Traffic calming efforts increasing throughout city By JAKE LINGER Staff Writer
In an effort to calm traffic in an area where a recent deadly accident and a history of speeding vehicles has frustrated a community, the city of Bowie has installed a solar-powered speed deterrent unit on Belair Drive.
Due to the recent popularity of these electronic signs, which seem to be popping up throughout neighborhoods all over the area, it's hard to not know what they look like. The flashing sign reminds speeding motorists by flashing the posted speed limit that they are exceeding that limit. In the case of the area of Belair Drive where the new light was posted, the speed limit is 25 mph.
Bowie is home to 180 miles of city roadways and nobody within the Bowie Police Department or City Hall believes that a single light is going to reduce the number of speed-related accidents, but according to Deputy Police Chief John Nesky, the addition of the signs to Bowie roads is simply "a part of our speed-reduction and traffic-calming strategy for the city."
The unit on Belair Drive is the second such addition to Bowie streets. The first unit was recently placed on Pin Oak Parkway.
The City Council approved funding for two units in the current fiscal year budget but Jim Henrikson, director of public works for the city, said that there are no other plans for additional units at this time.
Henrikson described some of the impressive technological features of the flashing signs that cost $8,300 each. In addition to being powered by rays from the sun, the units are equipped with an internal radar that detects speeding vehicles, hence setting off the flashing speed limit.
While the radar inside the two units can be calibrated as often as necessary, Henrikson said it would be relatively unnecessary because speeding tickets will not be issued based on the readings that are gathered. If information on a particular driver could be used in court it would then be necessary to more closely monitor the calibration of the radar.
The machines also are equipped with memory cards that will collect and store data as far as traffic and speed patterns. Henrikson said that the city does own two mobile units which are attached to trailers so they can make every attempt to deter speeding in multiple areas of the city, though the mobile units cannot store information as do the newer stationary models.
The location of the Belair Drive unit is rather close in proximity to where a fatal accident occurred involving a county police cruiser and a Bowie college student. The Dec. 10 wreck claimed the life of 20-year-old Brian Gray and involved county officer Mario Chavez, who has admitted to consuming alcohol just hours prior to the crash and the Gray family is suing the officer as well as the county police department. Is it more than just a coincidence that the site of the Gray accident - Belair Drive and Beaverdale Lane - is suspiciously close to where the new speed deterrent unit is placed?
"Absolutely not," said Henrikson, who said he told a technician to place the unit somewhere on Belair Drive and that is where the city employee chose to place it. Considering that motorists generally speed up and down Belair Drive from Route 301 to Route 450, said Henrikson, it really did not matter where on Belair Drive the sign was placed.
Just having the units on Belair Drive and Pin Oak Parkway is "definitely a most critical thing I think," said Henrikson.
