After Pikesville bus crash, some wonder: Is Reisterstown Road too dangerous?

About 12 hours after a bus struck multiple vehicles and slammed into a downtown Pikesville FedEx office, the familiar sounds of screeching brakes, blaring horns and rumbling trucks returned to the intersection of Reisterstown and Old Court roads.

The cause of Wednesday’s crash, which injured more than 30 people, remains under investigation. But for many in Pikesville, the incident underscored a longstanding concern. Reisterstown Road functions as both a busy state highway and the main street of a walkable business district, creating safety risks for drivers and pedestrians.

“This is something that has been known to us as an issue — known to everyone as an issue,” said Dan Brody, president of the Pikesville Improvement Corp., a group working to revitalize downtown. “It’s just: When are we going to fix it?”

Also known as Route 140, Reisterstown Road carries four lanes of heavy traffic through the heart of Pikesville, where storefronts, shopping plazas and sidewalks abut the roadway.

The Old Court Road intersection has long been one of the corridor’s most dangerous stretches. Eight crashes, including Wednesday’s, have occurred in that area this year, according to a Banner analysis of state police data.

Residents say the road’s speeding cars, heavy traffic and lack of crosswalks threaten not only safety but also the vitality of the historic retail district.

“We act like pedestrian safety and traffic safety are separate from economic revitalization,” said Karson Kamenetz, the Democratic nominee for a council seat representing Pikesville. “But you can’t have a thriving economic corridor when it feels like an extreme sport to cross the street and businesses can’t get foot traffic.”

A stream of vehicles

The portions of Reisterstown Road near Wednesday’s crash are among the busiest roadways of their kind in Baltimore County, according to State Highway Administration data.

In 2024, a daily average of about 36,400 vehicles traveled half a mile on Reisterstown Road between the Baltimore Beltway and Old Court Road. That number is roughly the same as the population of Pikesville. About 29,000 cars traveled the three-quarter-mile stretch each day from Old Court Road to Slade Avenue.

Reisterstown Road saw far more traffic than similar thoroughfares in the county, the data shows. York Road through Towson Circle carried about 19,900 cars per day in 2024. Frederick Road in Catonsville averaged about 17,000 cars per day.

“The issue is that SHA has designed this to get as many cars through the street as possible,” said Susan Williams, chair of the Pikesville Improvement Corp.’s infrastructure and traffic committee. “That’s in direct competition with the goal of a retail area, which is to have calm traffic where people feel comfortable walking.”

The Old Court Road intersection sees more crashes, Brody said, because it’s one of the few places where drivers can legally turn left off Reisterstown Road.

The State Highway Administration removed left-turn lanes at other intersections in 2017 as part of an effort to reduce crashes and keep traffic moving through town. But Brody said the changes have concentrated left-turning traffic at the Old Court Road intersection and contributed to risky driving behaviors, including illegal U-turns.

Pedestrian safety is another concern, with deteriorating sidewalks, broken curbs and other accessibility barriers making the corridor difficult to navigate — particularly for the community’s large older population.

Williams said the Pikesville Improvement Corp. board was meeting Wednesday evening when members’ phones began lighting up with alerts about the crash.

Many have grown accustomed to seeing messages about accidents near Old Court Road, but this one stood out as far more serious.

“When you have more than 30 people involved, everybody was shaking,” Williams said.

‘Not a destination anymore’

Brody grew up in Pikesville and stayed to raise his family. He remembers a much different Reisterstown Road two or three decades ago, when traffic was lighter, sidewalks and storefronts were bustling and he could ride his bike up and down the street.

Now the road is lined with vacant storefronts. Business owners say the decline is partly a reflection of broader changes in retail, but they also point to the road’s design.

“They don’t want to bother with the parking. They don’t want to bother with the traffic, the sidewalks,” said Ari Glazer, owner of Uptown Jewelers, across the street from where the crash happened.

“It used to be a destination,” employee Connie Berman added. “It’s not a destination anymore.”

The Pikesville Improvement Corp. met twice with the State Highway Administration in April to discuss safety concerns. It plans to continue those discussions. The agency said through spokesperson Shanteé Felix that a project to mill and resurface the roadway, restripe it and modify traffic signals along the corridor is in the design phase.

Residents and community leaders say the time for more discussions, meetings and studies has passed and that the focus needs to shift to action — particularly after the crash.

Funding is the biggest obstacle. Ideas include installing speed cameras, adding signs to alert drivers they are entering a business district and restoring some of the left-turn lanes removed in recent years.

“As much as I shudder at what happened here, it is a hope that we can galvanize a level of action,” said Tom Fekete, the Pikesville Improvement Corp.’s former president.

Banner editor Greg Morton contributed to this article.