We finally have five speed humps on Laurens Street between Eutaw Place and Park Avenue! Hooray!
It took 4+ years of pleading, letter-writing, 311-calling and appeals by residents and BHCA to the city’s Department of Transportation, the city council, and finally the mayor.
More recently, BHCA representatives met on Oct. 24, 2024, with representatives of DOT and the Mayor’s Office after a near-miss encounter on Laurens between a speeding motorist and a bicycling dad with his child on board. At that meeting DOT gave assurances that traffic calming for Bolton Hill both on Lafayette Avenue and on Laurens Street were “in the queue.”
Weeks later, city workers painted parking stripes and installed vertical plastic poles along Lafayette Avenue from Eutaw to Park Avenue. It was not the hoped-for solution, but it was progress. On Laurens, where Arnold Sumpter Park attracts lots of pedestrian traffic from families with children and pets, nothing happened.
Then in August 2025, road signs were installed on Laurens at the corner of Park Avenue and at the corner of Eutaw Place, indicating “Speed Humps Ahead.” But no speed humps materialized. As cool weather came, DOT told BHCA that the construction season was over and there would be installations in the spring 2026.
At still another meeting with DOT this year, the neighborhood association was told that the installation of the signs was “a mistake,” and that the city had decided not to do anything. That led to a stern letter on June 17 to the mayor from BHCA’s President Lee Tawney, to which there was no reply. But on Aug. 4, post cards mailed by DOT to Laurens Street residents informed them that, unless many neighbors objected, the city planned to do some traffic calming. And it happened!
On the morning of Aug. 26, resident Madeleine Rubenstein announced on Facebook: “Great news! Crews are out on Laurens Street today working on speed humps! I talked to the crew, and they said they’re installing five speed humps on Laurens between Eutaw and Park. Very exciting after 4 years (!) of work (at least!).”
“The moment has come!” wrote Sebastian Ruhs, the cyclist who with his son was the near-victim. And there were emojis and others commenting. Peter Jackson, who chairs BHCA’s Transportation Committee, posted a photo of city workers on the job.
In one of his novels, Charles Dickens described an agency of government called the Circumlocution Office – “beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving HOW NOT TO DO IT. The run-around was their entire purpose.” Dickens visited Baltimore in 1842 and again after the Civil War. Did he encounter our DOT?
Still, persistence won and at this month’s BHCA meeting Council Member Zac Blanchard promised to renew the fight for better traffic-calming on Lafayette Avenue.
–Bill Hamilton
