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Sunday, July 30, 2017

Why Is It Taking So Long To Make Improvements To Rt. 50

I made a trip to Annapolis on Sunday and just couldn't believe how congested it was. What started out as a great ride with very little traffic all the way to Cambridge, things started changing from that point on. 

By the time I got to Rt. 404, it became a parking lot all the way to the Bay Bridge. The highest speed I got up to was 5 mph until I got over the Bridge.

What blows me away is the fact that Ocean City brings the state of Maryland the second highest taxes in the entire state, so why the hell are there such massive traffic issues. I can only imagine what it's like coming east bound on any given Friday or Saturday coming in to Ocean City or even getting through the Bay Bridge.

They can create another Bay Bridge but that will do nothing to create relief as you get into our area. If you are anywhere near my age, I can recall when it was only Old Ocean City Road, (one lane each way) and we dealt with the same traffic back in the 1970's. All these years later and there's really been no relief.

We should make each Governor have to drive into Ocean City from Annapolis on a summer weekend and experience just how frustrating it is. I, (for one) am sick and tired of bailing out Baltimore with our incredible tax revenue. 

What would you suggest?

41 comments:

Rebel Without a Clue said...

Make them make the commute with police escort too!

Anonymous said...

Probably similar reasons to why Main Street in Salisbury is taking forever.

Anonymous said...

my solution is shut the bridge down

let people over there stay over there

Anonymous said...

"...shut the bridge down..."

Yeah, that'll do wonders for our local economy.

Anonymous said...

And there would be even less money coming into the shore you idiot. Go back under your rock hermit.

Anonymous said...

12:16 and the economy would tank.

It's called traffic, no offense but that's what you get.

Anonymous said...

The Rt. 50 corridor from the Bay Bridge to the Harry Kelley Bridge has become a continuous retail outlet, generating tax revenue. Similar to Rt.113 thru Millsboro & Georgetown....stop-n-go-n-spend

Anonymous said...

They need to make 213 a non-intersection, put a real interchange at 404, a real by-pass around Easton, and another bridge over the Choptank so we can avoid Cambridge. Then they can open up the speed limits so we can actually use the road as it was designed!

Anonymous said...

Anyone who imagines they can scoot over to the Western Shore on a Sunday afternoons in the summer is naive, to put it nicely. Is this something to pour billions of dollars into?

LastMohican said...

You people just don't get it. We, (the people), just don't care all that much about so called tax revenue which we don't see a whole of. Any tax monies we do get from tourists is nowhere near enough to counter the frustration, the damages, the noise, the pollution, the crime, the attitudes and all the other problems and inconveniences the hordes of ill mannered tourists bring with them.

Anonymous said...

The problem is that every highway improvement job is an opportunity to plunder the state's resources.
Every company who wins a bid on the highway immediately designs a 10 year plan to milk the deal of every thing it is worth.
American companies have become corrupt like 3rd world countries used to experience.
We are truly becoming 3rd world-like in the way things don't get done.

Anonymous said...


Getting the lines painted for the bike lanes? /sarc

Anonymous said...

I flew commercial out of the Ocean City, MD airport in the 70's. Time for a good low cost carrier flying from BWI or other smaller airports in the Balt. area.

Another viable option - train service from Wilmington. How many NY and PA tags do you see. For most of that traffic train service makes since. BTW: The right-of-way railroad corridor to OC from Berlin is still there.

Anonymous said...

I always thought I liked this area since there was no interstate running through it. Nowadays, I wish we had one. It would keep most of the out of towners off my street.

Anonymous said...

My suggestion: Move. We did.

Anonymous said...

@1:44, you don't understand economics. It isn't just taxes. It's the tourist dollars that pay wages. Then those wages are spent 2 or 3 times over as they circulate thru the economy -- the multiplier effect. Lots of people couldn't live here at all without tourists because they wouldn't have jobs.

Anonymous said...

Look at the waste of funds being wasted in Salisbury on Rt 50 between Goose Creek and Arby's, to fence in the jay walkers. All of that government waste (taxes) to control those that don't go by the rules. Unbelievable!

