Today's Capital has a not so flattering look at riding the bus in town this summer. Take a look at http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/08_15-26/TOP.

Here's a tease:

For years Annapolitans have deplored the lack of air-conditioning on city buses.

The right turn only traffic pattern where Riva Road meets West Street continues to boggle the mind a couple of years after it was installed. The tantallizing view of the ramp on to Rt. 50 East teases many a driver who then finds their auto being directed away from the quick entry onto the highway and into line at one of the area's busiest intersections, West and Rt. 2. Here's a note from local Thad Russell on the irritating intersection:

Hi Doctor Get Around,

I am reporting a silly, gas wasting wait to make a left turn from West Street onto Riva Rd. or from West Street onto Route 50 East. With the new traffic pattern where cars from Riva Road can only turn East on West Street, all traffic is halted for the cars to navigate this new turn. Surely the traffic gods could see that at the same time cars could turn left onto Riva Rd. or left onto Rte. 50 while traffic enters West street from Riva Rd., couldn't they?

Thanks,
Thad Russell
Annapolis

The Riva/West intersection runs against the common sense that says every effort should be made to get cars out of town and out of the area as quickly and easily as possible. The intersection actually turns traffic back into an already busy street and lets them sit running their motors waiting to get on the road. I am sure it all makes sense to the county traffic planners but I haven't heard why. Has anyone?

Thank you for the note, Thad.

The deadly accident on the Bay Bridge has jump-started the call for building a third span across the Chesapeake Bay. My sympathies go out to the driver of the truck, John Short of Willards. According to several accounts, Mr. Short swerved his truck to avoid an oncoming vehicle causing him to loose control and over a rail into the bay. The driver of the oncoming vehicle admits she fell asleep at the wheel and witnesses confirm her car crossed the center lane and veered into the path of John Short’s truck. This accident has once again put on display the vulnerability of our community to accidents and tie-ups on Rt. 50.

It amazes me how the actions of one or two people on the road can affect the lives of thousands drivers and local residents for well over 24 hours. As happens whenever there is a traffic standstill on Rt. 50 most of the roads through town become clogged. Rowe Blvd, West Street, Taylor Avenue and the Naval Academy Bridge all become gridlocked. Getting to Graul’s for a bit of shopping is impossible. Last year it was a trailer breaking loose from a leading vehicle causing nearly a day long bridge shutdown. Now we see that the bridge rails are not as safe as previously thought.

A third span over the Chesapeake Bay has been discussed ad infinitum for years. Among the locations talked about is a span linking the Baltimore area to the Eastern Shore up the bay. Another idea is a bridge crossing between Calvert County and the Eastern Shore down the bay. The cost for such a plan would be astronomical…into the billions of dollars. But state officials already say that it is “not likely” that we will be able to build a third span because of environmental considerations. Think about all of the environmental issues that stalled the Inter-County Connector for years. Multiply that by a factor of 100 or so when you talk about a span over water intruding on wetlands and more.

Is it time to re-visit these environmental policies? I love to fish and boat and more so I am as concerned about the environment as anyone. But how much is too much? Take a look at our oil import situation. It’s ok for us to buy oil from countries like Nigeria which is a pollution nightmare. But we’re not supposed to drill our own domestic oil with the world’s most stringent standards in place? Now look at our local situation with the Bay Bridge. Every day thousands of cars from the region pass through the narrow end of the funnel that defines both approaches to the bridge. Compound that on summer Saturdays. The traffic numbers are increasing yearly. Look who pays the price in noise and air pollution. We do; the residents of the Annapolis area. Who pays the price when there is a tie up? We do.

Why are we locked into policies that, while well meaning, prevent us from improving our quality of life? They prevent us from finding solutions to evolving and emerging problems. If there is another alternative to a new bridge being built I would like to hear it. For me I think it is the only way to solve the kind of problems that one person falling asleep at the wheel can cause.

Three cheers for the Annapolis Transportation Department for placing a four-way stop sign at the corner of Franklin and Shaw Streets in the Murray Hill section of the city. This was done back in late spring but should not pass without some recognition. The city has been criticized (rightly so in some cases) for its traffic “calming” efforts including the beguiling placement of concrete, bricks, and signs in the middle of Poplar Avenue. Intended to calm it serves only to obfuscate and unsettle. But the four-way stop on Franklin is a simple, non-obtrusive, common sense step that results in greater safety for that neighborhood’s pedestrians and for drivers. It is one of those “small steps” that, taken as a whole, improves our ability to get around town.

