Have we had enough of the Beltway (695) yet?

[nextgenfmradio]

What in the living hell is going on between Route 40 and Frederick Rd on the west side? Is that one of the lanes they are adding? It looks like they are building a highway to outer space..

[bus man]

Originally Posted by Michael21214

The reason is interstate traffic going to or from points north (I-83 & I-81 to/from PA and NY) and connecting to or from I-95 south of the beltway. Basically the west side of 695 is a connector between some very busy interstate highways. It probably wasn't planned that way but that is what we've got. Otherwise it would be a moderately traveled metro freeway.

It definitely wasn't planned that way. I-70 and I-83 were supposed to connect directly to I-95 in the South Baltimore area. They made it to the edges of downtown before the anti-freeway movement hit its stride and shut it all down. (The westside "highway to nowhere" was supposed to be a link in the I-70 connection.) So now we have the traffic between these three major interstates (plus I-97 for good measure) all using I-695 to connect with each other.

Originally Posted by Phyxius

I too didn't see the point of removing a lane from I-695 just to add another lane from the I-95 ramp. Right up to the point where traffic from I-95 merges onto I-695, I feel that lane is too close when they come curving in. I feel as if I'm going to get side-swiped. It's worst when a truck is coming along that curve. The traffic flow didn't improve so it was a waste of effort to make such move.

The traffic flow improved dramatically on northbound I-95 when they did this. I realize that it's small comfort for the folks stuck on the Inner Loop, but I do think that I-95 -- arguably the nation's single most important highway -- ought to have priority.

Originally Posted by Phyxius

Some of these issues could be address with more careful studying and prioritize. The B/W Parkway interchange is poorly designed and needs to be replaced. The ramp is the reason for the slow down. It's too narrow and cramped. Not too far from that interchange, the B/W Parkway was widened to a third lane to I-195.....and then they took the lane away to replace the Nursery Road overpass. They spent three years trying to widened that stretch and now there is nothing to show for it.

The problem with the Parkway/Beltway interchange isn't just the narrow ramps, though that's part of it. The bigger problem is that you've got all the weaving traffic that slows everything down. Traffic entering the thru-lanes from the curving ramps has to try and merge their way in while traffic exiting the thru-lanes onto the curving ramps has to simultaneously merge off. It's a recipe for traffic slowdowns, and sure enough, that's just what happens. The way to do it is to have an extra "collector/distributor" lane where all the merging and de-merging takes place, separate from the thru-lanes. I-95 northbound at MD 198 in Laurel is an example of how to do it right.

Originally Posted by picardlx

What's a realistic alternative to the basic design of 695, given the region's layout?

Anytime a flow of something (be it water or traffic) encounters a bottleneck, slowdowns result. I-695 is the region's bottleneck, in that the traffic that is connecting between several other highways flows into it, joining with the local usage to overwhelm the limited capacity available.

The solution is twofold: (1) fix the specific problems on the Beltway itself, such as the interchange with the Parkway. (2) create alternative pathways for some of the traffic currently using the Beltway. Finish building I-70 via the "highway to nowhere" plus MLK Blvd. and I-395 to connect with I-95. Extend U.S. 29 north from I-70 to I-795 to provide an alternative for local traffic between Howard County and northwest Baltimore County. Just those two things alone would dramatically help unclog the westside portion of I-695.

And while I'm definitely a proponent of mass transit, its potential usefulness in reducing 695 traffic is negligible. Mass transit works best when it's serving an area of highly concentrated demand, such as the downtown of a major city. The Beltway, on the other hand, serves a vast, diffuse mix of flows between various low-density suburbs, coupled with long-distance flows connecting between the interstates. Such movements are not at all well served by mass transit, unfortunately.

[P47P47]

Originally Posted by bus man

And while I'm definitely a proponent of mass transit, its potential usefulness in reducing 695 traffic is negligible. Mass transit works best when it's serving an area of highly concentrated demand, such as the downtown of a major city. The Beltway, on the other hand, serves a vast, diffuse mix of flows between various low-density suburbs, coupled with long-distance flows connecting between the interstates. Such movements are not at all well served by mass transit, unfortunately.

If the Baltimore Subway had been built as originally planned, with six legs each extending past the Beltway, that might have actually helped to reduce Beltway traffic.


