I 270 Toll Lanes Can it get more absurd?

[Anonymous]

Not only are we only expanding only the already widest parts of 270 leaving all the traffic to come to a hault at Exit 9, now I read that you will need to exit 270 and drive on local roads to get to seperate entrances to access the new toll lanes if desired. Am I reading this wrong (please tell me I am!)

https://mailchi.mp/b80aa1654649/updates-on-interchanges-ramps-and-access-points-on-i-270-managed-lanes?e=d6f06241c5

[Anonymous]

I don't have time to research this. I care very much about the widening of 270. As a commuter and user of 270 I feel it should be widened. The road wasn't built bfor as many people as they have living off the highway now. Between urbana and Clarksburg your have about thousands more people than what the road was meant to handle. There are no jobs that far north so everyone commutes south.

The source of this article is don't widen 270. I would probably take the time to research what they are saying. Item really ridiculous to require a user to exit a highway to get into the fee based lane. Who would do that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have time to research this. I care very much about the widening of 270. As a commuter and user of 270 I feel it should be widened. The road wasn't built bfor as many people as they have living off the highway now. Between urbana and Clarksburg your have about thousands more people than what the road was meant to handle. There are no jobs that far north so everyone commutes south.

The source of this article is don't widen 270. I would probably take the time to research what they are saying. Item really ridiculous to require a user to exit a highway to get into the fee based lane. Who would do that?

You do know that adding lanes won't help with that problem, right? If you add more lanes then traffic might temporarily decrease but will just induce people to drive more, to live in Clarksburg instead of closer in, to commute by car instead of by train or bus.

They need to stop this adding more lanes nonsense and convert existing lanes to BRT lanes and get people out of SOVs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have time to research this. I care very much about the widening of 270. As a commuter and user of 270 I feel it should be widened. The road wasn't built bfor as many people as they have living off the highway now. Between urbana and Clarksburg your have about thousands more people than what the road was meant to handle. There are no jobs that far north so everyone commutes south.

The source of this article is don't widen 270. I would probably take the time to research what they are saying. Item really ridiculous to require a user to exit a highway to get into the fee based lane. Who would do that?

You do know that adding lanes won't help with that problem, right? If you add more lanes then traffic might temporarily decrease but will just induce people to drive more, to live in Clarksburg instead of closer in, to commute by car instead of by train or bus.

They need to stop this adding more lanes nonsense and convert existing lanes to BRT lanes and get people out of SOVs.

If only there were tons of affordable homes for everyone who lives in Clarksburg and Urbana to move to inside the beltway.

[Anonymous]

I don't think there will be a lot more development in Frederick. The development that is happening now was planned over 20 years ago. The people are already there.

The area lacks infrastructure. I've lived here for the last 20 years and was always concerned that the infrastructure didn't keep up with the building. I had to move up here 20 years ago because housing closer in was unaffordable. Now housing here is unaffordable too. Yes, Marc train should be expanded to run not just at commuter times and there should be more buses. I think an expanded road with commuter solutions that rely on what already exists are helpful. The damage was done 20 to 30 years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there will be a lot more development in Frederick. The development that is happening now was planned over 20 years ago. The people are already there.

The area lacks infrastructure. I've lived here for the last 20 years and was always concerned that the infrastructure didn't keep up with the building. I had to move up here 20 years ago because housing closer in was unaffordable. Now housing here is unaffordable too. Yes, Marc train should be expanded to run not just at commuter times and there should be more buses. I think an expanded road with commuter solutions that rely on what already exists are helpful. The damage was done 20 to 30 years ago.

I don't agree that development in Frederick is over, and housing is still a lot cheaperthan in DC, though not always "affordable" for your average person. I do agree with the bolded. I think a lot of us have zero desire to drive from Frederick to DC, but the transit options are so limited that we don't have good choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have time to research this. I care very much about the widening of 270. As a commuter and user of 270 I feel it should be widened. The road wasn't built bfor as many people as they have living off the highway now. Between urbana and Clarksburg your have about thousands more people than what the road was meant to handle. There are no jobs that far north so everyone commutes south.

The source of this article is don't widen 270. I would probably take the time to research what they are saying. Item really ridiculous to require a user to exit a highway to get into the fee based lane. Who would do that?

You do know that adding lanes won't help with that problem, right? If you add more lanes then traffic might temporarily decrease but will just induce people to drive more, to live in Clarksburg instead of closer in, to commute by car instead of by train or bus.

