OCEAN CITY — With two major summer special events in the books including the O.C. Air Show and the Fourth of July, resort officials are hoping to coordinate with their state partners to improve the flow of traffic in and out of town with the meat of the summer still to come.
During a meeting on Monday, Mayor Rick Meehan briefed the council on a variety of issues discussed at last week’s Transportation Committee meeting including gridlocked traffic following major special events such as the air show and the Fourth of July. Of course, traffic jams are inevitable before, during and especially after the major special events, when masses of people are attempting to exit the resort at the same time, but Meehan said some of the issues are caused by what is going on off the island and not necessarily on it.
He suggested better coordination with state officials on the major ingress-egress points to the resort including Routes 50 and 90. Meehan said drawbridge openings on Route 50 on the Fourth of July likely caused some of the congestion downtown and suggested the traffic signals along the corridor could be better synchronized when large special events have concluded.
“We’re hoping to have discussions with the State Highway Administration and the Maryland State Police on options for improving traffic flow in and out of town during these types of events, both on Route 90 and Route 50,” he said. “One option is to try to coordinate the lights on Route 50 with the bridge openings. Maybe they can manually operate those lights to allow for the free flow of traffic when the bridge is open as we do release a lot of people from the downtown area.”
Meehan said another issue discussed during the committee meeting last week was the traffic signal on Route 90 at Cape Isle of Wight and its domino effect on traffic leaving the resort after major special events and holidays.
“We also want to monitor the light on Route 90 at St. Martin’s Neck Road,” he said. “There are times during events that, particularly the air show, one stoppage can hold up a lot of traffic in and out of town on Route 90.”
There are obvious limitations with the roadways in Ocean City and much time and expense has been invested in improving traffic flow and coordinating traffic signals on Coastal Highway, for example, but those successes have been tempered somewhat by congestion on the major access routes off the island, according to Meehan.
“We’re doing all we can right here on the island,” he said. “Sometimes, we can get them to certain points and they stop. We want to make sure they can continue their transition in and out of town.”