Does anybody remember when there was still a traffic light on the Beltway at the intersection with Camp Meade Road? I think it was finally replaced with an interchange in 1967.


But the way to REALLY clear up traffic on the Beltway is to stop issuing driver's licenses to anybody who can barely pass those ridiculously easy tests.

If it was up to me, I'd start with outlawing automatic transmissions. I'd even outlaw synchronizers in manual transmissions. Can't double-clutch every shift, up and down? Well, you're not driving in Maryland. If you can do that, then you come to MVA HQ in Glen Burnie (Yes, EVERYBODY comes to Glen Burnie for the test.), take the eye and written tests, then get in the car for the driving test. Get on Ritchie Hwy., drive to Harundale Mall, turn around and come back. Get off Ritchie Hwy., onto the Beltway, and drive around the west side. Go around the Beltway until you get to Charles St. Take Charles St. all the way through Baltimore, Hanover St. bridge to Ritchie Hwy. and back to MVA HQ. If you do that successfully, congratulations! Now you get to come back later and do it again at night.

THAT'S how you reduce traffic congestion. It would also force the issue of getting some genuinely functional public mass transit in operation.

[nextgenfmradio]

Originally Posted by bus man

It definitely wasn't planned that way. I-70 and I-83 were supposed to connect directly to I-95 in the South Baltimore area. They made it to the edges of downtown before the anti-freeway movement hit its stride and shut it all down. (The westside "highway to nowhere" was supposed to be a link in the I-70 connection.) So now we have the traffic between these three major interstates (plus I-97 for good measure) all using I-695 to connect with each other.




The traffic flow improved dramatically on northbound I-95 when they did this. I realize that it's small comfort for the folks stuck on the Inner Loop, but I do think that I-95 -- arguably the nation's single most important highway -- ought to have priority.




The problem with the Parkway/Beltway interchange isn't just the narrow ramps, though that's part of it. The bigger problem is that you've got all the weaving traffic that slows everything down. Traffic entering the thru-lanes from the curving ramps has to try and merge their way in while traffic exiting the thru-lanes onto the curving ramps has to simultaneously merge off. It's a recipe for traffic slowdowns, and sure enough, that's just what happens. The way to do it is to have an extra "collector/distributor" lane where all the merging and de-merging takes place, separate from the thru-lanes. I-95 northbound at MD 198 in Laurel is an example of how to do it right.




Anytime a flow of something (be it water or traffic) encounters a bottleneck, slowdowns result. I-695 is the region's bottleneck, in that the traffic that is connecting between several other highways flows into it, joining with the local usage to overwhelm the limited capacity available.

The solution is twofold: (1) fix the specific problems on the Beltway itself, such as the interchange with the Parkway. (2) create alternative pathways for some of the traffic currently using the Beltway. Finish building I-70 via the "highway to nowhere" plus MLK Blvd. and I-395 to connect with I-95. Extend U.S. 29 north from I-70 to I-795 to provide an alternative for local traffic between Howard County and northwest Baltimore County. Just those two things alone would dramatically help unclog the westside portion of I-695.

And while I'm definitely a proponent of mass transit, its potential usefulness in reducing 695 traffic is negligible. Mass transit works best when it's serving an area of highly concentrated demand, such as the downtown of a major city. The Beltway, on the other hand, serves a vast, diffuse mix of flows between various low-density suburbs, coupled with long-distance flows connecting between the interstates. Such movements are not at all well served by mass transit, unfortunately.

Good posts I really think all these lanes they are adding will be for nothing the best thing they could do is finish I-70 to 95 but I think that will never happen in a million years

It is true from previous posts, I-70 traffic is going to 83 and 95, and it uses the beltway to do it

The problem is the tunnels the geography of Baltimore is not easy, all that extra traffic would have to go through ft mchenry which is actually a fairly big tunnel with many lanes the problem lies further up 95 with backups but a lot of that is caused by traffic coming from 70 up around the beltway connecting to 95

The growth in western Maryland has only worsened i70 sees heavy use now and is also fed from heavily traveled route 29 and it all dumps into beltway, getting 70 completed would remove some of it

Hogan wants to reconfigure the i-70 interchange but I don’t know how much good that will do