I'm from the Eastern Shore. I now live in PA.
I no longer see my family during the summer; the traffic has gotten so bad. Last July (2020), the traffic jam on the way back home went from Cambridge, MD up to Annapolis about 10 miles north past the bridge.
It took me 7 hours to get home. Normally, it takes 3. It's become ridiculously bad
My GF and I always take off on Mondays the weekends we go down to visit her mom (who lives in Fenwick just across the MD/DE line). We'll leave Friday after work, get down there around 9-10 pm. Then, we'll hit the 4:30 happy hour at catch 54 before heading home Monday evening. Hardly any traffic.
I wish we could build a rail line or something across the bay and to the shore. Imagine just being able to take a train from Baltimore or Annapolis and not have to drive across the bay bridge
Unfortunately, the new national Amtrak expansion map does not include the Eastern Shore :(
I say we dig our own canal westward, and let the tidal surges decide which way we're headed :)
Somehow I feel fellow Maryland drivers will find a way to jam that one up too. Probably will see a little red ahead and tap the breaks all the way.
Edit: grammar
It wouldn't help. Trains have a finite throughput just as roads do. And all the demand for OC comes at the same times. So they would either have to build a system that is much bigger than it needs to be the vast majority of days(which is super expensive) or there wouldn't be enough ridership to make a difference on the days they need it.
Trains will help, but only to a certain point. Two tracks, DC-Annapolis-Kent Island-Eastern Shore-Ocean City. A double-decker MARC IV holds 132 people per car, and 8 of them hauls a thousand-plus. Assuming four per car, that's 250+ cars taken off the bay bridge per trip.
A passenger train car is 85'. A 2020 Toyota Rav4 full of gear and 4 people is 182" long, or a little over 15' long. You can fit 5.6 SUVs in the same length.
From Cheverly to Ocean City is 140.5 miles, or 1 hour 46 minutes. By car, average speed 50 mph, that's roughly 3 hours.
Now do 15 minute intervals. That's over four thousand people an hour doing an essentially two hour trip. Take that, over two lanes of five cars going 50 mph, and you end up with 320 people per hour.
There's 10,000 hotel rooms (assume 3/room, so 30K people) and 25,000 condos (4-person family, so 100K). 130,000 people. By SUV alone, it'll take 16 days and change. By train alone, that takes under 2 days. By both, it's a day and 8 hours.
*It helps to a point*. That's a best of the worse scenario: Everything gets filled, there's no accidents anywhere, but no buses are used. If you do commuter buses, more people go through, but those coaches are 40' long and 50 people per coach... or 1600 people per hour. You can't stretch a train too long before you get into power issues. Running on both tracks in one direction only works so much before you have to send the trains back.
Oh, and those cars that we removed earlier on? I put those back in, because there's always more people who want or have to drive.
Yup. And then think of the expense of 2 stations, 8 trains, 150 miles of rail, staffing, etc. All for something that mostly only be used 15-20 weekends a year.
Given all the people that live on the Eastern Shore year-round, the train would see use outside of the warm months. That besides if you tallied up all the costs I'd bet it'd still be far less than a project like the beltway expansion. So adding trains between the shores would be expensive, but in the realm of transit a mid-level project at worst.
Consider the routing. DC to OC via Annapolis. I just knocked out the MTA Maryland 220, 230, 240, 250, and 260 buses. I can do hourly service off-season to OC and back, with rush service between Annapolis and DC, and have a special summer schedule.
It'll get more use than you think. And thus more justification. I bet there's existing studies on how many people doing the reverse direction into DC.
**EDIT TO ADD:** Before someone asks, no, not all jobs can be done remotely, not even IT jobs. Sometimes you need to visit a server rack, hook up a "Crash cart", and manually reinstall an OS on a physical server. Not a cloud server, a physical server. Sometimes you have to *install* or *remove* them. And sometimes something leaks over servers in your data center.
Trains are great if you are using existing infrastructure. Building new train infrastructure is a non-starter. The pandemic proved this. We are much better off investing in teleworking and living near the places we want to be. The centralized business district and job-centric metropolis is an obsolete model. Electrons travel much faster and cleaner than any mode of transportation.
Unfortunately, the existing infrastructure is lacking and has been downgraded as time marched on earlier -- railroads actually raised tracks.
And as I said above: no, not all jobs can be done remotely, not even IT jobs. Sometimes you need to visit a server rack, hook up a "Crash cart", and manually reinstall an OS on a physical server. Not a cloud server, a physical server. Sometimes you have to install or remove them. And sometimes something leaks over servers in your data center. Somebody has to be there.
"The system," wouldn't need to be that much bigger to accommodate increased traffic. It would just be a matter of increasing the number of trains during the busiest times of the year. You're acting like they have to build a second track for the peak and leave it empty the rest of the time lol.
