TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...
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17<br />
<strong>State</strong> Struggles<br />
The SRC also provided a second report, The <strong>Maryland</strong> Transportation Authority Annual<br />
Toll Facilities Report, to the BPR for inclusion in Toll Roads. 18 These reports made clear that<br />
the state’s transportation agency sought ways to improve its statewide highway system,<br />
particularly a new highway connecting Baltimore with Washington, DC. The SRC, as well as<br />
the <strong>Maryland</strong> <strong>State</strong> Planning Commission, believed that US 1 had been widened and straightened<br />
as much as possible. Despite these efforts, the agencies could not keep up with the rapidly<br />
increasing traffic on the highway. In 1928, the average vehicles per day was 5,274, but by 1932,<br />
the average vehicles per day rose to 10,006 with a peak of over 27,000 automobiles and trucks<br />
during holiday travel periods. By 1935, the <strong>Maryland</strong> <strong>State</strong> Planning Commission concluded:<br />
Had this large increase in traffic that developed immediately upon<br />
completion [of the US 1 improvements in 1932] been visualized, it<br />
would have been apparent that an entire new road constructed on a<br />
modern alignment and grade and right-of-way to prevent<br />
encroachment would have been more economical. 19<br />
The traffic on US 1 was a combination of local traffic from Washington and Baltimore suburban<br />
communities like College Park and Elkridge, as well as vehicles traveling between the<br />
northeastern states and Washington, DC. These long distance motorists also found Baltimore to<br />
be a choke point because of the need to negotiate the city’s streets. In new towns like Greenbelt,<br />
workers carpooled to Washington, but such activities did little to reduce the growing local<br />
suburban traffic because there was limited public transportation in these areas in the 1930s<br />
(Figure 3). As the agencies discussed a new highway to the south, the crossings of three rivers<br />
and the Chesapeake Bay also demanded the SRC’s attention. 20<br />
18 Greiner Engineering Company, Baltimore, MD 1941<br />
19 <strong>Maryland</strong> <strong>State</strong> Planning Commission, Ten Year <strong>Highway</strong> Construction Program for <strong>Maryland</strong>, Baltimore (March<br />
1935), p. 10<br />
20 <strong>Maryland</strong> <strong>State</strong> Roads Commission, Preliminary Report of the <strong>Maryland</strong> <strong>State</strong>-wide <strong>Highway</strong> Planning Survey,”<br />
Baltimore, MD, in cooperation with the United <strong>State</strong>s Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Public Roads, 1938