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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I remember when 270 was two lanes in each direction. It has been expanded numerous times. It is still congested.

Figure out a different way to grow, going to 16 or 20 lanes won't solve the problem.[/quote]

You have a misconception.  Yes, even though 270 has been widened several times, and it is still congested, you mistakenly think that other alternatives will solve the transportation problem.  The reason that the highway is still congested is that the population of Montgomery County has also continued to grow.  Whether you widen the highway or not, the population of the county will continue to grow.  In 1980, the population of the county was 4.2M.  In 2018, the population is just over 6.0M.   That's 143% or 43% growth over 38 years.  The reason that the highway is still congested is that the population has grown faster than the road and transit can accommodate.  The county population is currently projected to continue to grow 0.33% to 0.8% annually.  There is no way that mass transit alone can accommodate that volume of population growth.  You are going to need a combination of mass transit upgrades and highway expansion to accommodate the growth.

There's no way around the problem that the Washington DC metro region is one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions of the US and we have to come up with ways to accommodate the influx of people.  Mass transit alone is not going to do it. [/quote]

The reason the highway is still congested is that when you make it easier and more convenient for people to drive, then more people drive.

We gotta stop thinking that bigger highways will fix congestion. They don't. They never have. And they cost a whole heck of a lot of money in the process.[/quote]

Montgomery county has a thing called the adequate public facilities Ordinance.  If the schools are too crowded then they don't allow more building.  This pushes building further north into Clarksburg and Frederick.  This puts more traffic on 270 and requires more and wider roads.  We need to stop incentivizing people to move to the exurbs or we're never going to fix these problems.  Let people build closer in, get rid of that adequate public facilities nonsense.

You can have one of these two:
1.  More and wider highways and the adequate public facilities rules.
2.  Fewer highways that aren't widened and no adequate public facilities rule.

I know that many in MoCo are NIMBY's that think they should be able to stop building if their school is at 120% capacity then also stop freeways from being mad wider but you can't do both.  Explain where the new people will live and how they'll get to work if you do both.[/quote]

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