Anonymous said...

Nothing has been done in about 30 years since the last real enhancement to Route 50. The built a new Kent Narrows bridge, new Cambridge bridge, new Vienna bridge - then the bypass around Salisbury in early 2002.

Yeah folks, 30 years for those bridges and 15 years since bypass. Whats happened since? Lots of growth west of the Bay Bridge and here on DELMARVA. Its time again to build more roads since building homes/industry never ever stops!!

Then again, traffic is ONLY from May-Aug.

Anonymous said...

315
Is that what it is for?

Will it take 2 years to complete?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
@1:44, you don't understand economics. It isn't just taxes. It's the tourist dollars that pay wages. Then those wages are spent 2 or 3 times over as they circulate thru the economy -- the multiplier effect. Lots of people couldn't live here at all without tourists because they wouldn't have jobs.

July 25, 2017 at 2:44 PM

You don't know what I understand. I was responding to the first comment about TAXES!

am sick and tired of bailing out Baltimore with our incredible tax revenue.

Get it?

You assume people on the shore would not survive without tourists and by default, tourist dollars, whether it be tourist taxes or tourists spending money and "paying peoples' salaries".

And like most assumptions, yours is wrong also. The people from the shore would survive without tourists and without tourists' money, whether it be in the form of taxes or "paying their wages".

Granted, the local economy would take a hit but we would adapt and survive. Further, the taxes generated from tourists in this area goes where? How much is returned to our local area? How much do we REALLY benefit from taxes paid by tourists?

Not a whole lot. Maybe you and boy wonder mayor from smallsbury can get together and create some more magical numbers like his crime figures. Just don't use agencies when you do. He says the FBI lies and can't be trusted to give out accurate numbers, so it would stand to reason he would say the same about any auditing company or treasury report.

You people are just not that important to local PEOPLE. Pols and banks might love you but the rest of us can do without you.

So just stop coming here for a season or two, or three, or permanently. That might teach us a lesson, right?

Anonymous said...

The Ocean city highway of death.

Anonymous said...

July 25, 2017 at 2:44 PM

Another bloody genius hiding. Why don't you rent a lecture hall and educate in this country? You definitely know everything about everything, right?

Jim said...

That traffic had nothing to do with construction on Rt 50. I went to Millersville and left Parsonsburg around 10:30 Sun AM at wast at at the party I was going to within 2 hours. We left to come back around 5 and yes traffic was much worse at that time going west. Maybe because people leave OC, Rehoboth, Dewey, Bethany at same time and pretty much have to use 50 or 404 to 50. Do not blame construction because there was none.

Brookyln Bob said...


Jake Days solution ROUND-A-BOUTS

Anonymous said...

Hey folks guess what????? Its been this way for all of my 60+ years......every summer Memorial Day through Labor Day then it begins to clear out. So do like us native Delmarva red necks.....just chill, eat some steamed crabs and drink some cold beer and just enjoy the Delmarvelous lifestyle!

Anonymous said...

There's a simple solution - go to the Outer Banks, where it's much nicer.

Anonymous said...

1:44/4:49 - a NIMBY on the shore..wow, must be a transplant from the west side of the Bay Bridge. the MD 10 mile island would implode without tourists so nothing is ever changing!

Well a WWIII would do it, but I'm hopeful that is never coming! We perms, just hunker in May-Aug, enjoy the entertainment factor (cuz every week brings something new/exciting) and rejoice once NFL season starts!

Anonymous said...

What we need is another route to get over the Bay. How about that ferry from Crisfield to Reedville, VA. It works for Cape May.

Anonymous said...

July 25, 2017 at 8:00 PM

wrong again, on every count. I think your perm is a little too tight and squeezing the air inside your head. You better stick to things you understand before it explodes.

I really wish people like you wouldn't admit you are from here. you make the rest of us look bad.

Anonymous said...

the MD 10 mile island would implode without tourists so nothing is ever changing!
July 25, 2017 at 8:00 PM

You seem to be very young, or immature or both. And lazy if you think everything will just grind to a halt if the impossible were to happen and tourists stopped coming to OC.

