Temporary bus-only lanes along Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, and along Rockville Pike in North Bethesda and White Flint, will be removed next week, the Maryland State Highway Administration announced yesterday. Starting Monday, September 7, all vehicles will again be able to use the lanes. MDSHA crews will work overnight between September 7 and September 11 to remove the bus lane markings, and restore painted lines destroyed by the project.
Montgomery County elected officials were applying heavy pressure to MDSHA behind the scenes to make the temporary bus lanes permanent as late as this week. When ABC 7 News reporter Tom Roussey asked MDSHA on Tuesday if the lanes would be left in place after the Metro station shutdown ended next week, the MDSHA spokesperson was unable to answer his question. This shows just how intense the pressure from County politicians was, as MDSHA had sworn up and down that these lanes were temporary, and would not typically be waiting until the last minute to schedule overnight road work.
By Thursday, MDSHA - in a rare return to professionalism in an agency that has become increasingly politicized over the last decade - declared that it would indeed be removing the lanes, as promised. MDSHA further told Roussey in a follow-up interview Thursday that the data the agency collected during the lane closures this summer "showed the best decision was to remove all bus-only lanes along Route 355." In other words, giving buses their own lanes does not generate more commuter throughput than automobiles can, no matter how many explainer graphics anti-highway radicals post on X. Of course, residents of Staten Island could have told them that ten years ago.
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| One of many Metro shuttles seen traveling in the center or left lanes of MD 355, despite having been given its own exclusive bus lane |
Montgomery County's War-on-cars elected officials - all of whom hypocritically drive to "work" at their very-part-time Council "jobs" - must be furious with MDSHA at this hour. The agency not only vetoed their wishes, and foiled their Trojan horse scheme to achieve a permanent 33% in reduction of vehicular capacity on a major commuter route for two counties, but also made public that the data shows County officials are dead wrong in their claims regarding bus lanes and BRT. Again, this is how MDSHA and the Montgomery County Department of Transportation used to function up until the last decade. They would regularly veto and reject the wishes and whims of rabid, radical politicians when they conflicted with traffic engineering best practices. I would strongly encourage MDSHA to use Thursday's decision as a turning point to restore the agency's previously sterling reputation for professionalism and independence.
We've also got to credit the public for being more engaged this time, compared to when the County successfully browbeat MDSHA into making similar "temporary" lanes - in similar "Metro stations are closed!" Trojan horse fashion - permanent in Silver Spring a few years ago. MDSHA and WMATA heard loud and clear the outrage from drivers on the already-congested MD 355, on which MCDOT still does not synchronize the traffic signals during rush hour to not turn red at every block. Stay engaged, and make your displeasure effective by voting these bums out in November.
33 comments:
I endured being at the tail end of twenty busses lining up on Jennifer Street. . .
This is the part where I get to say "I told you so". Seems all the fearmongering and whining about big scary communist socialist marxist bus lanes stealing your roads had no basis in reality.
I think you're missing the point. There actually was, according to Robert, an attempt to keep those lanes in force. A week or so ago I heard a WTOP story that mentioned a possibility that the bus lanes would stay in place; and I thought, as crazy as I'd figured it was at the time, Robert was not totally off base on this.
Just don't mention LFP or OGR
It is NOT over until the FAT lady says so:
https://wjla.com/news/local/metro-red-line-bus-montgomery-county-ride-on-travel-shuttle-shady-grove-route-355-construction-glenmont-express-medical-express-shutdown
Best news ever. And no silly bike lanes.
A - 5:51 - There was a real serious chance that portions were going to be made permanent. Whining? No, legitimate concern that indeed an entire lane would have been taken away. Shocker it didn't happen and 355 will be open and flowing with three, nice lanes. Yes!
Properly executed rush hour direction only bus lanes can be effective, but only if properly enforced, and supported by frequent bus service. If they encourage transit use, they can indeed reduce traffic and reduce bumper to bumper rush hour bottlenecks. Gotta do it right with fully red painted lanes and stiff fines or don’t even try this. Especially where frequent Metro service already exists, like along Rockville Pike and Wisconsin Avenue.
I disagree 5:51. This was similar to the bike lane reconfiguration of Little Falls Pkwy, which was to be temporary during the pandemic. Instead, our MC politburo made bike lanes permanent. Even though there is a parallel bike path. They will use any excuse to restrict auto traffic.
@7:20 “according to Robert” doesn’t mean much.
The bus lanes were temporary. The electronic signs announcing them said they were going to be temporary. We all knew this. They were a temporary measure to provide public transportation while the metro was closed. The NIMBY’s just needed something to whine about.
North of Shady Grove, BRT and dedicated rush hour only bus lanes might make sense, but certainly not south of the grove with shade.