The Capital Newspaper recently published an editor’s note criticizing four-way stop signs. The piece quoted a British-born psychology professor, John Staddon, who has written extensively on traffic issues. Dr. Staddon’s writings take particular aim at the abundance of distracting road signs in this country. “Dr. Staddon,” according the Capital, “reserves particular scorn for four-way stop signs, a ‘masterpiece of counterproductive safety efforts that weakens the force of all stop signs by muddling the main question drivers need to answer, namely: Which road has priority?’.”

While I agree that we do have an abundance of signs at many intersections, the simple step of adding another stop sign in a neighborhood does not rise to the level of intrusion. And as for Dr. Staddon’s question of who has priority at four-way stops, he clearly missed something we in this country all learn in high school driver education classes; that the driver on the right always has the right of way when there is a simultaneous stopping of two cars in these situations.

Look at the Franklin/Shaw four-way stop again and see what it has really done to improve safety. First of all, it serves to slow down Franklin Street traffic in both directions, a good thing since the street is now serving as an alterntive to West Street. And before, if you were heading down Shaw toward the creek, you had to nudge your way well into the intersection looking left to see if any cars were coming down Franklin. If they were, you were usually greeted with the less polite number one sign or, at best, narrowly avoided an accident. Then look at the Murray Hill residents; their children walking to school every morning while the St. Mary’s drivers were all filling the streets with their own “gotta get to school on time” driving mania. And believe me, I know all about the St. Mary’s drivers, I was one of them with my two children. This four-way stop has made getting to school safer for drivers and walkers.

Franklin Street has become a small thoroughfare with so much more traffic on West Street. But this is a neighborhood with kids and lots of walkers and the city deserves thanks for putting the interests of pedestrians and safety above the need to get downtown a few seconds faster. I hope the city will continue to look at additional four-way stop signs as more of our residential streets become short cuts for impatient drivers. They do have a right to drive on these streets. We have an obligation to slow them down.

My ears were burning yesterday and I didn't even know it. That's because the Baltimore Sun was working on a story about the Maryland Transit Authority while this blog was discussing the same topic. MTA head Paul Wiedefeld told the Sun that the MARC train service is 'far below what customers deserve'. The story is in today's edition of The Sun and can be viewed at http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/traffic/bal-md.marc25jul24,0,1994845.story. It's Murphy's law at work. Just when we need public transportation the most with high gas prices, a big part of the mass transit system is not performing efficiently.

The high cost of gas has many daily commuters searching for public trasportation alternatives. Folks are now discovering the joy of letting someone else drive while they read or take a snooze on the way to work. But it is surprising to find that it is easier taking public transportation to Washington than it is to Baltimore. One Dr. Get Around reader sent his comments on taking the bus to Baltimore which are posted below.

The Dillon Bus Company offers a broad schedule of bus routes to the New Carrollton Metro Station and to downtown Washington, D.C. There are numerous Dillon Bus Service Stops in Annapolis as well as Kent Island and North Beach. The return trip choices are also numerous and reliable. You can view the entire schedule for Dillon Bus Service by going to their web site at http://www.dillonbus.com/schedule_info.asp which take your right to their schedule page. The Dillon buses can also be a nice alternative for day trippers into the Nation's Capital. While you will need to get an early start with the last morning buses leaving by 7:40, the return buses begin their east bound routes as early as 3:15 in the afternoon. The cost is going to be cheaper than gas and parking prices. But as with any public transportation alternative, you must build in some extra time on both the front and back ends of the commute, especially if you a punching a time clock at the work end.

Now getting up to Baltimore from Annapolis is another story. A look at the Maryland Transportation Authority's web site (http://www.mtamaryland.com/) shows a paucity of bus options from Annapolis to Baltimore. Dr. Get Around reader Richard Legendre sent me this note:

Mr. Connors,

Has anyone noticed the new MTA Bus Line #14 Schedule, the only service from Baltimore to Annapolis? For afternoon rush it leaves at 4:03, 5:05 and 5:55. Before the schedule change (June 15th) there were more options, now at rush hour it leaves once an hour? And on the hour, don't they know most people get off at 4 or 5, giving them less than five minutes to leave their job and get to the bus? What can be done about this?

