Saturday, August 19, 2017

MoCo Planning Board seeks to further falsify traffic studies for mixed-use development

Calling Burt Macklin...
The Montgomery County Planning Board has released its agenda for 2018, funded by you, the taxpayer. Among several agenda items that might elicit screams from weary residents surrounded by bulldozers is a new effort to make the County's famously-inaccurate traffic studies even more inaccurate.

It's well known to anyone following recent master plan processes in the County that current traffic studies are designed to give lowball estimates, and passing grades to clearly-failing intersections. When the results of these "studies" are presented at community meetings, they are met with laughter worthy of a sitcom audience. In fact, as Councilmember Marc Elrich has recounted for years, he once witnessed an independent, accurate traffic analysis of Montgomery County being performed. When only the plans already approved were entered into the program, the roadway and transit infrastructure was so overwhelmed, it caused the whole program to crash.

Now the Planning Board will do what it does best - thumb its collective nose at the very taxpayers who fund their salaries, work and this particularly seedy agenda item. Instead of announcing that it is researching how to make traffic studies more accurate, the Board has the chutzpah to declare that "research shows that traffic studies typically overestimate the impact of mixed-use development by 35 percent. This study will apply a new tool to different plan areas to more precisely predict traffic generation."

Say what? We're supposed to believe the same study results that are so wrong they make people laugh are actually overestimating traffic by 35%?

Is that "new tool" another fistful of cash under the table from developers? We almost certainly won't know until the FBI investigates the Montgomery County Planning Department and Planning Board.

46 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you have permission to use that image?

Anonymous said...

Are you a taxpayer, Robert? You do not seem to have any real property or sources of income.

Anonymous said...

"Say what?"

Welcome back to the Age of Jive.
-Billy Joel

Robert Dyer said...

7:49: You know nothing about my financial situation. What, then, gives you the idea I have no "property or sources of income?"

Anonymous said...

I guess, then, we'll never know.

Robert Dyer said...

"Another fistful of ca$h."

#LockThemUp

Anonymous said...

Which is a bigger mystery:

1) The number of licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?

Or

2) Robert Dyer's source of income?

Robert Dyer said...

8:42: You forgot these choices:

3) David Alpert's source of income

4) Dan Reed's source of income

5) Why Hans Riemer has so many out-of-state donations from Wall Street crooks and K street lobbyists for a Council race in Montgomery County?

Anonymous said...

Diversion alert!!!

Anonymous said...

"Is that "new tool" another fistful of cash under the table from developers? We almost certainly won't know until the FBI investigates the Montgomery County Planning Department and Planning Board."

Have you reported your suspicions to the FBI? You can do that as a private citizen, you don't have to wait until you are elected.

Anonymous said...

Who are these people? Why should we wonder about their sources of income?

Anonymous said...

Robert, could you please explain the difference between "Fortune 500 companies" (good) and "Wall Street" (bad)?

And why Dave Alpert's income from Google, a Fortune 500 company, is "bad"?

Anonymous said...

As Rober Dyer's audience grows, the number of readers who disagree with him grows also. Note the implications, Robert.

Anonymous said...

It's clear from the comments that the vast majority of Robert Dyer's (handful of) readers strongly disagree with him.

Anonymous said...

If you're obsessed with Dyer, it's fair to ask about Reed, Reamer and Alpert.

Personally, I'd rather focus on issues.

It's always a sign Anonymous is losing a debate when he blurts out:
"But..but..I make more than you!"
You could say that about every local journalist, freelancer or intern. You don't go into local news to make millions.

Anonymous said...

We're supposed to believe the same study results that are so wrong they make people laugh are actually overestimating traffic by 35%?

Because as everyone knows, the Laugh-O-Meter™ is a highly scientific, objective measure of the accuracy of a given statistic.

And now for Dyer's weather forecast:

"It's going to be so hot today, people will go 'Yowzers, it's hot!'"

Anonymous said...

"Personally, I'd rather focus on issues."

Is that your reason for intentionally misspelling Riemer's name every time you mention him?

Anonymous said...

I repeat my questions from 9:51:

Who are these people? Why should we wonder about their sources of income?

Anonymous said...

"So wrong they make people laugh"

Are you sure you want to go there, Dyer?

Anonymous said...

11:07 PM -

""But..but..I make more than you!"
You could say that about every local journalist, freelancer or intern. You don't go into local news to make millions"

I could care less about his hobby blogging.

My concern is that he has run for Maryland House of Delegates once, Montgomery Council twice, and will probably run again for Council next year. I would really know what, if any qualifications Robert Dyer has for office, and what actual accomplishments he has to his name. Given that he can't produce any evidence of steady employment, or any investment that helps our County grow, he does not seem qualified.

Boyce Bowles said...

2:53pm Dyer is providing news coverage of areas of our county that are news deserts since the Gazette closed. That's a steady investment indeed from Dyer!

Why not lift up and encourage people like Dyer with his digital local news publishing venture? Your first impulse ALWAYS is to hate, belittle and threaten anyone with different perspectives or beliefs than you..or that you believe are "competing" with you.