They need to stop this adding more lanes nonsense and convert existing lanes to BRT lanes and get people out of SOVs.

Not practical for the vast majority of people who live in the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have time to research this. I care very much about the widening of 270. As a commuter and user of 270 I feel it should be widened. The road wasn't built bfor as many people as they have living off the highway now. Between urbana and Clarksburg your have about thousands more people than what the road was meant to handle. There are no jobs that far north so everyone commutes south.

The source of this article is don't widen 270. I would probably take the time to research what they are saying. Item really ridiculous to require a user to exit a highway to get into the fee based lane. Who would do that?

You do know that adding lanes won't help with that problem, right? If you add more lanes then traffic might temporarily decrease but will just induce people to drive more, to live in Clarksburg instead of closer in, to commute by car instead of by train or bus.

They need to stop this adding more lanes nonsense and convert existing lanes to BRT lanes and get people out of SOVs.

This is just classist. The Washington DC metropolitan area is more and more congested. The population has more than doubled in the last 40 years and the housing has not kept up. There is a real housing crisis and only those in the higher income brackets can afford to live closer in. If you are middle class or lower ($150K or lower) then you have no hope to own and have limited options to rent closer in. The middle class who want to own are being pushed further and further out and by not offering solutions for them, you're basically just saying "screw you".

The people are not being pushed out because of the availability of commuting. They are being pushed out because there are far too many people who have higher income that are looking for housing and taking the housing closer in. The increased demand is causing prices to rise out of their price range forcing lower classes to move further out to afford what they need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have time to research this. I care very much about the widening of 270. As a commuter and user of 270 I feel it should be widened. The road wasn't built bfor as many people as they have living off the highway now. Between urbana and Clarksburg your have about thousands more people than what the road was meant to handle. There are no jobs that far north so everyone commutes south.

The source of this article is don't widen 270. I would probably take the time to research what they are saying. Item really ridiculous to require a user to exit a highway to get into the fee based lane. Who would do that?

You do know that adding lanes won't help with that problem, right? If you add more lanes then traffic might temporarily decrease but will just induce people to drive more, to live in Clarksburg instead of closer in, to commute by car instead of by train or bus.

They need to stop this adding more lanes nonsense and convert existing lanes to BRT lanes and get people out of SOVs.

This is just classist. The Washington DC metropolitan area is more and more congested. The population has more than doubled in the last 40 years and the housing has not kept up. There is a real housing crisis and only those in the higher income brackets can afford to live closer in. If you are middle class or lower ($150K or lower) then you have no hope to own and have limited options to rent closer in. The middle class who want to own are being pushed further and further out and by not offering solutions for them, you're basically just saying "screw you".

The people are not being pushed out because of the availability of commuting. They are being pushed out because there are far too many people who have higher income that are looking for housing and taking the housing closer in. The increased demand is causing prices to rise out of their price range forcing lower classes to move further out to afford what they need.

The solution is transit, not more car lanes which will fill up again in no time. It is hardly classist to say that we should have options for people who can’t afford to spend money on cars and gas.

I am literally advocating that we DO provide these options rather than expanding car lanes. I have coworkers in London and none of them, even senior execs, drove into the city because the infrastructure favors transit over cars.

Also quibbling about how far the lanes on 270 are extended is meaningless because you can’t expand capacity within DC for more people to drive into the city. The expansion has to end somewhere on the commute

[Anonymous]

270 has enough space to expand the lanes and not change the footprint. We figured that out a few years ago when there was construction. While commuting via train or bus seems okay but the state would bhsve to take away a lot of land to achieve that. Expanding the current Marc train is a really great option. Using those lines during the day for transit would help. 270 can be expanded by 1 lane without even increasing the footprint if the state wanted to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have time to research this. I care very much about the widening of 270. As a commuter and user of 270 I feel it should be widened. The road wasn't built bfor as many people as they have living off the highway now. Between urbana and Clarksburg your have about thousands more people than what the road was meant to handle. There are no jobs that far north so everyone commutes south.

The source of this article is don't widen 270. I would probably take the time to research what they are saying. Item really ridiculous to require a user to exit a highway to get into the fee based lane. Who would do that?

The current plan is only to expand up to exit 9. Nothing will change in the Clarksburg area. I do not understand where all the cars are supposed to go when the 4 extra lanes stop suddenly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have time to research this. I care very much about the widening of 270. As a commuter and user of 270 I feel it should be widened. The road wasn't built bfor as many people as they have living off the highway now. Between urbana and Clarksburg your have about thousands more people than what the road was meant to handle. There are no jobs that far north so everyone commutes south.

