If you're heading into Baltimore from the east, perhaps you want to pick a road less traveled and bear off US 40 onto Monument St. These photos take you as far as Haven St., where the first railroad crossing was clearly built for a two-lane road - now EB with the cross bracing - and the WB side was added later as it is just straight columns.


The spur track is also original on the EB side, this time with a stone pier for support.


Hanover St. SB under a different railroad in the Brooklyn neighborhood.


Staying with the rail theme just a little longer, this is Howard St. NB, which as you can see has light rail tracks crisscrossing it. Periodically, traffic has to cross between the tracks (first sign at Lexington St.) and then back out the side, presumably to allow station stops. The second photo shows both the railroad version of no-left-turn and the "trolley" signal, which is a bar that rotates from vertical to horizontal instead of green to red.


Luke, obey me. What this sign fails to convey is that the next signal is also your signal, but you need to obey this one first. Funny, I usually don't need a sign to tell me that. "WAIT FOR GREEN LIGHT" is what I typically see in such an application, but at the cost of being able to respond, "This is my signal? No! That can't be! That's impossible!"


Go ahead, make your snarky political comment here, because this old sign is on Baltimore St. EB at Gay St. That's right, no right turn on Gay Street. You can only go left. I'm not gonna write your comment for you.


Now that I've got your attention, let's discuss the plural of turning on red. The first sign may be faded but it comes in a modern font. It's on Greene St. SB at Saratoga St., which is one-way EB to the east but two-way to the west, so you could theoretically turn either direction without crossing traffic and this sign makes sense. The next sign is just south at Lexington St., which is two-way on both sides of Green St., so this much older sign in classic font is not correct. I mean sure, you can't turn left on red with the sign here, but you couldn't without it anyway, so the singular is fine. Also check out how "RED" was originally printed in that color.

This old signal hangs over the second "No Turns on Red" sign above.


Staying with signals and turn signs, this is on Roland Ave. NB, which just absorbed University Pkwy., at Cold Spring Lane.


On Sinclair Lane EB, instead of the double-green some traffic signals have, this grows my suspicion that Baltimore specifically worries about those who try to turn left on red.


Old font but back to the singular form on Madison St. WB, which takes traffic west from Monument St. at the top of this page, at Lakewood Ave.


Traveling north on US 1, if you don't turn left you get here in another block, as North Ave. ends. I wonder if it's a deterrent to street racing?


Madison Ave. passes through a gateway when it leaves Druid Park Lake Drive and things get a little offputtingly white-bread.


E. Monument St. WB at Washington Plaza, just north of downtown. At night, the crabs come alive and eat the brains of unwary visitors just trying to look at the old NO TURNS ON RED sign. The intersecting St. Paul Street is one-way SB but WB traffic is allowed to skosh north to continue west to the plaza, hence the sign (since replaced decades ago).


Mannasota Ave. EB across Herring Run.


Let's close it out with these similar but different-shaped signs somewhere near US 1 (North Ave.) and MD 129. You can see from the closeup that Baltimore Police has their logo here, meaning that they don't intend to protect this community - it's up to the blockwatchers. And what's that symbol on the right? It looks like Scotland has sucked up Ireland and is desiccating its remains. Is that supposed to be a scraggly old witch? Am I supposed to feel safe with blockwatchers who look like that? After all, the police endorsed them.

Franklintown Rd.
Greenspring Ave.
Lombard St.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Moravia Rd.
Northern Pkwy.
St. Lo Drive
W. 29th St.
MD 2
MD 25
MD 26
MD 45
MD 129
MD 139
MD 140
MD 144
MD 147
MD 150
MD 151
MD 171
MD 173
MD 295
MD 648
US 1
US 40
Truck US 40
I-70's eastern end
I-83, Jones Falls Expwy.
I-95
I-395
I-695
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