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Perhaps alternative means of accessing Baltimore other than freeways? Half that interchange could be demolished and the park and ride could be repurposed into the start of a transit corridor. It’s a revolutionary idea that I’m sure has never been proposed, publicly supported, but cancelled by Hogan out of spite.

Anything to stop the drag racing on west bound I-70 will suffice. Speed bumps, a camera, literally anything but doing nothing would work.

Seriously the red line running from 70 to bayview would have been amazing. Even just for the access to 4 different hospitals without having to drive and park would almost make it worthwhile. Add in access to the harbor, canton and fells and we could have been well on our way to a functional transit system.

Maybe do something about that godawful merge from 70 onto 695 (going to Towson) where everyone needs to alternate to get in and no one seems to want to (or know how to) do it

Direct Link to the MDOT Project Page

The survey is pretty pointless, mostly focusing on cosmetic finishes for the new bridge(s), but there's a lot of other project info there too.

I really wish they'd put a partition or bollards up along the first and last ~quarter mile of the 83/695 merge.

Way too many assholes trying to ride the 83 exit lane then slam on the brakes and merge in at the last second.

Also way too many dipshits that slam on the brakes the second they come around the bend at the beginning acting like the merge lane is lava and they can't touch it.

You’re right. The survey isnt helpful. There’s no mention of possible layouts, alternatives to driving, or discussions about capacity (don’t increase) vs safety (slower speeds upon approach, better merge areas)

Golf carts only would be a positive start

I was curious if that was designed intentionally to throttle how much traffic is able to merge onto 695 at one time but yeah it’s ridiculous. Sometimes the park and ride is faster to get on 695.

I was JUST thinking this weekend when going through there that I don’t think there has been a single time I haven’t gotten stopped in traffic on that exit.

Build transit so the current infrastructure is fine and stop building more and bigger highways.

Blow the damn thing up and start fresh It’s always backed up as the present system is antiquated and backs traffic up for a mile at peak times

I think they did it backwards or too late. This state took just about every piece of free land to build more and more and more and more houses but did not think about expanding any roadways, now we all sit and bitch at each other in traffic. I started driving in 93, and I've sat in traffic on that side of 695 the entire time.

Used to be that it was a single lane without the merge ... they actually added the merge a while back (maybe 8-10 years?) to reduce the backups onto I-70.

Ahh ok didn’t know that. Wasn’t here then.

I just got back from Texas, and the highway infrastructure is so incredibly beautiful! The 695/I 70 interchange is crumbling, so dated/terrible to look at.

hijacking this comment to remind people to register to vote and check where they're supposed to cast a ballot if they haven't already.

stop using state tax dollars to subsidize sprawl and instead use it for transit and bike lanes... that's not an option on the survey? ohh.

You have described literally every highway intersection in Maryland. Probably the country.

People are the worst.

The stupid "Maryland Merge" where they love slimming two lanes into one on ramps or, my personal favorite, right at the merge point.

Should be illegal.

Right, The alternating merge, every other car, concept is lost on the general public. SMH

Put it in the comments at the end is what I did.

Hey, I save 20 minutes every afternoon blowing down that lane from 695 IL to 83 SB. I’ve never slammed on my brakes though. There’s no need. Always some dipshidiot playing on their phone not paying attention leaving a 18 wheeler sized hole for me to slip into.

A welcome hijack. Early voting starts this week!

Yea how dare they not stick right up the ass of the car in front, those are the people really slowing traffic down.

Or maybe people leave those gaps because it's inevitable some schmuck comes and tries to merge at the last second. If they have to stop in the adjacent lane it just makes it worse for everyone else.

And covering that 20 feet only takes a second once there's actually somewhere to go....

They’re the real heroes

The design was effective in the 1970s. It’s so outdated it’s ridiculous.

“Thanks I hate it.”

I love when I try to make space for someone entering or exiting at a reasonable speed and someone cuts me off around them and almost hits both of us lmao

An 18-wheeler sized hole that the presence of your car squeezing in makes a much smaller space, causing the car that was giving distance - for a reason - to slam on their brakes. Foolproof! Totally not an accident waiting to happen, but you know who cares if your car’s not involved.

Is there some type of survey or feedback form, or is the DOT taking feedback in the Reddit comments? All is see is the paywalled Sun article. I gave up my Sun subscription for a Baltimore Banner subscription. I’m sure many residents don’t have either. This seems a little elitist to me if they only allow people with Baltimore Sun subscriptions to provide feedback. I drive this interchange regularly to and from patients west of the city. I drove it today and saw the back up of cars waiting to get through the alternate merge area, that could use improvement.

