COLUMBIA, Md. — Neighbors who live in the Allview community want more to be done to cut down on speeders and distracted drivers, especially those using their streets as a cut-through between Route 29 and Broken Land Parkway.
Mesfin Gebeyhou has lived there for more than a decade. He points out the intersection of Beechwood Drive and Amherst Avenue, where a crash left his neighbor’s car totaled last year. He and other neighbors have also had some near misses there.
“Obviously that stop sign is not working. There are people just going right through it," Gebeyhou said. "What is it going to take?”
Neighborhood used as cut-through for Rt. 29 and Broken Land Parkway; Neighbors urge traffic safety upgrades
The concerns aren’t limited to just that intersection.
At the entrance of the neighborhood on Shaker Drive, several roads meet: Amherst, Allview, and Belleview.
The lack of signage makes neighbor Pat Lombardi’s uneasy about driving there.
“There is no stop sign. So you’re always trying to look around the tree, and look to make sure nobody is coming up at you. It’s just a dangerous situation,” she said.
She’s hopeful for more signage and possibly even a traffic circle.
Some parts of the neighborhood have traffic calming measures, but not Beechwood Drive.
Last March, Howard County’s Department of Public Works evaluated it and found it did not meet the minimum rating criteria necessary, with traffic going around 5 to 8 miles above the posted 25 miles per hour speed limit.
When it comes to the possibility of making this intersection a 4-way stop, another ask by some, traffic volume is considered too low to warrant it, according to DPW.
But neighbors, like Gebeyhour, are determined nonetheless. Even with pushback from others who live in the area, who think that calming measures would hinder emergency vehicles, or may not do much to impact speeding at all.
“There’s a bus stop right here now with the kids in the mornings,” he said. “Why wait until we lose a life, another life, before we come up with solutions? And if it gets shot down, we keep going.”
Gebeyhou has also reached out to his councilperson, District 3’s Christiana Rigby, in the hopes that more can be done.
The office reports it’s looking into it.
