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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Build more lanes and more people will drive there. Let’s face it, it’ll never get better.[/quote]

It is called "induced demand" - there is no such thing as building more lanes permanently relieving traffic. [b]The solution is to get a good rail system in place from Frederick to Shady Grove and Union Station[/b]. And Bus Rapid Transit dedicated lanes down to Friendship Heights and Silver Spring.[/quote]

For example, the MARC Brunswick Line. Except for with trains that run all day long, in both directions, and also on weekends.[/quote]

[b]Why can't we do both?[/b] I'm in favor of public transportation and highway widening. Population is growing in this area, so there is more demand. Even if everyone magically took public transport, we still need highways for commercial vehicles. Your plumber and the Giant delivery truck can't take Metro.[/quote]

We've been building highways. And building, and building, and building. We know what happens when you build more highways to fix congestion: it doesn't work. Stop wasting money on it. Put the money into transit. (And then there will be plenty of room on the highways we already have for the plumber and the Giant delivery truck.)[/quote]

As I mentioned above, the population is projected to increase 33% within the next 11 years.  Where are those 2M new residents going to live?  Even with buildups and converting green space to housing, you can't come anywhere close to housing the influx.  So, the new residential housing will continue to move out of the city.  And the number of residences that will be close enough to a good rail system is still limited.  You will likely only have about 1/3 of that influx (say 750K) that will be ablet to take advantage of the improved good mass transit infrastructure.  You will have over 1M incoming residents, plus existing residences that will be far enough away from mass transit as to make it a poor solution.  Additionally, even if all of them were close enough to take advantage of mass transit or you found a way to incentivize it, even with upgrades, the system can only handle so many people.  The Rosslyn tunnel is already at capacity with blue and silver line trains.  You can increase 6 car trains to 8 car trains, but you can't add any more runs on the line, so there is a limit to how many additional people in  Virginia along those lines can be accommodated.  So, while a good transit infrastructure is desperately needed and will help the lives of many, it will not handle the vast majority of the incoming population growth who will need to use cars for various reasons.

As I said above, we need plans to improve both the mass transit and the road infrastructure or traffic and congestion in the second worse commuter city in the US will make it the worst commuter city by 2030.[/quote]

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