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.
A group of Bolton Hill neighbors has created a petition that seeks both improved traffic safety and solutions that are respectful of our neighborhood’s historic character. The recently installed flexi-posts along Park Avenue were a first step toward addressing transportation safety concerns. We should thank the BHCA Transportation Committee for initiating this effort. However, many residents believe safety can be further improved. Flex-posts do little to reduce vehicle speeds except at intersections, and some have already been damaged, creating additional hazards.
They appeared mysteriously just a few days ago: two large so-far empty flower pots on the curb near the intersection of Laurens Street and Park Avenue, where traffic from the I-83 exit ramp and North Avenue has been a long-running danger and irritation to residents there.
BHCA’s transportation committee has acquired and installed Telraam sensors to monitor traffic electronically from two strategically located buildings on Lauren Street, with additional sitings planned for Lafayette Avenue and near Bolton Hill Nursery and MICA locations, according to committee member Sam Getchell.
In an effort to decrease vehicular accidents and improve safety, automated speed enforcement cameras have been installed along the Jones Falls Expressway / I-83 within city limits. Enforcement locations have been identified along the JFX where high incidents of speeding and vehicular crashes typically occur.
Thanks to BHCA President Lee Tawney’s persistence, City DOT staff recently met with neighbors to talk about moving ahead on our longstanding challenges in the Laurens and Lafayette Street corridors, as well as North Avenue, the Park and North avenues intersection and Mount Royal Avenue.
When resident Sebastian Ruhs was taking his two-year-old son by bike to Bolton Hill Nursery School one morning last month, a speeding driver nearly hit them at the intersection of W. Lafayette and Park Aves.
City council member Eric Costello says that, after years of petitions from Bolton Hill and his office, the city Department of Transportation will take several “traffic-calming” initiatives on West Lafayette Ave. and Laurens St.
The city moved forward in October on its long-term Complete Street program that tries to emphasize safety and alternatives to cars as transportation in the city.
In what optimists might see as a sign of progress, two officials from the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) last month came to Bolton Hill with and at the urging of city council member Eric Costello to investigate complaints about traffic dangers.
