For anyone who has been stuck in traffic driving east on Interstate 895 at Interstate 95 and said in frustration, “This is the worst bottleneck in Baltimore,” here?s something to feel better about ? you?re right.
The three-quarters-of-a-mile stretch where I-895 meets I-95 creates about 55 hours of traffic congestion per week, and motorists travel on average about 20 mph during congested times, making the area the worst bottleneck in the Baltimore metro region, according to a national study released Tuesday by traffic information provider Inrix.
The second-worst bottleneck in the Baltimore region isn?t far from the first. Where I-95 north meets I-895 creates about 50 hours of traffic congestion per week, with motorists traveling about 24 mph during busy times, according to the study.
“The reality is you have two major highways coming together and a massive number of people using those highways to commute to and from work in Baltimore City,” said Don Fry, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Baltimore Committee.
Fry and the GBC have numerous times called for the state to increase transportation expenditures by as much as $600 million per year to alleviate traffic congestion throughout the Baltimore region. Baltimore?s commuters spend almost 60 million hours sitting in traffic a year, wasting almost 40 million gallons of fuel and creating in excess of $1 billion in costs, according to study done by the Texas Transportation Institute for the GBC last fall.
The Maryland Transportation Authority is in the process of expanding the 10-mile stretch from the I-95/I-895 split in Baltimore to Route 43 in White Marsh, adding two express toll lanes in each direction to ease congestion.
“We are making improvements to that section of the highway,” said Terri Moss, spokeswoman for the MdTA.
When the project is complete in 2012, drivers will be able to travel in one of four existing general-purpose lanes, as they do today, or use an
E-ZPass to travel one of two express toll lanes that will offer “relatively congestion-free conditions,” according to the MdTA.
The Baltimore region?s worst bottleneck ranked as the 160th-worst across the country, while the region ranked 19th among the nation?s 100 largest metro areas in terms of traffic congestion. Los Angeles, New York and Chicago were the nation?s most-congested regions.
Inrix, based in Washington state, completed the study by analyzing billions of GPS-enabled probe vehicles reports from commercial vehicles, including taxis, airport shuttles, service delivery vans and long-haul trucks.
“The data powering the report will contribute enormously to a better understanding of traffic congestion that can help consumers, businesses and public officials better understand the flow of traffic and apply that information toward improvedtransportation planning and the avoidance of traffic,” said Bryan Mistele, founder and chief executive officer of Inrix.
