TOMORROW'S ROADS TODAY - Maryland State Highway ...

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