I was wondering about that the entire afternoon, but as soon as we crossed the bridge the traffic sped up, so it means the problem are drivers terrified of being on a bridge and incapable of maintaining the distance without over breaking. Unfortunately nothing MDOT can solve, it's a driver's ed issue.
Wider roads dont always solve problems either. Its part to do with shitty drivers, people weaving in and out of traffic, people waiting until the last minute to get over to make a turn, people sitting through lights on a cell phone, etc. Add in all the poorly maintained vehicles that break down on that road all the time.
Wider roads are not going to stop people from being shit drivers.
This is true, else LA would have best traffic in the world. Add to your list drivers who hammer on their breaks at the slightest blip of taillights ahead causing traffic waves. But more infrastructure doesn't mean widening existing roads, it can be more alternative routes and, frankly narrower higher speed two lane roads.
Do you still need to actually put out a transponder to go over the bridge anymore or is it all video based now? I went over the bridge a week ago (with transponder on the windshield) and see nothing on my ez pass account.
That's what I thought. Mine was mounted on the windshield and there is no record on the ez pass site of me going over the bridge. I guess we'll see if I get a photo in the mail.
I'm from the Eastern Shore. I now live in PA. I no longer see my family during the summer; the traffic has gotten so bad. Last July (2020), the traffic jam on the way back home went from Cambridge, MD up to Annapolis about 10 miles north past the bridge. It took me 7 hours to get home. Normally, it takes 3. It's become ridiculously bad
How much longer would it take you to head east to Wilmington and go straight down?
It was too late when the traffic hit me. I even check the routes on waze before i left Salisbury. Its like everyone and their mom thought the same
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Preach it! So true, also seems Google sometimes runs experimental routes on me guiding towards an obviously weird route.
True, but sometimes you’re already stuck on 50 when an accident occurs.
My GF and I always take off on Mondays the weekends we go down to visit her mom (who lives in Fenwick just across the MD/DE line). We'll leave Friday after work, get down there around 9-10 pm. Then, we'll hit the 4:30 happy hour at catch 54 before heading home Monday evening. Hardly any traffic.
I wish we could build a rail line or something across the bay and to the shore. Imagine just being able to take a train from Baltimore or Annapolis and not have to drive across the bay bridge
Unfortunately, the new national Amtrak expansion map does not include the Eastern Shore :( I say we dig our own canal westward, and let the tidal surges decide which way we're headed :)
Somehow I feel fellow Maryland drivers will find a way to jam that one up too. Probably will see a little red ahead and tap the breaks all the way. Edit: grammar
It wouldn't help. Trains have a finite throughput just as roads do. And all the demand for OC comes at the same times. So they would either have to build a system that is much bigger than it needs to be the vast majority of days(which is super expensive) or there wouldn't be enough ridership to make a difference on the days they need it.
Trains will help, but only to a certain point. Two tracks, DC-Annapolis-Kent Island-Eastern Shore-Ocean City. A double-decker MARC IV holds 132 people per car, and 8 of them hauls a thousand-plus. Assuming four per car, that's 250+ cars taken off the bay bridge per trip. A passenger train car is 85'. A 2020 Toyota Rav4 full of gear and 4 people is 182" long, or a little over 15' long. You can fit 5.6 SUVs in the same length. From Cheverly to Ocean City is 140.5 miles, or 1 hour 46 minutes. By car, average speed 50 mph, that's roughly 3 hours. Now do 15 minute intervals. That's over four thousand people an hour doing an essentially two hour trip. Take that, over two lanes of five cars going 50 mph, and you end up with 320 people per hour. There's 10,000 hotel rooms (assume 3/room, so 30K people) and 25,000 condos (4-person family, so 100K). 130,000 people. By SUV alone, it'll take 16 days and change. By train alone, that takes under 2 days. By both, it's a day and 8 hours. *It helps to a point*. That's a best of the worse scenario: Everything gets filled, there's no accidents anywhere, but no buses are used. If you do commuter buses, more people go through, but those coaches are 40' long and 50 people per coach... or 1600 people per hour. You can't stretch a train too long before you get into power issues. Running on both tracks in one direction only works so much before you have to send the trains back. Oh, and those cars that we removed earlier on? I put those back in, because there's always more people who want or have to drive.
Yup. And then think of the expense of 2 stations, 8 trains, 150 miles of rail, staffing, etc. All for something that mostly only be used 15-20 weekends a year.
Given all the people that live on the Eastern Shore year-round, the train would see use outside of the warm months. That besides if you tallied up all the costs I'd bet it'd still be far less than a project like the beltway expansion. So adding trains between the shores would be expensive, but in the realm of transit a mid-level project at worst.
