McLean residents sue to stop I-495 widening over environmental impacts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't realize that people who live in McClean take the bus and walk to buy groceries. Good for them!

Actually they do. They also take school busses. There are many young children at issue here so learn to read before posting. And learn to spell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.ffxnow.com/2023/03/20/mclean-residents-sue-to-stop-i-495-widening-over-environmental-impacts/

NIMBYism strikes again. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were some visitors of this forum.

What a nasty post, OP! If you had bothered to read, you would know that the citizens working on this are aligned with the Sierra Club. Have you seen what VDOT is doing at the Georgetown Pike interchange and the bridge? The trees have been all stripped out. It's horrible. And schools and churches sit right there along with homeowners.

Oh noooo! Not the poor churches!! Lmaooo

Cut it out. Cooper Middle School sits right there. Once upon a time it had a tree buffer but VDOT ripped the trees out in front if it without notice. That resulted in citizen outrage and protests from Cooper’s principal about air quality. Body then moved all of its vehicles in. John Foust promised it would become a dog park. It wasn’t now all of the remaining trees have been ripped out. It’s an unsightly mess

It’s a construction zone.

And you cut it out. Cooper is across Balls Hill Rd and set back from the street. Its outdoor spaces are behind the school and angled even further away from the Beltway. There’s plenty of green space where the kids actually spend their time.

You have got to be kidding me. There is no buffer left between Cooper and the Beltway! Do you know more then the Cooper principal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would you choose to live right next to 495 if your kid has asthma? These arent poor people without options

They lived there before it became a mess. We lived there in the same house for 32 years. That area has changed a lot.

Oh come on, it was right next to the highway before the project. They willingly bought a house witha highway discount even tho their kid has asthma. Selfish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The GW Pkwy exit should be removed altogether from 495. MD has their own parkway. Nobody uses that exit from VA.

Huh? You are nuts.

Who uses it? Anybody in VA?? I can't imagine a situation where it would make sense from VA. So just remove it. And that would reduce some Amerucan Legion traffic. MD folks can take Canal Rd/MacArthur Blvd.

Um, actually, yes before all the construction started, Waze used to send me on 495 to the GW parkway to get to Key Bridge from Vienna. It was faster than sitting through the lights on 123 through Mclean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you live out in the boondocks or (sometimes) in a forsaken area with declining population, buying within a mile of an Interstate highway is a dumb idea. The road will inevitably be improved. The road will inevitably be widened — often many times. It’s been like this for decades and it’s going to be like this for decades to come, even after the paradigmatic shift to electric vehicles.

I have no sympathy for the folks in McLean and Great Falls. They try to sound so smart and educated in their lawsuit attacking the scope of the project. Maybe they should have applied those “smarts” when choosing a place to live.

No part of Great Falls is “within a mile of an Interstate” (and most is 5+ miles from the Beltway). What’s your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The GW Pkwy exit should be removed altogether from 495. MD has their own parkway. Nobody uses that exit from VA.

Huh? You are nuts.

Who uses it? Anybody in VA?? I can't imagine a situation where it would make sense from VA. So just remove it. And that would reduce some Amerucan Legion traffic. MD folks can take Canal Rd/MacArthur Blvd.

Um, actually, yes before all the construction started, Waze used to send me on 495 to the GW parkway to get to Key Bridge from Vienna. It was faster than sitting through the lights on 123 through Mclean.

I live in MD and am often routed on the GW Pkwy to get to DC. The speed is faster than Cabin John.

[Anonymous]

In a sense, they aren't wrong. There is no such thing as a road widening project that solves the problem. Better to invest in bus lanes, bike lanes and metro. Road widening is a fools errand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In a sense, they aren't wrong. There is no such thing as a road widening project that solves the problem. Better to invest in bus lanes, bike lanes and metro. Road widening is a fools errand.

But where would the bus lanes come from without adding another one? Are you proposing dedicating an existing lane on the beltway to buses??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In a sense, they aren't wrong. There is no such thing as a road widening project that solves the problem. Better to invest in bus lanes, bike lanes and metro. Road widening is a fools errand.

The majority of folks drive. Until that changes road building is the most efficient way to address transportation capacity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopefully, this will start discussions on a Purple Line extension to Tysons (yes, I know, I know). I-66 has more cars traveling westbound during morning rush hour from DC than eastbound. Tysons is where the jobs are.

Virginia would take 3-5 years to build their portion. Maryland would take 27-30 years.

Not if the construction on Leesburg Pike is anything to go by....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a sense, they aren't wrong. There is no such thing as a road widening project that solves the problem. Better to invest in bus lanes, bike lanes and metro. Road widening is a fools errand.

The majority of folks drive. Until that changes road building is the most efficient way to address transportation capacity.

The majority of folks drive, because our transportation policy for decades has been based on enabling/forcing the majority of folks to drive. It's high time we changed that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a sense, they aren't wrong. There is no such thing as a road widening project that solves the problem. Better to invest in bus lanes, bike lanes and metro. Road widening is a fools errand.

The majority of folks drive. Until that changes road building is the most efficient way to address transportation capacity.

The majority of folks drive, because our transportation policy for decades has been based on enabling/forcing the majority of folks to drive. It's high time we changed that.

What projects are you proposing be built? Purple line has been languishing for years. A rapid bus network would be nice if the buses were t sitting in traffic with everyone else. I really am curious though about examples where cities built around car transportation managed to shift to a largely public transport/walkable model. I do agree it’s a shame American cities were largely built this way however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Widening doesn’t help. This has been well proven.

+1 induced demand

Yeah, it's terrible to allow people to make the choices they want, instead of making them so miserable that they just stay home.