In these times of high gas prices where more people and turning to the bus, why do they take away a good option of commuting from Baltimore and Glen Burnie (for me) to Annapolis? In my case, I have no choice but to ride this bus due to my limited eye sight, I am at the mercy of the MTA and must simply lose an hour waiting for a bus (not to mention there is no express that by-passing AACC anymore, making a long trip even longer).

I am surprised that this hasn't gotten any press. Maybe people won't notice until the next session, but hopefully they'll remember that a lot of people work in Annapolis year round!

Richard Legendre

Thanks for the note, Richard. I will pass along your comments to the MTA. The other option for Annapolis area folks is a drive to the Cromwell Lite Rail Station in Glen Burnie. This is something I have always done for Oriole games. But it makes a lot of sense for daily commuters who want to trim at least half of your gas use and most of your parking charges. It is probably a good time to talk to our local and state public officials about concerns like Mr. Legendre's. And it might also be a good time dust off some of those ideas about linking Annapolis with rail transport again. It may be a pipe dream but every time I drive to D.C. is envision a link to the Metro Rail running right down the middle of Rt. 50. Imagine what that would be like! ... this is an abbreviated post. Read the entire article.

Getting around in Annapolis also includes traveling by boat weather for a day on the bay or using the water highway to go downtown or to a restaurant or beach. But rising fuel costs have hit boaters hard. Fuel dock prices generally run 20% to 30% higher than gas station prices. That’s a huge hit. If you think filling up the SUV takes a bite out of the wallet try filling a hundred gallon plus boat with even higher priced fuel.

What to do about it? Doug Poindexter is a neighbor of mine in Admiral Heights. We both have boat slips at our community dock on Weems Creek. Doug is taking a proactive approach to the higher fuel costs. I have our conversation on the subject copied below. Doug has thought it out and decided that he’s not going to take higher gas prices lying down. Not every one has Doug’s energy but our talk does offer one alternative. Enjoy the read and please email me here if you have an alternative to soaring fuel costs, whether on land or on the sea.

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What kind of boat is it you have?

Doug- 32’ Wellcraft Scarab Sport (Center Console) with twin Mercury 200HP outboards.

How many gallons does it hold?

Doug- It holds 100+ gallons.

What is its fuel consumption say, per hour?

Doug- Not sure, I just do short river/bay runs so I never really fill it up past a half tank. I bought the boat used with no trailer in 2004 and my maintenance/marina bills have cost me a lot of money over the past 4 years. I shopped for a trailer for the past 2 years and finally got the right deal.

Why did you buy the trailer?

Doug- I bought it to reduce fuel costs by being able to take the boat to a land gas station verses expensive marinas. I believe marinas are at least a $1 more expensive per gallon. Also I can eliminate marina haul out and bottom cleaning fees. If I keep the boat in the water all the time the running gear scums up and becomes fouled which makes for bad performance/ and burns more fuel. Now I can haul the boat myself and do general maintenance and store the boat at my house. Marinas charge you a lot of money to haul/block/store boats. They also may not let you work on your own boat at a facility due to insurance liability rules. Hence more money to pay a licensed boat maintenance outfit to do the work I can do myself. Land gas is cheaper than the fuel docks. You have to drive the boat to a fuel dock and sometimes wait in line behind other boats for my turn. This makes fueling the boat a big event and takes time. One does not want to take the family on an outing just to end up waiting at a fuel dock before taking the boat trip. And fueling at a marina creates an extra gas burning trip.

How long before the trailer starts paying for itself?

Doug- The day I got the trailer it started paying for itself. I hauled the boat cleaned the running gear and took it to my Mercury mechanic on the eastern shore for a tune up. I did not have to pay someone to take it or run it to a marina for the work. With the shortage of quality outboard mechanics your boat could be on the hard for the remainder of the boating season because you are at the mercy of whoever is doing the work and their schedule. With my trailer, I am in control of when and where I want to take it. Also, good trailers are very expensive and hard to find. So, buying a used trailer is truly a buyer beware situation!