Salisbury, MD – The City of Salisbury will be removing the temporary rumble strips and installing permanent flashing stop signs at the intersection of Camden Ave. and South Blvd. The temporary rumble strips are planned to be removed during the day on Tuesday, May 30th. This road work will require closing down Camden Ave. from 9am-4pm from Pennsylvania Ave. to South Blvd. as well as South Blvd. to Monticello. South Blvd. will still be open for traffic, and residents living on Camden Ave. will still have access to their driveways. The removal process will not involve large machinery so road work will be relatively quiet for neighboring residents.
The 4 permanent flashing stop signs will be installed when supplies are delivered in June. These stop signs have solar powered LED lights permanently outfitted in the perimeter of the octagonal sign to bring more awareness to the intersection. These are the last of the currently planned changes to the intersection of Camden Ave. and South Blvd. but the City of Salisbury will continue to document the traffic pattern of the neighborhood.
The traffic flow of this area has been monitored for several years and traffic studies have been analyzed when planning changes to the intersection. Traffic studies are in depth investigations of the transportation system in a specific area, which pull data from various sources to show if a current traffic pattern is warranted or to help form a plan if changes need to be made.
When forming traffic studies for the intersection of South Blvd. and Camden Ave., the City of Salisbury compiled data from the Army Corp of Engineers on sightline analysis, local cameras were used to record travel counts through the intersection and GPS systems were installed to document speed of traveling vehicles. The traffic studies showed that a stop light was not warranted for the intersection and the stop light was turned to a flashing red light on March 16th.
“The technology used in the stop light at the intersection is antiquated, replacement parts are no longer made so they are mainly harvested from other similar technology. After transitioning the light from a typical stop light to a flashing red, there was an equipment failure and it can no longer be used as a crossing stop light,” said Rick Baldwin, City of Salisbury Director of the Department of Infrastructure and Development. “The entire signal would need to be replaced with a new support structure, which is cost prohibitive to implement. It’s not practical to bring back the light.”
Since March 16th, there have been 4 motor vehicle accidents at this intersection, 3 of which required an accident report and 2 of those involved injuries to the occupants of the vehicles. After analyzing the accident reports, the City added additional measures the week of May 22nd to increase the safety of vehicles traveling in the area. These measures included temporary rumble strips, temporary stop signs and speed awareness signs on Camden Ave.
With a 4 way stop, Maryland law states that all drivers must yield to the vehicle operator who arrived and came to a complete stop first. After that, driving etiquette suggests to yield to the vehicle to the right when next to each other at a 4 way stop, to yield to any vehicles going straight if they are across from each other and right turns take the right of way over left turns. Residents are always urged to use caution and be mindful of their speed when nearing intersections with new traffic patterns.
“The safety of our residents is our top priority and that is why we are looking so closely at all the possible options here. We heard you at our City Council meetings and extra safety measures were added to make drivers aware of the change in traffic flow to the intersection,” said Mayor Jack Heath. “I am confident in our path ahead and look forward to traveling down Camden Ave. Tuesday evening after the rumble strips are removed.”
In an effort to give the residents a voice in traffic flow decisions in the future, The City of Salisbury is considering reinstating the ‘Traffic Safety Advisory Committee’. TSAC was a board of residents that advised the Mayor and City Council on changes needed in the City’s transportation network to improve vehicle and pedestrian safety and the efficiency of traffic movement. This board was decommissioned but can be reestablished by the Mayor to gather further perspective on the impact of traffic decisions.
Should you have any questions or need clarification regarding this project, please contact Jon Wilson or Brian Duke with Salisbury Department of Infrastructure & Development at 410-548-3170.
