Lane layouts redesigned on Crain Hwy in Upper Marlboro.

DD55 said:

I drove thru there on sunday , I'm sure it will cause some accidents with drivers not paying attention. The north bound lanes are screwed up also.

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In Prince George's county, I GUARANTEE a mess like that has "catastrophe waiting to happen" wrote all over it.

bkuether said:

You would swear by the layout of some roads, that the people that design them never had a drivers license and only rode bikes. I have seen some of the STUPIDEST things here in maryland. Now once in a while, they get it right. When the re-designed the Route 29 on ramp from 70, and the subsequent merges later on, I was surprised how well it worked. But otherwise, they usually just make things WORSE.

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netryeder said:

Overpaid highway designer here.

Without being familiar with the project or even the area, I imagine you are talking about a right thru lane that has been turned into a merge area to allow right in and right out traffic to merge. The purpose of this is to separate the high speed thru traffic from the slower merging traffic.

My guess would be that there was a serious accident there a few years ago and the family/neighbors complained enough to a politician who complained enough to the SHA to get the changes made. On paper the concept of separating the thru traffic from the merging traffic does reduce the likelihood of an accident.

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Sling Blade said:

That much I understand.

What I DON'T understand, is why not simply add a lane to the right, rather than the left like they did, and leave the thru lanes where they were?

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K31 said:

What? There's a crappily designed road in Upper Marlboro?

The hell you say.

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Well, stupidity is to be expected in Prince George's county.

RT468 said:

You're thinking logically and offer a simple solution.Neither work when either a State Agency or Utility of any kind is involved.Both make expensive convoluted messes of the most basic matters.Having dealt with both in various capacities I'm confident that is the disconnect here.

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Well, Netryeder's theory would make sense... ...on the southbound side, because it's a 3-way intersection with the side street coming in from the west.

But like I said, why not simply add a merge lane on the right side like they did at Solomons Island Rd and Birdsville?

AND, it get's better.

They did the same thing on the northbound side, which pretty much negates the theory of the merge lane because in order for traffic to get out from Leeland Rd to go north, the northbound traffic will be stopped by the red light.

THAT makes no damn sense at all. What I would have suggested, since it's a 3-way intersection, would have been something like what was done at Solomons Island Rd and Plum Point Rd in Huntingtown.

BeoBill said:

Trouble is most of our certified Civil Engineers come from countries where there is one paved road, and it's nowhere near their home village. They get a CE degree from some diploma mill in their home country. Then they emigrate here, get an advanced CE degree from somewhere like the South Dakota School of Mines, and are hired by SHA, who sends them to a conference to get them the Hell out of the office. They come back with some half-azzed design they saw and misunderstood, and persuade someone to "give them a chance."

The result you can see for yourself.

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Sling Blade said:

Well, stupidity is to be expected in Prince George's county.



Well, Netryeder's theory would make sense... ...on the southbound side, because it's a 3-way intersection with the side street coming in from the west.

But like I said, why not simply add a merge lane on the right side like they did at Solomons Island Rd and Birdsville?

AND, it get's better.

They did the same thing on the northbound side, which pretty much negates the theory of the merge lane because in order for traffic to get out from Leeland Rd to go north, the northbound traffic will be stopped by the red light.

THAT makes no damn sense at all. What I would have suggested, since it's a 3-way intersection, would have been something like what was done at Solomons Island Rd and Plum Point Rd in Huntingtown.

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oldsarge said:

I'm sure glad you like that intersection in Huntingtown. Of course you probably don't get stopped by the red light in the north bound lane at 11:00 pm when there are no other cars on the highway and have to wait for it to change.

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Believe it or or not, in the 8 years I've been running down there I've never seen that. Although it does make my blood pressure spike when a light changes for no reason.

This again is an example of the squeaky gear getting the grease. Since that intersection was redesigned, there have two fatal accidents in a short time.

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Don't get me started about Rt 4 in Calvert County. It seems every redesigned intersection was designed by Ray Charles. It seems that ever since all the "upper crust" from PG and DC has filtered down to the county they want to make city streets out of country roads.

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I hear ya. Harford county suffers from the same plague.

Sewer Rat said:

Seriously??? Not much experience there 'eh?

Counting myself as one of those "certified" Civil Engineeers... only I got my degree from a little po dunk engineering school in WTF Upstate NY... back then it was a college, now they call themselves a university...

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