The RIVERS EDGE INTERCHANGE WORKING GROUP wants to bring to your attention an article that appeared in the Baltimore Sun last week discussing our intersection and SHA’s simplistic attempts to resolve an issue that has been scrutinized many times over the last several decades, most recently in the 2015-2016 time frame. The link to the article is here: https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/howard/cng-ho-route-29-construction-20200109-rzgrpetyl5csppnfkkexpe55gu-story.html
One of the members of the Working Group forwarded a response to the reporter to offer a more comprehensive analysis. That response is provided here:
Dear Ms. Faguy,
I read your article in the Sun with great interest. I am a resident of the community served by Rivers Edge Road and as you might imagine, there is a bigger story here. SHA’s plan to simply eliminate the traffic signal at Rivers Edge Road and eliminate access to/from Route 29 northbound has been proposed several times in the past, most recently in 2014-2015, not for safety reasons, but to help relieve congestion on Route 29. The problem, of course, is the impact of this change on the hundreds of residents served by that intersection which is the only way into/out of our neighborhood.
Eliminating the traffic signal will force residents leaving our community to merge onto 29 Southbound during rush hour which, without a signal, is a constant heavy flow of high-speed traffic. This merge will be particularly difficult for our elderly residents, new drivers, and school buses. Residents returning to our community from the south (i.e. most commuters) will be forced to ride the cloverleaf at the intersection of routes 29 and 32 which is already quite dangerous. In short, SHA is sacrificing the safety of local communities to serve commuters who find it too difficult to obey speed limits and respect traffic signals.
Each time SHA has studied this intersection in the past, their recommendation has been to create a grade-separated interchange (an overpass) to allow safe access to/from our community. I would be happy to provide you with those studies. However, it appears SHA is now rushing toward a quick, cheap “solution” rather than investing in infrastructure that will actually make our roads safer and more effective for local communities. If you’re interested in learning more about the history and controversy around this issue, you are more than welcome to meet with our neighborhood working group that was formed years ago to address this issue, we’d be grateful for the opportunity to share our perspective.
I read your article in the Sun with great interest. I am a resident of the community served by Rivers Edge Road and as you might imagine, there is a bigger story here. SHA’s plan to simply eliminate the traffic signal at Rivers Edge Road and eliminate access to/from Route 29 northbound has been proposed several times in the past, most recently in 2014-2015, not for safety reasons, but to help relieve congestion on Route 29. The problem, of course, is the impact of this change on the hundreds of residents served by that intersection which is the only way into/out of our neighborhood.
Eliminating the traffic signal will force residents leaving our community to merge onto 29 Southbound during rush hour which, without a signal, is a constant heavy flow of high-speed traffic. This merge will be particularly difficult for our elderly residents, new drivers, and school buses. Residents returning to our community from the south (i.e. most commuters) will be forced to ride the cloverleaf at the intersection of routes 29 and 32 which is already quite dangerous. In short, SHA is sacrificing the safety of local communities to serve commuters who find it too difficult to obey speed limits and respect traffic signals.
Each time SHA has studied this intersection in the past, their recommendation has been to create a grade-separated interchange (an overpass) to allow safe access to/from our community. I would be happy to provide you with those studies. However, it appears SHA is now rushing toward a quick, cheap “solution” rather than investing in infrastructure that will actually make our roads safer and more effective for local communities. If you’re interested in learning more about the history and controversy around this issue, you are more than welcome to meet with our neighborhood working group that was formed years ago to address this issue, we’d be grateful for the opportunity to share our perspective.
RTE 29 and Rivers Edge Road Interchange Alert
Many people have worked on this RTE 29 interchange issue since 2015, but
HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THIS:
It is a beautiful sunny Spring Monday and the Howard County School Bus just loaded your children, your neighbor’s children, and children you do not even know to deliver them to school. The driver is well trained and the bus is well maintained. It starts to exit from Rivers Edge Road only to find that it must merge into Southbound RTE 29 traffic traveling at 60 to 85+ mph. So the bus driver must wait for a gap in the Southbound traffic only to have a second or third bus pull up behind him. He can charge ahead hoping that the Southbound RTE 29 commuters’ may slow down to permit the bus to merge into the traffic stream. Unfortunately, North bound school buses must when they clear the Middle Patuxent River bridge, immediately exit and then wait at the John’s Hopkins Road traffic light. This just begs for a rear end accident. Is this safe? Or does the current traffic light on the Southbound side safer?
This scenario will be repeated for four more days in that week!
On the Northbound side of RTE 29 which is used by the children to return from school in the evening is not so safe as well because of the RTE 29 Northbound traffic must squeeze down from 4 lanes to three lanes. If the Northbound RTE 29 Middle Patuxent River bridge was expanded to 4 lanes with the leftmost lane being the Rivers Edge exit lane leading to the left turn traffic light, this would increase the safety for all North bound traffic. If the flashing proceed after full stop, was changed to proceed only on green, it would be safer still. Do you agree this would be safer as well?
With that said these efforts today are focused on the State building the safest RTE 29/Rivers Edge Road interchange. How can anyone believe that out of a $44+ billion State budget that $50 million (or so) cannot be found to make the commute of your school children as safe as possible? What is the life of your child worth?
Last Thought
My understanding is that Maryland State law today requires that all Maryland developments have as a minimum two entry and access points. The Rivers Edge Road Community has only one. This is likely grandfathered in. The current Rivers Edge Road – RTE 29 interchange permits both North and South access to RTE 29. This was blocked by the Police years back when there was a truck accident on RTE 29. This is easy to remember vividly because I had to park on Old Columbia Road at the Middle Patuxent River and hike back to my Rivers Edge Road home.
In spite of this temporary blockage, it was still physically possible to enter and exit the Rivers Edge Road community. The police just blocked the physical access.
Having the traffic light and both North bound and South bound access to RTE 29 provides in a fashion two access points to the Rivers Edge Road Community.
However, if SHA removes that traffic light and blocks Northbound access to RTE 29, this reduces the physical access to the Rivers Edge Road community to a single access point. In that case a catastrophic blockage of RTE 29 South of Rivers Edge Road and North of Johns Hopkins Road traps all the taxpayers and their families in the Rivers Edge Road Community. No one can leave. It seems that SHA has violated Maryland law by creating a single entry and access point to the Rivers Edge Road Community.
Regardless, if it violates the law or not, removing the traffic light significantly lessens the safety of all Rivers Edge Road Community residents.
Any interchange solution that keeps both Northbound and Southbound access to RTE 29 also in a fashion keeps two access points to RTE 29 so that the Rivers Edge Road Community can exit in all situations.
Just suppose that a major forest fire broke out blocking RTE 29 South at the Middle Patuxent River because there was a collision between a school bus and a gasoline tanker truck. This would easily threaten all the homes in the Rivers Edge Road Community. With the traffic light removed, everyone in the Rivers Edge Community would be trapped in that fire. This is a possible scenario, and it is foolish to not prepare for such an event by keeping both the North and South bound access to RTE 29.
Pete the Nerd