The source of this article is don't widen 270. I would probably take the time to research what they are saying. Item really ridiculous to require a user to exit a highway to get into the fee based lane. Who would do that?

The current plan is only to expand up to exit 9. Nothing will change in the Clarksburg area. I do not understand where all the cars are supposed to go when the 4 extra lanes stop suddenly.

I just don't understand why the planners are so obsessed with this portion of 270. It's already the widest part and the road is going to bottleneck at the same places. They'll be going from 12 lanes to 16 lanes. Clarksburg will still be 6 lanes and north of it will be 4. I live in the area they're planning to add the lanes and I actually don't mind road widening. This means I can take a toll road all the way out of DC in South 95 without sitting in traffic at all. I don't make that trip often but it will be nice and well worth the money. If I had to do that trip all the time there's no way I would pay for it though. This will be good for me personally but I don't understand how it's going to help commuters that are on the road just driving through the area from areas to the North. They're still going to hit bottlenecks, especially on the way home. We really need to have more housing for people to live closer. What's the next plan, 20 lanes through Rockville and 4 lanes north to Frederick? That's only slightly more absurd than 16 and 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have time to research this. I care very much about the widening of 270. As a commuter and user of 270 I feel it should be widened. The road wasn't built bfor as many people as they have living off the highway now. Between urbana and Clarksburg your have about thousands more people than what the road was meant to handle. There are no jobs that far north so everyone commutes south.

The source of this article is don't widen 270. I would probably take the time to research what they are saying. Item really ridiculous to require a user to exit a highway to get into the fee based lane. Who would do that?

The current plan is only to expand up to exit 9. Nothing will change in the Clarksburg area. I do not understand where all the cars are supposed to go when the 4 extra lanes stop suddenly.

I just don't understand why the planners are so obsessed with this portion of 270. It's already the widest part and the road is going to bottleneck at the same places. They'll be going from 12 lanes to 16 lanes. Clarksburg will still be 6 lanes and north of it will be 4. I live in the area they're planning to add the lanes and I actually don't mind road widening. This means I can take a toll road all the way out of DC in South 95 without sitting in traffic at all. I don't make that trip often but it will be nice and well worth the money. If I had to do that trip all the time there's no way I would pay for it though. This will be good for me personally but I don't understand how it's going to help commuters that are on the road just driving through the area from areas to the North. They're still going to hit bottlenecks, especially on the way home. We really need to have more housing for people to live closer. What's the next plan, 20 lanes through Rockville and 4 lanes north to Frederick? That's only slightly more absurd than 16 and 4.

It is the most profitable part to toll so will be the most attractive to private developers.

[Anonymous]

They really just need jobs in Frederick like they did in Gaithersburg and Rockville.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have time to research this. I care very much about the widening of 270. As a commuter and user of 270 I feel it should be widened. The road wasn't built bfor as many people as they have living off the highway now. Between urbana and Clarksburg your have about thousands more people than what the road was meant to handle. There are no jobs that far north so everyone commutes south.

The source of this article is don't widen 270. I would probably take the time to research what they are saying. Item really ridiculous to require a user to exit a highway to get into the fee based lane. Who would do that?

The current plan is only to expand up to exit 9. Nothing will change in the Clarksburg area. I do not understand where all the cars are supposed to go when the 4 extra lanes stop suddenly.

I just don't understand why the planners are so obsessed with this portion of 270. It's already the widest part and the road is going to bottleneck at the same places. They'll be going from 12 lanes to 16 lanes. Clarksburg will still be 6 lanes and north of it will be 4. I live in the area they're planning to add the lanes and I actually don't mind road widening. This means I can take a toll road all the way out of DC in South 95 without sitting in traffic at all. I don't make that trip often but it will be nice and well worth the money. If I had to do that trip all the time there's no way I would pay for it though. This will be good for me personally but I don't understand how it's going to help commuters that are on the road just driving through the area from areas to the North. They're still going to hit bottlenecks, especially on the way home. We really need to have more housing for people to live closer. What's the next plan, 20 lanes through Rockville and 4 lanes north to Frederick? That's only slightly more absurd than 16 and 4.

It is the most profitable part to toll so will be the most attractive to private developers.

Okay that does make sense. It's funny how they say it's because we need to relieve congestion and they're only expanding to make profits off the tolls.