County's First Speed Cameras Will Make People Drive Slower

Newly installed speed cameras on the B/W Parkway will be the county's first examples of the devices, although my extensive dealings in P.G. County have familiarized me with their implementation.  (I try to stay out of Montgomery County, where the use and consequently the avoidance of speed cameras have been perfected.)

So, do speed cameras really work?  Yes!  Of course they freekin' work.  There is a speed camera on one particular road I take to work every day, and when I'm on that part of the road, I'm very careful not to exceed the speed limit.  And I know that this speed camera is in a good spot, because I lost control of my Isuzu Rodeo one rainy day 7 years ago on that exact portion of the road, probably because I was going too fast.

The next question is are they safe.  My pre-research hypothesis was that while the cameras might be successful at reducing speed, they might likely cause more accidents because paranoid drivers like myself would be staring at the speedometer instead of the road.  In fact, a criticism like this stands on strong ground for red light cameras, which have been showed to be a revenue-generator at the expense of driver safety.  To my moderate surprise, speed cameras have been found to decrease not only speeding but also accidents and fatalities.

So, the only downside apparently to speed cameras is that people want to go places fast and now will have to  budget like an extra 200 seconds in their morning for when they have to decrease their speed from 73 mph to 65 mph on 295.  After all, the cameras don't give tickets unless you're a certain amount over the limit.  This is not something that the government should care about, unless they are particularly concerned that the increasing scope of 'big brother' will anger voters and cause them to not get re-elected, which isn't really that good of an argument anyway considering public safety in involved.

But, motorists do have a valid gripe here.  Speed limits are somewhat arbitrary.  I imagine that speed limits are set by politicians who follow the recommendations of traffic engineers who take into account how much the road curves, how wide it is, if kids are playing nearby, and if people usually drink coffee in the car and therefore can only have 1 hand on the wheel.  But do the limits know what time of day it is?  Do they know the weather conditions?  Do they know if you have a vehicle that handles well like my beautiful Ferrari does?  (Note: I do not have a Ferrari).  No, the limits don't know squat--they just sit there posted on signs telling you what you can't do.  How rude.  In fact, you can get a speeding ticket if you are going under the speed limit, if the officer determines that you are driving too fast for the conditions.  If discretion can be applied to determine when a safe speed is less than the posted limit, why can't I put the cruise control on my 7-Series to 71 mph when leaving work from the restaurant at midnight?  (Note: I do not own a BMW 7 series and I also do not work at a restaurant.)

Anyway, it strikes me that speed cameras are one of the most effective ways of reducing speeding and improving safety.

Maryland Transporation Survey

MDOT is collecting citizen input for use in the development of their long term transportation plan. To give your two cents, click HERE.

Metro and Light Rails

The Honorable Alderwoman from Ward 6* enjoyed publication of a letter to the editor regarding the future of public transportation.

(*Several people have asked me where Ward 6 is, and I barely know myself. Every other ward I can identify by a broad, highly general geographical feature:

Ward 1: Downtown.
Ward 2: Navy stadium.
Ward 3: Parole.
Ward 4: Forest Dr. Fire Station
Ward 5: Annapolis Middle School
Ward 6: ?
Ward 7: Georgetown East Elementary School
Ward 8: Eastport

After some investigation, I have determined that Ward 6 is sandwiched inbetween Wards 5 and 7 (imagine that), and includes the area between the truxtun park pool and President St., as well as some areas east of Tyler Ave behind the Tire place on Forest Drive.)

So as I was saying: transportation. Actually, as Alderwoman Stankivic was saying:

As a resident, and now as an elected official, I continue to support
rail service among Washington, annapolis and Baltimore.

More of our dollars would be spent on such projects if the county were
really serious about smart growth.

I continue to be dismayed by plans to bring another thousand homes to
an already congested area in Odenton. Smart Growth should promote
redevelopment of existing areas, with a reduction in impervious service and
overall congestion......Another lane just won't cut it.

