Joppa Road study to be postponed

No time frame available on gathering new data 07/25/01
by Laura Beitman

Baltimore County planning officials say they will postpone a study of the Joppa Road corridor until a updated and comprehensive traffic study of the busy thoroughfare can be presented to advisory board members. As a result, a meeting scheduled for tonight has been cancelled.

"In order to effectively study the area, up-to-date information is needed," said Diana Itter, community planner for the 6th Councilmanic District who is helping to lead the study. Some of the statistics regarding the volume of traffic at various intersections along the corridor are three and four years old, Itter said.

Those numbers were presented by traffic engineering bureau chief Darrell Wiles during the last advisory group meeting on June 26. "We felt it would be appropriate to get up-to-date traffic counts and do that before the study reconvenes," she said.

Councilman Joe Bartenfelder and planning staff launched a kick-off meeting for the Joppa Road corridor study June 12.

An advisory committee of citizens was formed to evaluate the properties on Joppa Road from Perring Parkway to Belair Road. The advisory committee will make recommendations on land use, development, infrastructure, landscaping, design issues and impact on fire and traffic, Gary Kerns, chief of community planning said.

On July 19, a letter from the office of planning and Bartenfelder requesting the traffic study was forwarded to the Bureau of Traffic Engineering and Transportation Planning, Itter said. In the letter, the office of planning recommends the study include traffic counts, turning movement counts, origin and destination analysis, computer modeling, traffic projections to 2025 and mapping the location of all Joppa Road curb cuts. The letter also recommends that a mass transit needs analysis be conducted to "look at a possible bus loop connecting the Towson and White Marsh town centers, evaluate 30-foot buses instead of the standard (sized) buses," and evaluate pedestrian and bicycle needs.

Having just received the request last week, bureau chief Wiles said he could not offer any details of the possible traffic study including cost or a time frame. Wiles said a study of Owings Mills Boulevard, which included major structural improvements and a new interchange, took a year.

Advisory board member Don Bollhorst, president of the Perry Hall Business and Professional Association, said he thought the traffic study was a good idea. "We really need to know what traffic numbers are. It should be a carefully studied process," he said. Bollhorst added he was curious as to why the planning office did not consider the traffic study before the advisory board was set up.

Mike Rupp, an advisory board member and president of the Carney Improvement association said he was frustrated with how the corridor study has proceeded. "This whole thing seems to be half baked. They need to take this seriously. If something is not done before the next comprehensive zoning process, it will be back to square one - fighting with everybody. We want this to be an equitable thing between property owners and residents."

According to numbers provided by Wiles during the June 26 meeting of the group, the average number of daily trips on Joppa Road for a four-hour period that includes rush hour, is approximately 33,000.