Speed Humps

Speeding is so endemic these days that there aren't enough police officers to satisfy all the complaints Howard County officials get about heedless motorists rushing through residential neighborhoods. "It's the No. 1 complaint in county government. The reality is, we all speed," said Del. Guy Guzzone, a former county councilman. Guzzone, like other state legislators, is expecting another General Assembly debate over legislation to allow local governments to install automated speed cameras that can safely catch more speeders - who would get expensive tickets but would not get points on their licenses - than any police radar team in history.

Speed humps could prevent traffic tragedies One answer to John Barry's question, "Gittings and Lake avenues are busy east-west thoroughfares. What did you expect when you bought a house there?" is that we expected that motorists would drive at speeds reasonably close to the posted speed limit ("Negotiating city speed humps is an increasingly bumpy road," Oct. 7). Speed limit signs for 25 miles per hour are posted all along East Lake Avenue. Yet motorists routinely travel 40 mph to 45 mph during the daytime.

MOTORISTS UNFAMILIAR with roundabouts may want to give Route 94 a whirl. Driving on the low-volume traffic interchange in western Howard County might be the perfect introduction to these looping road connections that occasionally send visitors in Washington, D.C. and New Jersey into navigational fits.Get used to them. They may be coming your way. But don't put up the NIMBY signs. Roundabouts should not be mistaken for landfills, superstores or other construction projects that community groups sometimes find objectionable.

A state trooper who lost control of his Camaro during an off-duty drive in a Pasadena neighborhood - allegedly plowing through two mailboxes and clipping the back of a parked van - was charged this week with two traffic violations. Trooper Michael Joseph Larsen Jr., a 21-year-old Pasadena resident, was charged with negligent driving and "using speed greater than what is reasonable and prudent," which carry fines of $120 and $65, respectively, Eastern District Capt. Timothy Bowman said yesterday.

WHILE I WAS working my first job, I once sat next to a reporter from the competing local newspaper at a council meeting in a tired little town during a discussion about traffic. There was a new development going up, and folks were worried about too many cars going too fast.The town's other big issues -- blackbirds fouling the sidewalks, for instance -- seemed like Watergate by comparison. I recall catching a glimpse of the other reporter's notepad. She was writing a letter. "Get me out of this two-light town!"

It's a case of mistaken identity.Baltimore Avenue residents in North Laurel know where they live. But others have a hard time finding them. It's not that they aren't looking. It's just seems that there are too many "Baltimore" names on area roads.There's the aforementioned Baltimore Avenue, a mostly residential, tree-lined, half-mile-long street with speed humps, north of Laurel's historic district and connecting U.S. 1 with Route 216.There's one segment of U.S. 1 formally named Baltimore Avenue and another that's widely known as Baltimore Boulevard.

Route 99 continues to be troublesome to drivers and residents who live along it. "I would like to know if the speed limit is going to be reduced on Route 99 for the section in front of the new Marriotts Ridge High School?" asked Lisa Brusio Coster. She noted that the 50-mph speed limit makes it difficult for parents leaving the adjacent middle school, Mount View. "Now that we have additional traffic, as well as new student drivers traveling to the high school, shouldn't the speed limit be reduced?"

Frank L. Purdum Jr. was once able to drive from his Freeland home to downtown Baltimore in 30 minutes. Even leaving before 6 a.m., it now takes twice as long, much of it in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Kathleen House can relate. She sometimes waits three light cycles at the intersection of Cuba and Shawan roads in Cockeysville when she takes her children to school in the morning, knowing if she leaves too long after 7 a.m., a 15-minute drive could take 45 minutes. And Don Schlimm, whose home is about a mile from the Pennsylvania line, lives in fear of the impatient commuters barreling down Bond Road as a shortcut to Interstate 83, choosing to leave for work at 5 a.m. to avoid as many of them as possible.

In South Carroll, where traffic clogs the major arteries, residents welcome connector roads but not the speeders they draw to their neighborhoods.As long-planned road connections are completed through subdivisions in the most populated area of the county, officials are hearing more complaints about speeding."

Monroe Avenue in Eldersburg, the site of a double fatality in June, will get relief from traffic woes with striping to delineate lanes and speed bumps to deter lead-foot motorists.The County Commissioners -- one of whom lives on Monroe -- debated options for nearly an hour yesterday before voting 2-1 to install four speed bumps and to paint center and curb lines on the road. Cost of work on the street, which motorists use as a quick route from congestion on Liberty Road, will be about $8,000.