A Year in the Works: Improved Crosswalks Planned for South Rolling Road

The State Highway Administration has finalized a plan to curb speeding and improve pedestrian safety along South Rolling Road, including adding new crosswalks and improving current ones.

But sidewalks are not in the road's near future, unless there is a more specific community effort to advocate for them, highway officials told residents at the  community meeting Wednesday night.

The improvements are the result of nearly a year's worth of community input and meetings to address issues of speeding, aggressive driving, pedestrian safety and traffic. SHA started the study in the spring of 2010 after it received repeated complaints from the community about the road.

In the fall of 2010, officials held a community meeting where they handed out comment cards to find out what residents needed. Out of those who responded, 82 percent said they wanted to improve pedestrian safety, officials said.

In addition, 64 percent wanted to curb aggressive driving behavior, 62 percent wanted to reduce speeds, 56 percent wanted automated speed enforcement, 55 percent wanted sidewalks on the east side of South Rolling Road and 54 percent wanted more signs and markings.

After the community meeting in the fall, a task force made up of area residents and community members was formed. The met four times to discuss potential changes with SHA staff.

The group agreed upon a new crosswalk at Park Drive and South Rolling Road and an enhanced crosswalk at Bloomsbury Avenue and South Rolling Road. These will be added this summer, SHA officials said at Wednesday's meeting.

While the improvements will help with some of the issues, officials are still looking at long-term solutions, which include adding sidewalks to the east side of South Rolling Road and more specific speeding enforcement.

Now that Baltimore County the expansion of speed cameras, there could be cameras installed on the road, but that is up to county officials, officials said Wednesday.

Erin Kuhn, an assistant district engineer for SHA, said the budget for sidewalks is relatively small and they would cost roughly $1-1.5 million. An example of an area in which SHA installed sidewalks at residents' urging is on Frederick Road leading to Five Oaks Swim Club.

Residents who want to weigh in on further improvements can go to the SHA website. To see more details of the proposed changes, go to the project page on the website.