It is more expensive and exclusionary to continue to rely on single occupancy vehicles for mobility. Think about how much one spends to buy a car, tires, gas, insurance, repairs etc on an annual basis. And that doesn't factor in the environmental and land use impacts, or our foreign policy to be the global protectorate of fossil fuel producing countries. We could have been using those trillions of dollars spent since the 1950's on mass transit, subways, light rail etc and had a much higher quality of life in the US than we do. Well, we can make the decision to do that now, so people on message forums a century from now aren't having the same debate. |
You create the communities and resources you need based on conditions. If you could get what you needed without spending the additional money on a second or third car, by living in a walkable community that was tied to the rest of the region via a viable mass transit, then for many, that would be a preferred alternative. And in many countries, the day care centers are near the rail stations, so it is more convenient and viable for families to use them. We could do that here. We are simply choosing not to. |
Google it again when the Purple Line is open, and it will be 20 mins. |
Have you seen all those new residential buildings in Bethesda where people can live and walk to thousands of jobs that are....also in Bethesda? |
You presume that people don’t like the communities they live in as they are, which is bizarre because you folks also complain about NIMBYs. What do you think that means in practice? Maybe there is constituency for more Pike & Rose’s or whatever, then you should ask why developers are not building them on the last remaining large tracts of greenfield property in the county, e.g. WMAL towers site or White Flint Mall. |
How many more working age residents does Bethesda have than jobs? Did you know that Bethesda tore down office buildings while it was adding housing? |
I just think back to the fact that Montgomery County had a Fortune 500 company HQ’d in downtown Silver Spring and did nothing to invest in that area to improve it until eventually they left. It is the story of the county, over and over and over. A long history of not caring at all about the conditions to promote the conditions for positive feedback loops in private sector employment. Just attract one employer and bleed them dry until they leave and then try to win the lottery with another company and over and over. |
The gap between jobs and workers is even bigger in Silver Spring. A lot of us would like to see growth in both jobs and housing in Montgomery County. The people whose tunnel vision doesn’t let them see beyond housing and bikes are wasting our time. Unfortunately, that’s who ran planning for most of the last decade. |
When I think about it, it makes me think that the county was insane to let that buffoon make such consequential decisions. The fastest growing sector in the economy over the past decade was warehousing and light industrial. The idiot spent the last decade purposefully converting light industrial areas to residential too! Apparently there are only two types of places that people can work, in an office building or in a service job serving that arrogant *ss. And in turn, the county has lost small businesses who are the primary users of those spaces. |
Nope, I'd have to take a bus or walk 20+ minutes to a purple line station. Not everyone in SS lives on top of the metro station (or a forthcoming purple line station). When is that going to be finished anyway? |
If you're within a mile of a Purple Line station, that's awesome. The opening date is now fall 2026, thanks to Hogan's mismanagement, the litigants from Chevy Chase, and a district court judge who should have recused himself. https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/06/20/larry-hogan-purple-line-fiasco/ |
There is Silver Spring and then there is "Silver Spring" - if by the latter you mean Kensington or White Oak, then sure. |
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| When a 355 inevitably adds interchanges and becomes limited access, they need to turn the road into an interstate. |
I think of that as North Bethesda, not Silver Spring. Or Garrett Park, or Randolph Hills. Or maybe even Wheaton. |