Thrive Montgomery 2050 neglects to reexamine many of the existing transportation assumptions hampering the county. Instead, it doubles down on past failed strategies.
“Public transit’s declining share of the region’s travel demonstrates the futility of this continued approach.” where is this approach - the conversion of general purpose traffic lanes to dedicated transit lanes - being tried? The newly-launched US 29 so-called “BRT” service has no dedicated lanes. I can’t recall seeing a single dedicated transit lane in the county outside of bus-on-shoulder operation on US 29 north of Tech Road and a hundred foot temporary bus-only lane outside the SS Transit center. No surprise that Elrich’s commute would be 50 minutes longer on mass transit than by car.
That said, the only dedicated and high-quality mass transit solution planned to come online anytime soon is the Purple Line, which in view of its alignment shouldn’t be expected to do anything for beltway or outside the Beltway traffic unless the county changes course and allows high density developments in all the neighborhoods along the line.
Metrorail is wonderful to get to DC. No form of public transit is effective for getting to other locations. That includes the Purple Line. I suspect the windows of Purple Line cars will be covered with billboards -- as is the "Flash," the BRT service on U.S. 29. If the windows are covered up, no one can see how few people are riding them. Living in a one-party jurisdiction produces the same results, whether we are talking about Montgomery County or Communist China.
“Public transit’s declining share of the region’s travel demonstrates the futility of this continued approach.” where is this approach - the conversion of general purpose traffic lanes to dedicated transit lanes - being tried? The newly-launched US 29 so-called “BRT” service has no dedicated lanes. I can’t recall seeing a single dedicated transit lane in the county outside of bus-on-shoulder operation on US 29 north of Tech Road and a hundred foot temporary bus-only lane outside the SS Transit center. No surprise that Elrich’s commute would be 50 minutes longer on mass transit than by car.
That said, the only dedicated and high-quality mass transit solution planned to come online anytime soon is the Purple Line, which in view of its alignment shouldn’t be expected to do anything for beltway or outside the Beltway traffic unless the county changes course and allows high density developments in all the neighborhoods along the line.
Metrorail is wonderful to get to DC. No form of public transit is effective for getting to other locations. That includes the Purple Line. I suspect the windows of Purple Line cars will be covered with billboards -- as is the "Flash," the BRT service on U.S. 29. If the windows are covered up, no one can see how few people are riding them. Living in a one-party jurisdiction produces the same results, whether we are talking about Montgomery County or Communist China.