910-foot-long pedestrian walkway over Broken Land Parkway connecting the new lot with the existing park-and-ride lot at...

Michael Gill took the park-and-ride bus from Glen Burnie to the Ravens' new stadium on the strong advice of his aunt, Linda Shipp.Chris Northcutt said she kind of stumbled into the park-and- ride journey from Glen Burnie to the stadium.Tom Frock made the park-and-ride trip from Glen Burnie out of a habit developed when Baltimore's football team played at Memorial Stadium.The bus left on time at 5 p.m. and traveled the beltway to Interstate 95 to Washington Boulevard to a lot at Ostend and Ridgely streets.

With the Orioles and Ravens scheduled to play home games tomorrow, Mass Transit Administration officials have designated parking areas to make it easier for fans using public transportation to attend the games.Express buses to the football game at Memorial Stadium will leave park and ride lots beginning three hours before the 7: 30 p.m. kickoff. Fares range between $5 and $6 per rider, and two children may ride free when an accompanying adult pays full fare.To Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the MTA offers light rail service every 15 minutes from the Timonium and Cromwell/Glen Burnie stations.

The Mass Transit Administration has scheduled special Preakness service so that fans can avoid driving to and from Pimlico Race Course tomorrow.The Baltimore Metro will be running 8 a.m. to midnight, and a special shuttle will be running between the Rogers Avenue station and the racetrack. The Metro's base fare is $1.10, and transfers will be issued and accepted.Six regular MTA bus lines pass by Pimlico, and three special Park and Ride buses will also be operating from the Poly/Western complex on Cold Spring Lane, Providence Road Park and Ride lot at Exit 28 off the Baltimore Beltway and from the Timonium Park and Ride lot on Deereco Road.

The State Highway Administration has announced plans to reconfigure traffic patterns between the park-and-ride lot at the eastern terminus of Interstate 70 and the Beltway to slow vehicles and deter illegal street racing. The decision to rework that section of I-70, where low traffic volume at night often attracts racers and spectators, comes on the heels of a crash June 21 in which two people were killed and two critically injured after a vehicle that had apparently been racing went out of control and left the road.

Of the eight possible sites for a new and larger park-and-ride at Interstate 95 and Route 152 in Joppa, state transportation officials' favorite is the least popular with residents. The preferred site is a nearly 10-acre wooded parcel just north of the interstate. "That is 10 acres of pristine woods that is our buffer from 95," said Vince Rabenau of Joppa during an informational meeting last week at the Joppa-Magnolia Fire Hall. The property, owned by Trinity Baptist Church, provides "a sanctuary from the noise, pollution and traffic," he said.

Low-fare bus company Megabus.com yesterday called off a Tuesday news conference after jumping the gun in announcing daily service to New York from the state-owned White Marsh Park and Ride. The Maryland Transit Administration said Megabus has not secured official permission to pick up and drop off passengers at its lot off Route 43. "Typically we don't allow commercial operators that are competing with people like Greyhound to use our lots," MTA spokeswoman Jawauna Greene said yesterday.

I ASKED last week for some unwritten rules to live and drive by as we cruise Maryland's highways and byways. I received quite a few, but my favorite is Andy Weaver's "two-second rule." "When the rear of the car in front of you passes an identifiable spot along the road, count the seconds until the front of your car passes the same spot. An interval of two seconds provides the necessary reaction time for you to stop should the car in front stop unexpectedly," he explained. He noted that this rule works regardless of your speed.

More than 100 trees were planted at the Fallston park-and-ride lot on Route 152 yesterday as part of a Boy Scout service project co-sponsored by the State Highway Administration. The project was implemented with the aid of the SHA's Partnership Planting Program, which helps community members beautify land near highways. Ranjit Korah, a 16-year-old member of Boy Scout Troop 313, organized the service project as part of his work toward achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. Korah said the troop planted dogwoods, swamp white oaks, red maples and serviceberries, which will line the perimeter of the lot. Such projects are the aim of the Partnership Planting Program, according to SHA landscape operations division representative Leroy Jonas.

Severna Park man killed in Millersville in one-car accident A Severna Park man was killed early yesterday when he lost control of his car and hit a light pole along Veterans Highway in Millersville, Anne Arundel County police said yesterday. Daniel Michael Milord, 21, was traveling north in his 1998 Honda Civic when he lost control going around a slight curve, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. State decides not to sell section of Park and Ride State transportation officials have decided not to sell a segment of Severna Park's Park and Ride after hearing objections from neighbors and elected leaders.

Park-and-ride addition opened to ease crowdingTo ease crowding at a park-and-ride in east Columbia, the State Highway Administration opened a $1.3 million addition yesterday across from the current lot, more than doubling the number of parking spots available.The new 325-space lot, at Route 32 and Broken Land Parkway, is across from a 318-space park-and-ride lot.The new lot is connected to the old one by a 910-foot-long pedestrian walkway.In building the new lot, Crest Contracting Co. Inc. of Cockeysville included a left-turn lane from southbound Broken Land Parkway into the lot and deceleration lanes on southbound and northbound Broken Land Parkway.

A man with a white bandanna covering his face robbed three men at a Westminster park-and-ride and briefly abducted one of them late Saturday night, state police said. About 11:30 p.m., police said, the robber approached two men who were sitting on the back of a vehicle in the park-and-ride at Routes 97 and 32, pulled out a black semiautomatic handgun and demanded money. The robber took two sets of keys, which he threw into nearby woods, and a wallet from the men, police said. Then the robber walked to a third man who was sitting in a nearby vehicle, took his wallet at gunpoint and got into the vehicle, police said.

Michael Gill took the park-and-ride bus from Glen Burnie to the Ravens' new stadium on the strong advice of his aunt, Linda Shipp.Chris Northcutt said she kind of stumbled into the park-and- ride journey from Glen Burnie to the stadium.Tom Frock made the park-and-ride trip from Glen Burnie out of a habit developed when Baltimore's football team played at Memorial Stadium.The bus left on time at 5 p.m. and traveled the beltway to Interstate 95 to Washington Boulevard to a lot at Ostend and Ridgely streets.