The Inter-County Connector, and other transportation issues

[kwassa]

You will now question my liberal credentials.

Personally, I feeling favorably disposed to the creation of an ICC. I admit that I have not made a detailed study of the situation, but it makes sense to me. I have never lived in a metro area so inadequately served by freeways as this one. Not one ring road.

The traffic is so terrible in the DC Metro area that something needs to be done, and the public transportation is completely inadequate to the job. There are also no public train routes, or road routes from places where people live to places where people work, i.e. Maryland to Virginia, the 270 corridor to the I-95 corridor and/or Baltimore. I also favor the creation of an outer loop of Metrorail, to connect the outer points like the spokes on a wheel, so that everyone doesn't have to go downtown to Metro Center in order to take another line out. I also favor more bridges over the Potomac, for cars and trains, rather than funneling everything across the American Legion Bridge, and the Wilson Bridge.

The development is not only inevitable, it is already here, and there is not the infrastructure to support it. For this area to prosper, it needs this infrastructure.

[On the Road]

1. I Completely Agree

Sure it leads to sprawl. The alternative is a completely insufficient highway system. At that distance, subways and commuter trains are not an option. Jobs and housing is in certain areas.

Thousands of cars idling on the beltway is not a good use of fuel or of commuters' time. A road connecting I-95 and I-270 is badly needed.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. I also agree ..... and will also add a call for

a completely new outer beltway of which the ICC would be a part.

It is beyond time to start thinking of the DC/MD/VA area as one. Yes, we have COG, but who even knows what they do.

I have been in Howard County for 25 years. When I first got here, a trip to downtown DC would be 45 minutes, tops. Today, I have had drives in excess of 3 hours - and I almost **never** drive during rush hours! My trips to Baltimore are not quite as bad, by comparison, but far worse than they were.

Extending Metrorail farther into the suburbs would help greatly. Indeed, I'd like to see one line (Red line, maybe?) extend all the way to BWI and then on to Baltimore. Your idea for an outer loop of Metro is an excellent one. Maybe on the same right of way as the outer Beltway?

I'm not as familiar with the NoVa situation, but it has to be the same or similar to MD.

It is long past time to recognize the reality. We have a single urban area that runs from almost the PA line to the north to halfway to Richmond to the south, to the Bay to the east, and damned near to WVa to the west. We **must** have a way to get around easily ...... and not just Baltimore to DC.

The problems, however, would seem huge. Cost. Opposition (NIMBY). Governmental cooperation.

Maybe what we need (here's my ****really**** radical idea) a new state to include MD, DC, and NoVa.

[DavidMS]

11. Transportation in VA. and MD

I live in MD and work in VA. On the bright side the traffic does move down there, however mass transit is awful and needs to be extended. Namely a branch to Tyson's Corner and a push east.

I don't like the Idea of the ICC and never did. Solving the commuter problem in the MD suburbs involves the inner purple line, adding a red line branch that ends up pretty close to Potomac and pushing the tracks farther north. Finally add a line to Georgetown from Dupont Circle.

NoVA is unfortunately shackled to the rest of the state and probably won't build the rail lines or high density areas to take advantage of them. Ehrlich supposedly doesn't like the inner purple line so it will take even longer to break ground.

IMHO, Gridlock is a problem and won't get any better any time soon.

[DaveinMD]

3. I am in favor of this road

We need a lot more money spent on transportation. This road has been in the master plan for 40 years. Its needed very badly.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. I really feel that the Metro loop needs to be top priority...

Every year we put it off, we need it twice as much. We also need to extend lines in Prince Georges County to Bowie and Laurel.

I still think another Wilson Bridge drawspan is a BAD idea. I realize that it won't be raised very often, but every time it is, we'll be able to count on a horrible backup. And let's not forget the countless times there's been a problem with the span getting stuck. It's asking for trouble.

ICC is a good idea, but I think the parallel bike trail is needed as well.

[Chalco]

5. I'm in favor of the ICC but I'm also in favor of free metro. Want to

reduce traffic? Let them ride metro for free.

[kwassa]

6. yeah, but not enough money goes into Metro now

There are consistent funding problems with Metro that are preventing even the necessary current maintenance needs. How often are the escalators broken down? How often are trains now breaking down?

The financing needs to change.

[Chalco]

7. If we really wanted to do something about pollution, traffic and

our way of life, IMHO metro would be free. We'd make a lot of other changes,too but...I would start there. Perhaps even put the money for the ICC into free metro. Whatever. Our priorities suck, IMHO.

[kwassa]

8. Nothing is free

It takes tax dollars to make it work.

[Darranar]

10. And right now, metro fare is essentially a regressive tax. n/t

[Romulus]

9. torn on the issue

I moved to MD two years ago after 10 years in VA, five in NoVA.

I see the ICC as the MD version of the Fairfax County Parkway ("FCP")- expect cheesy townhouses to spring up along its length, and the open land along the route to disappear. That's what the FCP is like. But I think that the development would have happened, anyway.

The FCP would turn into a parking lot during the commuting hours, so I didn't see much benefit from a traffic perspective. However, as I have seen in the Tidewater, VA, region, growth and traffic will come with or without a road.

I live just north of Brookeville, and the ICC would run just to the south of me. There is still a lot of farmland where I am, and I fear the ICC would make that farmland just that much more attractive to developers. There is already a lot of density in Olney alone, with a new "seniors" apartment community going up at Rt. 108 & Georgia Ave., and what appears to be another cheesy "luxury" development of 16 townhouses and 9 detached houses going up on a small 9-acre parcel on Georgia Ave. few blocks north of the senior complex.

If I wanted to live in Silver Spring or Wheaton, I would have moved there. (sigh)