TANEYTOWN, Md. — We expect our children to learn inside the classroom, and outside Taneytown Elementary and Northwest Middle schools along Trevanion Road, some drivers are learning some lessons of their own the hard way.
“I feel that the speed cameras have made this road, in particular, much more safe,” said Doug Readmond whose house fronts the road, “I have a small child. My next-door neighbor has small children.”
Since speed cameras went up just after the first of the year, incidents of speeding have been cut in half, according to Mayor Chris Miller, and there have been six thousand citations to prove it.
“The highest citation we given out so far, the highest speed on a citation is 83 miles per hour, and checking through that, that offender hasn’t repeated again,” said Miller, “We haven’t seen him down that road again.”
Four others were driving in excess of 70 miles per hour---all in a 20 miles per hour zone.
The mayor says the speed cameras have not only allowed the city to improve safety here in the school zone, but also it has afforded the city the chance to make other traffic improvements throughout the area.
In the last few years, the city has added nine traffic calming projects including speed bumps, tables and raised crosswalks, and with its cut of a quarter of a million dollars produced in the new cameras first four months of operation, it’s about to add a whole lot more.
“We’ve already allocated in FY27, which comes up July 1, $300,000 to the budget to add more of those types of safety measures to the residential streets,” added Miller.
For those in the city of just 7,200, six thousand tickets may seem excessive, but Miller says the overwhelming majority of the offenders aren’t local.
“We’ve broken it down to, again, the zip code, which includes our unincorporated area around us, but again, 15 percent are the 21787 zip code,” pointed out Miller, “So you’re talking even less than that are from the municipality of Taneytown, itself, and again, we expect that number to go lower and lower, because if you live here, you should know where these things are.”
And why they’re necessary, following a fatal hit-and-run involving a pedestrian on this same road a few years ago.
“A lot of people say, ‘Money grab!’ It’s not about a money grab,” said Readmond, “This is about safety and people need to watch their speed.”
