All of the attention received by the truck plunging off of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge sent me looking for traffic web cams for that area. The Maryland DOT has two cameras that cover the bridge. One shows the traffic at the west bound toll booths. The other feed alternates between the east end of the bridge and the intersection of 50 & 404. Looks like things have cleared up now.

Last year, the traffic talk around Fruitland, MD, centered around the roundabout that was constructed at the intersection of Cedar Lane and Division Street. Many local motorists fretted over the possibility that we would not know how to circumnavigate such a complex engineering project. The naysayers are quiet now, and it seems that we have survived a year of school buses and trucks and everyday traffic passing through the new roundabout. The feature is much more friendly to pedestrians, and when the power goes out, law enforcement agencies don’t have to worry about dispatching an officer to control the intersection. Roundabouts are effective traffic control features, and it seems that Fruitland was out front in the roundabout game. Residents of Montgomery County, MD, are currently witnessing the construction of several roundabouts, including three in the Deer Park neighborhood. According to Just Up the Pike, local citizens are glad to have them. There are lots of cliches about change. Changes aren’t permanent, but change is. The more things change, the more they stay the same. In the case of the Fruitland roundabout, change was a good thing.

As I drove past the latest car accident near the intersection of Snow Hill Rd. and Robins Ave. recently, I was reminded of a discussion regarding nearby Johnson Rd. and the annexation of the property now being developed as SummersGate. At the time of the preliminary site plans in October, 2005, the Daily Times reported that, “The move would allow Vantage Pointe developers to realign Johnson Road to Snow Hill Road and Robins Avenue and build new streets throughout the development.”

The added development on Johnson Rd. will obviously create more traffic at the intersection with Snow Hill Rd. By realigning Johnson Rd. to create an intersection with Robins Ave., a safer situation will result, and the additional traffic will probably bring another traffic light to town, along with left turn lanes that will reduce the likelihood of a vehicle travelling 50 MPH plowing into the rear of another stopped car.

And it appears that the SummersGate developers do intend to follow through on this plan according to a site map of the development. The map clearly shows the last portion of Johnson Rd. turning to meet Robins Ave. at Snow Hill Rd. This discussion is all a roundabout way of saying that I can see a time in the near future when we will all be safer as we travel along this portion of Snow Hill Rd., which is almost a daily occurrence for me.