Is Ms. Stankivic aligning herself for a run at county council? Eh, that's too far away to think about--let's stick to transportation.

I don't know much about the Inter-County Connector, but I'm fairly sure that I was under 3 years old when someone first came up with the idea; that about 17 elected officials have promised to fund the project; and that it's not done. I am actually fond of the idea of being able to take the metro to work (in College Park), but can you imagine the nightmare of trying to coordinate planning with 2 counties, the District of Columbia, and the City of Annapolis?! Where within the city limits could a station even go?

And then there's the issue of intra-Annapolis transportation, which Ms. Stankivic can do something about right now. I think my colleague would agree that the city has neglected its duty to support public transportation as well as pedestrian travel, most recently displayed in a bill that effectively denies the public interest in sidewalks.

The alderwoman is right--constantly widening lanes is not the answer, nor can we sustain that forever. But the APFO and focus on solutions in the city are good places to start.

New Ideas Abound From The Mayor's Trip

In what seems to AP to be an attempt to justify the mayor's 6-week absence while touring Europe, The Capital today provides testimony that the mayor has some new ideas as a result of her sister city voyage:

Ms. Moyer said she's now armed with a "whole notebook of ideas" - and she's ready to go through it and find out which are viable options for the city.

Is that so? Well, the city could use some fresh ideas. I had a fresh idea once, but was distracted by my friend who claimed to be using his computer to access some type of 'internet' (that's what we called it back then), and since that time my creativity has taken a turn for the worse. So continue, Mayor Moyer, whadda' ya' got?

Near the top her list is lifting some transportation ideas from Paris, including more underground parking and increased public transportation on the water.

Umm, geez, you didn't think of this before? Also, I bet that the underground parking city was not the same as the public transportation on water city. Because when you have water, you usually can't build underground. If we had a public works director, we could ask him what the city rules are regarding underground building near waterfront.

So, most notebooks have, like, 200 pages or something. What else do you have?

She described bicycles lined up in the main tourist areas; with the swipe of a credit card, a bike could be unlocked for use.

So, instead of car rental, bike rental. Many towns have this already (although they may be run by private enterprise). I have a hunch: that this idea has been discussed before while Ellen Moyer was mayor. This guy might be able to verify that.

Adelante!:

A public "boat bus" stops at eight locations around the city.

A boat bus? You mean a water taxi? Right. We already have that. Way to waste space in your notebook.

These are not new ideas, and I'm guessing they are especially not new for transportation experts like hopefully we have working for the city. So what's the point of all this, from the mayor's point of view?:

Ms. Moyer said she's also interested in planning special programs to raise money for the sister cities program, to "treat them as well as they treat us."

B-da-bing!! Nailed it!! Right on targ.......

Subsidized housing just doesn't look like it there.

Oh no!

The cottages all have flowers in the yard and are well-kept and fairly attractive.

Too much propaganda....this post is out of control.

"No Taj Mahal (parking) garages there.

What?

Ok, enough with the quotes. The main issues touched here were public transportation and public housing. As far as transportation, we need to look at a solution that gets people out of their cars and off the roads. Building more parking garages and widening roads only encourages driving.

And with the public housing, ownership is the key. Using a highly anecdotal (and highly current) piece of evidence, just look at the kind fellow who was featured in the paper yesterday.

(If you want more scientific evidence, as I do, I must offer an apology. I am one of the worst "search term" people ever. I never know the right keywords to put into Google. Other people find things right away, and it takes me forever. So if you know where to look, or already have this data, let me know.)

This has been the city Republican Central Committee's objection to the direction of the MPDU program. People who qualify for public housing should be on the path to ownership, not renting from a non-profit or anyone else. (Note: the MPDU program is very different from public housing.)

To be fair, it doesn't matter where the mayor gets her ideas. So long as they are developed, and proper solutions implemented, I would be fine with that.