They will be back when the 355 brt starts
It really does not matter either way. One still has to navigate his/her way through the gauntlet of Bethesda.
Who are the elected county officials who wanted to keep the bus lanes in place? Robert provides no names. And mainstream media have not published that assertion.
A @ 4:55: It's not just according to me. As I wrote in the article, reporter Tom Roussey asked MDSHA if the lanes were still just temporary last Tuesday, and the spokesperson could not give a definitive answer. If your point of view were correct, and they were being honest all along, the clear answer last Tuesday would have been, "Yes, they were always meant to be temporary, and will be removed next week." Instead, the pressure campaign was ongoing until the ABC 7 and public pressure led MDSHA to rebuff County officials and stick to the data that did not support continued bus lanes.
5:16: The fact that the MDSHA spokesperson could not reconfirm that temporary lanes were still temporary as late as last Tuesday indeed confirms my reporting of the behind-the-scenes pressure campaign by County elected officials to make them permanent.
We were told from the very beginning that they were temporary. There was a giant sign right in front of NIH like two months ago that said they were temporary.
A @ 8:00: Yes, and so why was the MDSHA unable to confirm that just days ago? Remember, we were told the Georgia Avenue bus lanes were "temporary" in the exact same fashion.
The county indicated that the temporary bus lanes were being studied during the Red Line shutdown to determine their impact of traffic flow. They were always temporary, but this was a chance to study the impact IF they were made permanent. Their preliminary findings showed that dedicated bus lanes are not warranted at this time and a complete traffic study of the temporary impact will be reported soon. Robert thrives in fearmongering. As I posted earlier, dedicated bus lanes north of Shady Grove might make some sense in the future, but parallel dedicated bus lanes and BRT adjacent to Metro make very little sense.
9:15: Ok, so if there was no question about them being temporary, why was the agency responsible for them unable to state that they were not going to be permanent as recently as last Tuesday?
The County was caught red-handed on this.
“…to remove the bus lane markings, and restore painted lines DESTROYED by the project.”
Could you possibly be any more melodramatic? Also why the inconsistency in your language regarding the beginning and the end of the project?
2:11: I follow the example set by The Washington Post and others. Democracy dies in darkness! Wow, a little melodramatic there.
There is no inconsistency in language. Just facts in both cases. Only the County was inconsistent, in their public messaging vs. their private browbeating of MDSHA to make the lanes permanent.
Its apparent to me that the ones sniping Robert are likely County employee hacks looking for office scuttlebutt props, I bet not a one lives even near the 355 corridor and even then hardly even visits Bethesda and north into the County.
There are definitely council shills monitoring this blog ready with BS statistics to sell their wares.
Using the term “destroyed” when discussing traffic striping is just plain inflammatory. Applying paint to temporarily cover lane markings “destroys” nothing. Roads and lane markings are continually be restriped over time. To suggest that anything was destroyed is just another example of your negative point of view. Sensationalism in journalism in this shameful example. Time to grow up.
ABC 7 is owned by Sinclair Media and has the same credibility as Fox News.
10:09: So what part of their report do you dispute as false?
9:27: Thank God one media outlet - just one - has a critical view, and doesn't mindlessly cheerlead for our failed County Council. It's people who need safe spaces free of factual criticism of government who need "to grow up."
11:25 I wasn’t cheerleading our government, just commenting on how you tend to sensationalize something as silly as traffic striping as somehow “destroying” something. You have previously used that term when describing a building being demolished, as being somehow “destroyed” in your continued effort to fear monger. Yes you often have much healthy criticism for the status quo, but really, paint stripes were destroyed by an evil leftist government? Surely you have jumped the shark this time Fonzi.
@3:05 Maybe you haven't been paying attention as this is akin to a death of a thousand cuts. OGR and LFP are just examples of social engineering. Leaf blower bans which ironically have created fossil-fueled generator charging trailers. Closure of power plants so that MD is reliant on electricity from other states power grids. The worst is the exodus of actual taxpayers replaced with the population of illegals on entitlements, thanks to sanctuary status, creating the present day budget deficits that need to be made up by a smaller group of people hence last year's property tax increase which is a preview of things to come. The nail in the coffin is lax enforcement of existing laws so criminals don't really have any deterrents. Don't worry, you just need a clerk to unlock the retail cabinet to get that tube of toothpaste.
My (5:55) source were the insiders, planners, who analyzed this route and new that the volume of traffic had to return the lane to their previous number.
@3:26 - What did you expect, that's urban living? Love it, or leave it.
Leave them painted up as is, it was Schadenfreude watching the WMATA PoPo rowst scofflaws, Schnell! Schnell!
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