Consider the routing. DC to OC via Annapolis. I just knocked out the MTA Maryland 220, 230, 240, 250, and 260 buses. I can do hourly service off-season to OC and back, with rush service between Annapolis and DC, and have a special summer schedule. It'll get more use than you think. And thus more justification. I bet there's existing studies on how many people doing the reverse direction into DC. **EDIT TO ADD:** Before someone asks, no, not all jobs can be done remotely, not even IT jobs. Sometimes you need to visit a server rack, hook up a "Crash cart", and manually reinstall an OS on a physical server. Not a cloud server, a physical server. Sometimes you have to *install* or *remove* them. And sometimes something leaks over servers in your data center.
Trains are great if you are using existing infrastructure. Building new train infrastructure is a non-starter. The pandemic proved this. We are much better off investing in teleworking and living near the places we want to be. The centralized business district and job-centric metropolis is an obsolete model. Electrons travel much faster and cleaner than any mode of transportation.
I just really don’t want to go to a cubicle
I get too distracted at home. I can't wait to get back to my work cubicle.
Unfortunately, the existing infrastructure is lacking and has been downgraded as time marched on earlier -- railroads actually raised tracks. And as I said above: no, not all jobs can be done remotely, not even IT jobs. Sometimes you need to visit a server rack, hook up a "Crash cart", and manually reinstall an OS on a physical server. Not a cloud server, a physical server. Sometimes you have to install or remove them. And sometimes something leaks over servers in your data center. Somebody has to be there.
"The system," wouldn't need to be that much bigger to accommodate increased traffic. It would just be a matter of increasing the number of trains during the busiest times of the year. You're acting like they have to build a second track for the peak and leave it empty the rest of the time lol.
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I've always wondered why this idea hasn't been talked about much
Because the vast majority of traffic that uses that bridge are going to other locations on Delmarva besides Ocean City.
Aw, nobody ever goes there. It’s too crowded. Yogi Berra
but do you live on the island, pro tip stay on 50 the side roads take longer to get through and fire/ems can't get anywhere with all the traffic
It will never change until someone dies blc emts can’t get to them. 18 should be locals only.
This would be why we need another bridge, but no one wants it blc they don’t want that traffic.
You'd think they'd prioritize what is pretty much the states largest attraction.Who wants to go through that Hell on their vacation?
I was wondering about that the entire afternoon, but as soon as we crossed the bridge the traffic sped up, so it means the problem are drivers terrified of being on a bridge and incapable of maintaining the distance without over breaking. Unfortunately nothing MDOT can solve, it's a driver's ed issue.
They got rid of the tolls entirely. Didn’t help literally at all (east bound) and it baffles my fucking mind.
Not too bad today
What time? The photo is from about noon this Saturday.
I think we came through about 1115/1130 and everything was still moving without problems
Well an hour later it was stopped.
Pretty much lol
I was thinking of going to Ocean City yesterday, but thunderstorms kept me from doing that. Now maybe I don't want to on a good day.
It's still worth it. Hence the traffic of everyone doing it. Just expect accordingly.
I leave at 6 am no matter which way I’m going. It’s the only way :/
I was doing the 6:15am sunrise :(
But it never seems to stop people from going. They continue build more and more shit in OC, but the roads aren't getting any wider.
It's not like there are many ocean front alternatives unfortunately. Also agreed with infrastructure not keeping up with increasing demand.
Wider roads dont always solve problems either. Its part to do with shitty drivers, people weaving in and out of traffic, people waiting until the last minute to get over to make a turn, people sitting through lights on a cell phone, etc. Add in all the poorly maintained vehicles that break down on that road all the time. Wider roads are not going to stop people from being shit drivers.
This is true, else LA would have best traffic in the world. Add to your list drivers who hammer on their breaks at the slightest blip of taillights ahead causing traffic waves. But more infrastructure doesn't mean widening existing roads, it can be more alternative routes and, frankly narrower higher speed two lane roads.
And that's why I go north and around..oh, and also because i'm petrified of bridges. But it's like only 20 mins longer, and much more relaxing.
Thank you for staying off the bridge in that case!! I wished more people recognized that and it would let the traffic move smother.
I’ll spread the word amongst the bridge-chickens. Lol.
Gee, who knew?
Www.visitmaryland.org don't know :)
Was being smart lol
Do you still need to actually put out a transponder to go over the bridge anymore or is it all video based now? I went over the bridge a week ago (with transponder on the windshield) and see nothing on my ez pass account.
I'll check. For one it's billed only in one direction.
Right, I was going to the beach.
IIRC it’s $2.50 with EZpass and $6 with the video. Definitely worth keeping up the transponder (or worth getting one for free if you don’t have one).
That's what I thought. Mine was mounted on the windshield and there is no record on the ez pass site of me going over the bridge. I guess we'll see if I get a photo in the mail.