Speed Humps

Ed Walter may be the most powerful man in Howard County politics -- but he's not the county executive or even an elected official. He's the county's traffic engineer, its purveyor of traffic signals, lane markers and speed humps.Insignificant by themselves, these traffic devices collectively carry the weight of public opinion and, many believe, the difference at the ballot box.Middle income or wealthy, Geo or Jaguar owner, all citizens who drive, cross the street or send children to school have to put up with the frustrations -- and perils -- of neighborhood traffic.

BEEN NORTH OF Hunt Valley on Interstate 83 lately?That's where you'll find a 10-mile, $3.4 million resurfacing project under way, marked by lane closures, detours and milled pavement.Such work has created anxiety for many who live in God's country and rely on the Baltimore- Harrisburg Expressway as their fast link to civilization.One driver, Jim Anthony of Sparks, said the detours add to a touchy situation for drivers of Upper Glencoe Road near its intersection with York Road in Hereford.

Trooper murder shouldn't be pawn in debateIn the immediate aftermath of the murder of TFC Edward A. Plank, Gov. Parris Glendening told The Sun that, "This terrible tragedy serves as a grim reminder that gun violence can strike at any time, day or night, and that no one is immune."Attentive readers noted, no doubt, that a citizen armed with a gun apprehended one of the suspects in the crime when the man broke into his home, thereby demonstrating the value of firearms in the hands of law-abiding people.

The asphalt diet has begun in Howard County.Following a growing national and international trend, county planners are asking developers of residential projects to build narrower roads with steeper grades with the goal of slowing speeding drivers.The move is a tacit concession that the previous assumption -- that building wider, flatter roads would lead to safer driving and fewer accidents -- was wrong."America has always been a country where bigger is better," said Jeffrey L. Soule, policy director for the American Planning Association, a Washington-based research organization of planners, lawmakers and citizens.

SPEED HUMPS, the latest development in speed control on county roads, are sprouting up in many of our neighborhoods, and they are proving effective.These ripples in the road are 2 to 3 inches high and up to 22 feet long (in the direction of the traffic). They are smaller than the more familiar, vertebrae-altering speed bumps, which are 6 to 8 inches high and 8 to 16 inches long.Unlike the more abrupt speed bumps, speed humps rise 3 inches in 6 feet, then are flat for 10 feet, then drop 3 inches in 6 feet.

THE PROBLEM Three speed humps on Walker Avenue in North Baltimore appear too high for cars to safely traverse, even at slow seeds. THE BACKSTORY The speed limit on Walker Avenue, a winding and hilly residential street at the far northern edge of the city, is 25 mph. To drive the point home, the city installed three speed humps between The Alameda and Leith Walk. They are called "humps" for a reason. Each is about 12 feet wide. But it is the height of the hump that has raised the ire of Walker Avenue resident Nancy M. Monti.

Speed humps have been embraced by officialdom in suburbia as one of the most effective ways to slow lead-footed drivers and discourage motorists from using side streets as shortcuts.Now, the humps themselves have run into an obstacle: Some drivers don't like them.Montgomery County, the state leader in speed humps with 950 on the road and 450 more proposed, is holding a hearing Thursday to find out if citizens prefer their streets smooth or chunky."This is the most popular program we have, and this is the most hated program we have," acknowledged County Councilman Isiah Leggett, chairman of the council's Transportation and Environment Committee.

The county Department of Public Works will begin installing 14 "flat top speed humps," the county's first, on Shaker Drive in Kings Contrivance within a week to 10 days. And by fall, motorists will begin seeing the devices on other east Columbia streets.The Kings Contrivance Village Board, responding to residents' concerns that speeding vehicles were threatening safety on Shaker Drive, approved the division's recommendation earlier this month."When you have people who are afraid to let children cross Shaker Drive because of speed, you have to look twice," said C. Edward Walter, chief of the traffic engineering division.

If you seem to be hitting more bumps in the road on Baltimore's streets, it's at least partly by design. Since the late 1990s, the city, acting at the request of residents seeking to slow drivers speeding through their neighborhoods, has installed one or more speed humps at nearly 100 locations. Two dozen more requests are pending, from Forest Park in Northwest Baltimore to Cherry Hill in South Baltimore, and more are arriving every week. The city's Department of Transportation Web site lists "How do I get a speed hump installed in my neighborhood?"

Plans for extending Monroe Avenue to form a connector road between South Carroll's two major state highways -- Routes 32 and 26 -- have been on the books for years, and county officials haven't ruled out that option.But in the meantime, they have moved to appease residents and make life unpleasant for speeders."Its a wide street and an invitation to speed," said J. Michael Evans, director of public works. "But they can't go through here at 40 miles per hour anymore."Two islands, speed humps and stop signs are controlling speed on the three-quarter-mile stretch from Liberty Road south to Oklahoma Road.