Anonymous said...

"Your first impulse ALWAYS is to hate, belittle and threaten anyone with different perspectives or beliefs than you."

That's one hell of an idiotic generalization, based on an unwarranted assumption.

Robert Dyer gets challenged because of his incoherent arguments, consistent lying, and outright slander.

Anonymous said...

The Magazine and associated blogs are written by and for the housewives of Potomac and Chevy Chase, not residents in Gaithersburg, Rockville or the East County.
Sorry.

Andy Van Slyke said...

4:40pm you're intolerant of anyone with a different perspective than you, hence your litany of attacks on dyer.
Why not debate the issues rather than hurling personal attacks?

Anonymous said...

"Boyce Bowles" @ 3:05 PM said:

"Your first impulse ALWAYS is to hate, belittle and threaten anyone with different perspectives or beliefs than you."

"Andy Van Slyke" @ 4:45 PM said:

"You're intolerant of anyone with a different perspective than you, hence your litany of attacks on dyer."

Try typing something different, so it's not so painfully obvious.

Anonymous said...

"The Magazine and associated blogs are written by and for the housewives of Potomac and Chevy Chase, not residents in Gaithersburg, Rockville or the East County.
Sorry."

And Robert Dyer is a resident of none of those places. Your point? And why the sexism?

Anonymous said...

Dyer does a great job of covering areas everyone else seems to neglect. Unfortunately he is very selective of his news choices.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a couple of comments have been sent to Comment Heaven, where all the good martyrs in Dyer's War On Free Speech go.

Anonymous said...

Dyer, what are these "associated blogs of the Magazine"?

Anonymous said...

Looks like my comment was deleted. Let's see the culprit.

Anna Van Horn said...

Once again, "Andy Van Slyke" comes out of the woodwork.

That name was originally made as a slam against my name and used to insult and slander me.

Who was "Boyce Bowles" made to slam?


alanala said...

Anon sounds cracked to me.
They hired a former silver line exec to the planning board by the way.

alanala said...

Anon-meant Purple Line-
Gerald Cichy - look him up
Anon you need serious help.

Anonymous said...

"MoCo Planning Board seeks to further falsify traffic studies for mixed-use development"

The MoCo Planning Board doesn't conduct the traffic studies, you dope.

Do you have evidence the private engineering firms hired to conduct traffic studies are in fact falsifying their data or is this your usual libel? I think we all know the answer.

Anonymous said...

I know. Guess the blog's not big enough for it to be an issue?

"In 2006 a Florida court awarded a plaintiff $11.3 million dollars when the defendant posted numerous comments on message boards defaming the plaintiff and her business reputation. The court did not specify whether the cause of action was based on libel or slander."

Anonymous said...

This Planning Board is out of control, enabled by a lawless Council.

Anonymous said...

As the unelected fifth at-large County Council member, Robert Dyer has sovereign immunity.

Robert Dyer said...

6:53: The planning department most certainly conducts traffic studies; they tout the results at community meetings such as the Westbard sector plan kickoff at Whitman, where they were practically laughed out of the room.

8:04: No, the reason it's not an issue is that I stick to the facts in my reporting.

Anonymous said...

Wow, Robert. Do you try and look dumb? Of course the planning department doesn't conduct traffic studies. Have you ever even heard of MCDOT and MdSHA? You know, departments with actual traffic engineers on their staff.

Anonymous said...

Wow this article is so full of defamation, especially by Robert's standards. Imagine using this language with Robert's name - he would delete it in a second claiming defamation.

Robert Dyer said...

8:03: You may want to ask David Anspacher, transportation planner at Planning Department, about that. He, not MCDOT or MDSHA, presented studies of River Road at the Westbard sector plan "kickoff" meeting at Whitman.

4:22: No defamation, just facts. The traffic "studies" are notoriously fake, just as the student generation predictions are dead wrong again and again. To say they're going to put yet another hand on the scale to make them even more fake is beyond the pale.

This is why their patrons on the Council will lose in 2018, and the new Council will bounce these developer stooges from the Planning Board in 2019 and beyond as their terms end, or they are indicted by federal grand jury, whichever comes first.

#LockThemUp

Anonymous said...

"MoCo Planning Board seeks to further falsify traffic studies for mixed-use development"

So if one were to say "Robert Dyer seeks to further falsify news reporting for Bethesda" that's ok right cause its facts.

Robert Dyer said...

6:58: No, it's not. In fact, it's because I'm reporting the truth about the Planning Board that you are so frustrated and lashing out.

Anonymous said...

I concur

Anonymous said...

I agree as well.

Anonymous said...

" He, not MCDOT or MDSHA, presented studies of River Road at the Westbard sector plan"

Just because someone presents a study doesn't mean said person gathered the data and conducted the analysis. You have no idea what goes into a traffic study if you think the planning board is the one pulling together and analysing the data. Just shut up and let the adults talk, Robert.