The Route 29 Squeeze

Every morning, before we head off to the day job in Washington, we fire up the XM Radio to get the traffic report. Depending on what we hear, we head south on I-95 or take Route 29. We've had pretty good luck.

Coming home is a different matter. The traffic reports are less reliable. And there's always the unpredictability of the Route 29 squeeze, the section north of Johns Hopkins to Route 32, where for some inexplicable reason the state's award-winning traffic planners decided it was a good idea to take a lane away.

The last three times we have traveled this route we have passed accidents; yesterday was no different. Once a fender bender happened right beside us. It's far from a safe situation, you lose a lane on the left and have cars merging on the right.

We'd love to see the accident statistics for that stretch of road.

We recall reading somewhere that there are plans on the books to fix it, several years hence. But why did the county go along with it in the first place? Does anyone know?