Road inequality in MoCo

[Anonymous]

Anyone in the county can call 311 any time and report any pothole. It will be fixed within 3 days.

As far as traffic, have you been on Old Georgetown Road, River Road, Wisconsin Ave or Connecticut Ave? All are awful. But Planning Board and Council only care about pedestrians and busses, not cars, so nothing will ever be done and traffic will continue to get worse everywhere.

[Anonymous]

I can understand keeping the roads up to snuff in high density areas but in more rural areas road improvements often result in more traffic and destroy the character of an area. We successfully advocated for not improving our roads in order to maintain the rural character and prevent people from using them as a bypass to the nearby numerous parks or needlessly exploring in our area, creating a hindrance for our neighbors and us.
While nicer roads would have been nice the trade off simply wasn’t worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone in the county can call 311 any time and report any pothole. It will be fixed within 3 days.

As far as traffic, have you been on Old Georgetown Road, River Road, Wisconsin Ave or Connecticut Ave? All are awful. But Planning Board and Council only care about pedestrians and busses, not cars, so nothing will ever be done and traffic will continue to get worse everywhere.

Those roads are a dream compared to the roads in Silver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg this inequality sh*t is out of control. What’s next? Air is more polluted in poor areas?

Since you asked, yes, because there are fewer trees in poor areas.

The poor areas are also where the polluting heavy industries go, and the poor people have less clout to complain or do anything about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is it that areas like Potomac, Bethesda, Rockville, Travaliah, etc. all have decent functioning roads in MoCo while many parts around Silver Spring, Wheaton, etc. have some of the worst roads imaginable? Holy Toledo has anyone ever driven around parts of Silver Spring closer to the border of PG? It is an unmitigated disaster worse than driving on the surface of the moon. Main roads are like a 3rd world country, and man neighborhoods have atrocious quality streets. Why does the county never have this problem in the much whiter and wealthier areas? I'll tell you why, because of racist road inequalities that perpetuate systemic racism. The county spends all of its money to make sure infrastructure is functional in all of the rich white areas while all of the brown people get stuck with roads that may as well be like they are from Mogadishu. It imparts more costs on people who are already poor because they end up having to pay more often for repairs to their cars from having to drive so often on the worst roads in the world. It's really time for the county to address this dispicable inequality. Pave the damn roads in the eastern half of the county already.

That's funny, because I hit a LOT of potholes in Rockville.

[Anonymous]

Old Georgetown had awful potholes for a long time until very recently. There was on pothole near NIH that was almost as big as a car that had another baby potholle inside of it. I’ve never seen a pothole as big anyplace in the world and it was there for many years. They redid the road after a child was killed and put in bike lanes so I think they’ve finally basically fixed it.
So there are definitely some really shitty roads in the western part of the county too. I wonder if it’s something about the weather or the chemical they use to treat the roads or the type of asphalt they use….I’ve lived in a lot of places and I don’t remember potholes and road ridges like this anywhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The premise of this post is false and misunderstands a few things.

First, some of the absolute worst and lowest quality roads in this county are in Potomac, Poolesville and Boyd’s/Dickerson areas. You may want to venture out there some time because big parts of the agriculture reserve have been abandoned by the county in terms of government services, including road maintenance.

Second, the county is so adamantly refusing to maintain roads in the northwestern part of the county that many roads have been officially designated as “rustic roads”, which is a way to spin this divestment as a good thing.

Third, where there are newer quality roads, the only reason why they exist is because developers have paid for them through impact fees, which explains what is going on around Travilah. The county legally cannot collect those fees and use them for other purposes. So if there are poorly maintained roads in Takoma Park/Silver Spring, the easiest way to get that rectified is through getting your neighborhood upzoned so that a developer will come in and build some multi family housing.

