Road Reopening – Moores Mill Road
The Harford County Department of Public Works has announced that Moores Mill Road between Southampton Road and Broadway has been re-opened to vehicular traffic.
The road had been closed for approximately two months for road construction.
matter of fact, i was on Moore’s Mill road yesterday…and what a relief, no more ‘treking’ through Major’s Choice to find my way back to Hickory avenue…the residents there must be relieved as well.
it’s nicely done, and the round-about will work well, dumping eastbound travelers onto Southampton…one day…
this is a good project, done in timely fashion…the kind of $$$ that look like they were spent well.
I would love to know how many roundabouts Harford has now. We just might be the roundabout capitol of the world! 🙂
I lived in an area recently where all of the traffic circles were removed because they were causing more accidents than they were preventing. Now I move here and they are building them left and right!!!
Wow, who gives a shit.
Please don’t write on this blog if you are going to be an uncouth idiot. Webmaster, please block this moron.
Roundabouts, if they are properly designed (and the ones in MD are not) are much more efficient and far safer than traffic lights.
The UK uses traffic circles at all major intersections on trunk roads, and there is no requirement to sit waiting and burning gas while the lights change.
The only thing one needs is to understand the rules governing a traffic circle; vehicles currently on the circle have right of way, and you should merge into the circle between vehicles. The use of indicators, upon entering and exiting the circle is important.
The design of the roundbout is very important to its acceptability; most of those existing in MD are too small for their purpose and they require a fairly tight turning circle, and there is not enough space to comfortably enter the circle between vehicles.
One place that desparately needs a properly designed roundabout is on Route 40 in Havre de Grace at the junction with US 40 and Ontario Street. Here 5 busy roads merge, and now is the time for the land to be purchased (The old Highs and the old Kunkels, which are both for sale) to create a multi lane roundabout.
Right on the money, the roundabouts here are too small in size to work as intended, in the UK and some other parts of the US, they are large enough so that 10 or more vehicles can fit inside at one time allowing enough room for traffic to continuously flow, the new roundabout on Moore’s Mill is much too small to be effective. A common T intersection with a stop sign on the bottom of the T woudl have cost less and have been more effective.
Have too agree. just take a look at the location of the round about on prospect mill road. but then there was a problem for the wagner development. with out another exit.
Coledata is correct. Roundabouts or traffic circles are very efficient and safer than traffic signals. The problem is in the U.S. they are too small and Americans need learn how to drive on the circles. Drivers entering the circle must yield to the traffic in the circle and the vehicles in the circle need to keep moving and not yield to traffic entering the circle. Use turn signals when driving and pay attention to which lane you are in (internal or external) while in the circle.
On another note, the people designing the traffic circles need to learn that you do not put crosswalks near the enterence of the circle. Vehicles exiting the traffic circle must yield to the pedestrians in the crosswalk and traffic comes to a stop in the circle. This causes accidents. Look at the traffic circle in Towson at Joppa, Dulaney Valley and York Roads. Idiots put crosswalks all around the traffic circle and it is a wonder nobody has been killed.
Actually, although what you say appears logical, it isn’t quite correct, unless the pedestrian traffic is extremely heavy, in which case I would suggest underpasses.
At every entrance onto a roundabout there should be a triangular island, often known as the “pedestrian island”. Logically pedestrians will wait on the safe have of the island before progressing further, and, agin logically, should look for a gap in traffic before proceeding.
If you are enteing the roundabout you have to wait until there are no pedestrians; this aids traffic flow currrently on the roundabout by giving a brief pause before more trafic is allowed to enter.
Similarly, if you are trying to exit the roundabout and there are pedestrians, you have to stop at the roundabout exit. This should not impede other traffic on the roundabout who should be on the inner lane as they are gooing to an exit beyond yours.
On approaching a roundabout from a multilane highway it is important to position your vehicle in the correct lane. If you are taking the first exit you need to be in the right lane. If you are taking the last exit you need to be in the left lane. If you are not sure, take the left lane and go around the circle twice, moving across lanes on the circle to position yourself for the exit you need.
For this to work properly the roundabout MUST be correctly designed, and drivers must learn how to use them.
Unfortunately I have not seen one roundabout in the USA that is designed to meet it’s purpose, and consequently drivers dislike them intensely. Our road planners need to go to Europe and experience the roundabouts on the major roads there; they will soon see that what they are providing us is totally inadequate.
An image on using multilane roundabouts is availabe here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NonUK_Roundabout_8_Cars.gif
Coledata,
I lived in the UK for three years. The roundabouts were designed with few crosswalks, instead crosswalks were placed where they would have minimal impact on the traffic, especially the traffic exiting the roundabout.
You are right in the fact that Americans need to be educated on how to drive in a traffic circle.
Actually, I am British!
There are two types of this intersection, the traffic circle and the roundabout, and the primary difference is the pedestian crossings on roundabouts. These do not exist on traffic circles.
There are also a slightl differences and therefore confusing ways to drive on them, but the UK is now standardizing on the roundabout method.
It seems like Moores Mill Road has been closed much longer than 2 months!
Moores Mill Road (between Majors Choice Drive and Broadway) has been open since August. Southampton Road connecting to Route 543 is still closed.
And to the posters in August – you are describing traffic circles, and these are roundabouts. There is a difference. These have drastically reduced the number of injury accidents at intersections where they replaced traditional three-way or four-way configurations.