Barry Donadio is a Candidate for Queen Anne’s County Commissioner that wants to hire Traffic Control and Enforcement Officers to deal with traffic epidemic.
If you are a resident of Queen Anne’s County in Maryland, you are no stranger to the traffic issues there. Residents have become prisoners in their own homes becasue they can not even drive a mere one mile to get to a supermarket because of unmanaged traffic.
The traffic apparently stems from some of the over development on the Kent Island portion of the county.
Weekend vacationers from Virgina, Washington D.C. and Western Maryland all drive across the bridge spaning over the Cheasapeake Bay to get to their final destination. The destinations that they are mostly traveling to are Ocean City Maryland, Rehoboth and Bethany Beaches in Delaware. From Memorial day all the way to Labor day, the traffic is unbearable for county residents. Not to mention, the other routine thing that create traffic jams like motor vehicle accidents and road construction.
Many county residents simply feel like they have been abandoned by the political leadership in the county. Many have praised Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s steps to help. He lowered the toll fees for the Bay Bridge and added a fourth Eastbound lane on the Route 50 portion of the Severn River Bridge. He also expanded Route 404 on Maryland’s Eastern shore. Bold steps like these have made a difference in the everyday life of many county residents that commute outside of the county for work and lesire.
Then, there is the matter of potentially overdeveloping the Kent Island area of the county. On Kent Island, the roads and infrasturcture are already overburded. Adding another housing development without extremely cautious planning and preperation can lead to disaster for county drivers.
More homes and or condos equal more cars, which will lead to more traffic.
Residents have increasingly become irrate because it appears that there has not been aduqute measures put in place to manage the traffic.
The traffic problems amoung other issues have been up for debate in this years election being held on June 26th. The contested primary race for Commissioner in District 3, which incorporates parts of Kent Island and Grasonville has been competitive.
Barry Donadio who is a Candidate for this very position is offering to bring new ideas to the table and do as he said “ Challenge the status quo.” Donadio wants to push for some interesting methods to manage the traffic that doesn’t seem to have been discussed in the past.
He wants to create an entire division of county Traffic Control Officers to deal specifically with traffic management.
All with their own patrol vehicles equipped with emergency lights to use in performance of their duties of traffic control . These Officers would be part-time and or on call for times when they are needed.
Donadio said “ I have seen many times when if there were simply a person directing traffic on a county road, the travel time would have been cut in half for commuters.” Donadio also said that his idea is a start in fixing the problem and is a step in the right direction.
He also wants to train the existing county Park Rangers for traffic management applications and use the Rangers for traffic control during gridlock scenaros.
Donadio says he will be meeting with all the county Fire Department Chiefs and see how he can work with them to add more Fire Police to their departments. These designated Fire Police Officers may be able to also assist with traffic management when needed at accident scenes and free up State Troopers and our County Deputies to do law enforcement duties.
Donadio is interested in working with the Sheriff to possibly increase funding to the Sheriff’s Department and exploring the possibily of having county Auxiliary Deputies assist more frequently with traffic gridlock.
Donadio offered this statement “ We can no longer ignore the immense traffic issues that our county faces. I am going to impose bold measures to manage the traffic so residents can traverse our roadways more freely and safely”.
Blame is often pointed at State Officials because many of the traffic clogged roads are state roads. The county is powerless to do anything about the traffic on state roads. Donadio does not think that the county should keel over and play dead on the subject of traffic and he states he will push hard for solutions from the State.
During a recent forum Donadio publicly stated that he would fight the rumored 3rd Bay Bridge spanning to Kent Island and he would begin fighting it immediately.
