New Traffic Light

Anyone who has lived in Mt. Washington for any period of time has noticed a steady increase in traffic. This traffic isn't really coming from the neighborhood itself, but from an explosion of development nearby including the Quarry development, and the Beazer development on Smith Avenue. The most heavily impacted roads include West Rogers, Kelly Avenue, Smith Avenue, and Greenspring Avenue. Fortunately, a little bit of help seems to be on the way.

First, the new light in front of the Shomrei Emunah Synagogue in the 6200 block of Greenspring Avenue is a first step in sending a gentle message to our suburban neighbors. That message, of course, is "Find another way to get to work, pal." This is a dangerous stretch of road with lots of pedestrian and vehicular traffic. This is a good thing.

Next, the MWIA is working with the city to get traffic calming studies done of all of the major problem roads in Mt. Washington. While the knee-jerk reaction tends to be a blanket demand for speed bumps, there are a lot of a less intrusive but equally effective solutions for reducing traffic speeds and volumes. (Little know fact: you can't plow snow off of a street with speed bumps.)

Lastly, the design for the Jones Falls Trail that has garnered the most support from both the neighborhood and from the city runs through the Northwest Park, down a few blocks of West Rogers Avenue, and into the Pediatric Hospital property. The trail will create an opportunity for streetscaping and traffic calming measures. Particularly promising is a narrowing of the road at the very eastern end of West Rogers near the intersection with Northern Parkway.

My guess is that you can expect the neighborhood to slowly become more pedestrian and bike friendly, and that perhaps some commuters will be gradually convinced to consider another route.