More overpasses!!

It's about a million times worse in NY, people will literally drive miles on the should and cut you off when there's like 5 feet between you and the next car.

> I really wish they'd put a partition or bollards up along the first and last ~quarter mile of the 83/695 merge. > > Way too many assholes trying to ride the 83 exit lane then slam on the brakes and merge in at the last second.

I've had people on reddit(I want to say on this very sub) tell me that's how you do it in order to use the lanes to their full potential, and if you get in the slower lane "too early" then you're the one doing it wrong and fucking up traffic. 🙄 I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as "correct" driving, but rather a dozen different strategies that are all mutually exclusive and have everybody all pissed off at the "idiots"(ie, everyone else) who are doing it "wrong"(ie, not the way it works in their desired system).

Yes, someone posted it above.

I still don't have my sample ballot. Talk about mail delays. I'm glad I decided against voting by mail, because I'd be shit out of luck.

Yea they’re already stopped so they aren’t slamming any brakes. Unless they suck at driving, which would make sense why they think they need so much room…

Those people are dicks trying to excuse their shitty behavior.

If that's the way to do it, why the fuck would everyone else choose to spend an eternity sitting in the turn lane? Why would the correct way be blocking traffic for the lane next to the turn lane?

I rarely sit in rush these days so it's been a while but the last time someone tried to "cut to the front of the line" so to speak in front of me, I blocked him and flipped the bird tbh. I don't have much tolerance for people who believe their time and energy are more important than everyone else's.

Thank you. What a disorganized and incompetent city agency.

That’s called zippering and it’s the correct way to do it. Slamming on the brakes would be because someone doesn’t also zipper on the other lane and they are the dick.

Just zipper. Idk why they don’t teach that in MD drivers ed

Hee hee hee.

>I've sat in traffic on that side of 695 the entire time.

Wouldn't it just be faster to walk at this point? 29 years is a long time to be sitting on 695.

MDOT is a state agency.

I think a 4th bridge deck is what they really need. /s

😅🥴

They need less of them

Baltimore City DOT is the entity who posted it to Reddit on a paywalled newspaper article.

It's spots like that that make me wonder if the civil engineers who designed it have ever driven in the region. Did they really think people would take turns?

The main point of the design was to support 70 going all the way into the city.

But that got cancelled, but not until after they built this and the big hole highway to no where in west Baltimore....

It's literally in the driver's manual where people learn to drive published by the states.

Moved to MD in 07’ 695 was under construction and constant traffic. Left MD in 21’ 695 was still under construction and still in a state of constant traffic. I graduated HS & college had two kids in that time frame lol

I call that the clusterfuck

Sometimes waze takes me through the park and ride. I do not miss the commute back from Columbia…

They should get rid of it. Honestly I don’t even know why 70 extends past 695 to Leakin, that should just be a basic two lane road. Make it a smaller three way interchange where people can turn off and take 70 westbound from either direction.

Why do a quick job, when you can get a sweet contract to do bare minimum work

Can we get like maybe...perhaps...like more cops busting the lawless aggressive driving out there?

You can thank Mikukski back in the ‘70s when she engaged the “Freeway War” that propelled her into politics.

Good ole capitalism 🇺🇸

Honestly I am tired of seeing road work. 95 is a disaster every day for example.

HAHA, I tried to walk, it's cold/hot/rain/snow, so I'll continue to sit.

Zipper merge when two lanes are combining or merging, great. That doesn't excuse people on 695 stopping the left hand lane on this multi-lane highway, because they want to drive up all the way to the point that exit 23A is Ying off before merging over, even though there is a really long solid-white line turning lane for a good distance before the turn. Every single morning back when I made that commute there would be stop and go traffic for all the different lanes on the highway because people were doing that.

> That’s called zippering and it’s the correct way to do it.

It's the correct way to use a merge lane, but the lane they're talking about is not a merge lane, it's an exit-only lane for an off-ramp.

The poster above was asking for a rail lines not more freeways.

We can thank mikulski for saving Fells and Canton from being demolished.

That would still have required a right-of-way but point taken.

In addition to running through tunnels or on viaducts lights rails like the proposed red line can run on the street where needed. They do not require demolishing entire neighborhoods like large freeways and interchanges do.

The reason the Red Line doesn’t exist is because Hogan cancelled it in 2015 to shift funding to suburban roads.

Yes yes yes, I agree and get it, more money to alternative transportation - however, this is a huge system interchange and given that it’s essentially I-70’s eastern terminus it’s important to be maintained and issues with it improved. This doesn’t seem to be another of Larry’s “but what if we just add more lanes” “solutions”