Americans have built this country up to be a super power in a relatively short time. Do you think one little town would just turn into a dust bowl with tumbleweeds tumbling down the street because it lacked visitors?

Don't worry, it probably will never happen and you can continue to go there, get drunk/high and chase bikini's (or speedo's if you're that type)

Anonymous said...

There is not one 4 lane highway that go west to east through Delaware or Maryland. We need some type of bypass.

Anonymous said...

912 - I must agree about the town coming to a halt without tourist...with only 7000 registered folks (voters) in OC - heck increase it to 10K, and those who own but do not live here - where's the money coming from to keep the economic engine running? Many small towns across America have gone POOF over the years due to many factors. Moving to big cities where the jobs are, many many jobs went overseas. Pittsburgh is no longer the "steel" town like it once was, manufacturing in the mid atlantic states are gone, tobacco gone, mid America car manufacturing nothing like it used to be (they usually close in September because cars are not selling).

Lots of proof there of what could happen. Will it, nah I agree with you there. Things are still fragile so to poo poo the possibility is unreasonable.

And whats wrong with chasing bikini's? I can't get around that well anymore so binoculars work just fine!!!!

Anonymous said...

to funny, it's an easy fix but the state would lose a lot of revenue. a few clover leafs would solve the problem, one by 404 another by that crappy little college and the outlets and problem solved. or just build a limited access toll road across the shore and make them pay. Unfortunately though the state will lose those tens upon tens of millions of dollars of speeding fines they generate each year! remember it's always about the cash!

Anonymous said...

I think the writer is so old that he has memory issues. Perhaps he shouldn't be driving anymore if he can't handle the traffic. Unless there is a highway obstruction, there is no way traffic ONLY goes 5 MPH for that distance. It would have taken him 4 hours just to get from RT 404 to the Bay Bridge. Maybe HE was the obstruction. I bring up the age of the driver, because RT 50 has been dual to OC since well before the seventies. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge was built in 1952. Rt 50 to OC in 1949. Obviously, his "recall" isn't what it used to be. And Old OC Road (MD RT 346) was only a route from Salisbury to OC. It was never a road to anywhere else. Embellishment of the complaint does not help his argument.

Anonymous said...

maybe you have never seen a backup before

Anonymous said...

Never, EVER, seen a four hour backup, anywhere, anytime, in my life as a citizen and professional CDL licensed driver that has driven millions of miles. Now I have seen backups that SEEMED like a long time, but it is a matter of perception; one just thinks it is forever when the traffic slows or stops for a few minutes. It is never hours.

Anonymous said...

2:30 then you never been around when there's a crash on the bay bridge. been in plenty of hours long backups! daily commuter to western shore for over 15 years!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Never, EVER, seen a four hour backup, anywhere, anytime, in my life as a citizen and professional CDL licensed driver that has driven millions of miles. Now I have seen backups that SEEMED like a long time, but it is a matter of perception; one just thinks it is forever when the traffic slows or stops for a few minutes. It is never hours.

July 26, 2017 at 2:30 PM

well that just means you are young. used to have them all the time before they improved 50. and you must not drive far if you never had to climb in the sleeper because the highway was shutdown.

Anonymous said...

no, I take that back. you must be at least 41 if you have driven millions of miles

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Never, EVER, seen a four hour backup, anywhere, anytime, in my life as a citizen and professional CDL licensed driver that has driven millions of miles. Now I have seen backups that SEEMED like a long time, but it is a matter of perception; one just thinks it is forever when the traffic slows or stops for a few minutes. It is never hours.

July 26, 2017 at 2:30 PM

I don't think I was on the same page. One can usually get through a traffic jam but the jam itself and still be there for hours. That's what I was getting at. After I posted that crap I realized what you were probably saying and my response was unnecessary. I was probably wrong but big enough to admit it and apologize. So Here it is, I apologize.

See people, it does happen and the earth did not stop spinning.

Anonymous said...

Overpass at 404,the outlets and Chesapeake College should do nicely.