Heeding exasperated motorists, the Baltimore County Council is asking its planning board to officially review the standards used to evaluate traffic intersections, which council members called outdated and inconsistent with other agencies?.
Two council members introduced a resolution Wednesday requiring the county planning board to study alternative methods for evaluating intersection volume by Sept. 17. The county?s current method dates to 1965 and yields significantly different ratings than the state?s system, said Council Chairman Sam Moxley.
“I?m wondering why they are different,” said Moxley, D-District 1. “Should this be looked at? Should it be changed?”
Moxley is co-sponsoring the resolution along with Councilman Joe Bartenfelder, D-District 6, who said he raised concerns even before activists requested change at a public hearing earlier this week.
Bartenfelder said their theory ? that a proposed list of the busiest county intersections would be longer if the county updated its method of evaluating them ? could be correct. He questioned the county?s chief of traffic engineering and a former state transportation employee, Darrell Wiles, and said he wasn?t satisfied with his response.
“You could say he fumbled,” Bartenfelder said.
Wiles said earlier this week he agreed to prepare a “brief but succinct” report on the trade-offs of each method. He said the county?s system, counting how many cars can get through a green light in one cycle, can be more accurate than the state?s, which counts the number of cars in each lane each hour.
“We do it that way because the methodology is written in the county code,” Wiles said. “We would certainly consider a change.”
Wiles is recommending seven intersections receive a “failing” rating this year, which carries restrictions on development that could exacerbate congestion. Parkville residents are lobbying for the second consecutive year the Harford and Joppa Road be downgraded from a “D” to a failing rating.
The resolution will be discussed at the council?s April 10 work session.