Exactly. Developers put in new roads when developing. No new development, you are left to rely on the sate (for routes) and county gov for local road upkeep. Pretty simple. Tacoma Park needs some redevelopment!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is it that areas like Potomac, Bethesda, Rockville, Travaliah, etc. all have decent functioning roads in MoCo while many parts around Silver Spring, Wheaton, etc. have some of the worst roads imaginable? Holy Toledo has anyone ever driven around parts of Silver Spring closer to the border of PG? It is an unmitigated disaster worse than driving on the surface of the moon. Main roads are like a 3rd world country, and man neighborhoods have atrocious quality streets. Why does the county never have this problem in the much whiter and wealthier areas? I'll tell you why, because of racist road inequalities that perpetuate systemic racism. The county spends all of its money to make sure infrastructure is functional in all of the rich white areas while all of the brown people get stuck with roads that may as well be like they are from Mogadishu. It imparts more costs on people who are already poor because they end up having to pay more often for repairs to their cars from having to drive so often on the worst roads in the world. It's really time for the county to address this dispicable inequality. Pave the damn roads in the eastern half of the county already.

That's funny, because I hit a LOT of potholes in Rockville.

You haven't driven around Piney Branch road or through some.of the neighborhoods in Silver Spring/Wheaton have you. Imagine the bad roads of Rockville they you describe, but now 100x worse. That's what the poors in MoCo get. It is literally like driving in a 3rd world country around parts of Silver Spring where the poors are.

[Anonymous]

I moved to my House in Bethesda 7 years ago. The road had a lots of cracks and shallow pod holes. County came to fill them and then new cracks and podholes appeared the following spring. When I talked to the workers who came to fill the cracks and holes again, I was told that they new paving materials/chemicals are weak and only last for three years. BUT, they are more environment friendly. My guess is that you cannot have it both ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I moved to my House in Bethesda 7 years ago. The road had a lots of cracks and shallow pod holes. County came to fill them and then new cracks and podholes appeared the following spring. When I talked to the workers who came to fill the cracks and holes again, I was told that they new paving materials/chemicals are weak and only last for three years. BUT, they are more environment friendly. My guess is that you cannot have it both ways.

That sounds exactly like the county.

Our tax dollars pay for this. And if there isn't enough money, this is one project that gets delayed or reduced. Just FYI

[Anonymous]

So where exactly are all of the tax dollars going in MoCo if they tax so much yet cannot do basic things like provide paved roads for citizens?

[Anonymous]

All I know is that my segment of Old Georgetown Rd in downtown Bethesda is ALWAYS full of potholes because there is simply too much traffic, and weighty at that, in the forms of buses and large trucks.

I imagine other areas with potholes have to deal with a lot of trucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So where exactly are all of the tax dollars going in MoCo if they tax so much yet cannot do basic things like provide paved roads for citizens?

You name it. Money is wasted left and right…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Omg this inequality sh*t is out of control. What’s next? Air is more polluted in poor areas?

Since you asked, yes, because there are fewer trees in poor areas.

The poor areas are also where the polluting heavy industries go, and the poor people have less clout to complain or do anything about it.

The only polluting heavy industry in Montgomery County is the Dickerson power plant. The only other heavy industries are rock quarries. All of these things are located in what are generally referred to as “affluent areas”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is it that areas like Potomac, Bethesda, Rockville, Travaliah, etc. all have decent functioning roads in MoCo while many parts around Silver Spring, Wheaton, etc. have some of the worst roads imaginable? Holy Toledo has anyone ever driven around parts of Silver Spring closer to the border of PG? It is an unmitigated disaster worse than driving on the surface of the moon. Main roads are like a 3rd world country, and man neighborhoods have atrocious quality streets. Why does the county never have this problem in the much whiter and wealthier areas? I'll tell you why, because of racist road inequalities that perpetuate systemic racism. The county spends all of its money to make sure infrastructure is functional in all of the rich white areas while all of the brown people get stuck with roads that may as well be like they are from Mogadishu. It imparts more costs on people who are already poor because they end up having to pay more often for repairs to their cars from having to drive so often on the worst roads in the world. It's really time for the county to address this dispicable inequality. Pave the damn roads in the eastern half of the county already.

That's funny, because I hit a LOT of potholes in Rockville.

You haven't driven around Piney Branch road or through some.of the neighborhoods in Silver Spring/Wheaton have you. Imagine the bad roads of Rockville they you describe, but now 100x worse. That's what the poors in MoCo get. It is literally like driving in a 3rd world country around parts of Silver Spring where the poors are.

It’s really telling that people in Silver Spring think that they are the only ones afflicted by bad roads and that somehow it’s racially motivated.