A Maryland State Highway Administration crew was working overnight to remove bus lanes on Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Bethesda. They were using equipment to erase pavement markings that restricted the use of the right lane in both directions to buses only, during the closure of several Red Line Metro stations this summer. MDSHA vetoed the demand of several Montgomery County elected officials to make the temporary lanes permanent. Those officials - who had hoped to replicate a previous Trojan horse bait-and-switch scheme that saw "temporary" bus lanes on Georgia Avenue become permanent - were browbeating the state agency as late as last week. But MDSHA said the data verdict on the bus lanes was so bad that there was no justification to make them permanent, and actually stuck to their guns this time.
20 comments:
There ya go ~ no more worries ... back to the "before times" :-)
Miracles do happen folks.
"MDSHA vetoed the demand of several Montgomery County elected officials to make the temporary lanes permanent"
It's insane how much nonsense you just flat out fabricate. "Oh, exactly what I wanted to happen is happening so let me make up gibberish about imaginary "vetoes" and unnamed officials who don't exist so I still have something to whine about!!! That'll get people to like me!!!"
9:22: I didn't have to fabricate - the MDSHA spokesperson couldn't confirm or deny that the temporary lanes would not be permanent only 6 days before the stated end date, clear proof of the interference by County elected officials.
Allegedly the County elected officials
Have proven to be vain and superficial
Instead of doing something beneficial
They venture into matters prejudicial.
Perhaps the MDSHA spokesperson was not authorized to release any details about the bus lanes to the press. My understanding was that the lanes were always temporary, but were being studied on their impact, for a potential future more permanent application, at least in downtown Bethesda.
6:44: The temporary status of the lanes had already been publicly announced by the agency. There was no issue in confirming existing information - unless that temporary status had now been called into question. That change is what the spokesperson would not have been able to comment on. This is how we caught our County elected officials red handed.
Robert is correct and spot on regarding the county's hidden agenda. Anyone familiar with the bike lane master plan, the one that no bikes are ever on? You know what happens to a roadway that gets reduced from 3 lanes down to only 2? The traffic on Old Georgetown Rd the other morning was backed up from Wildwood Shopping Center solid all the way to Cedar Lane. Guess what? That never happened before the social engineering cabal got hold of it. And how bout Little Falls Pkwy? The list is long. Thanks voters!
Give credit where credit is due. Timely work, lanes removed.
Can you please provide a citation for the statement that the data to make the bus lanes permanent was so bad they wouldn't be made permanent, thanks.
11:41: The MDSHA spokesperson told ABC 7's Tom Roussey that the data collected over the summer did not justify making the bus lanes permanent. The negative traffic impact outweighs the low number of people that would be moved in the buses once the subway stations were open again.
What about removing the bicycle lanes on Old Georgetown Road? The students who pushed it in order to get public service credit and an item to write about for their college applications are out of college by now and probably don't care.
False. Some spokesperson said 'let me check on that" and then subsequently confirmed that the lane's removal was indeed happening on time. It's insane that your brain takes that information and then fabricates an entire baseless conspiracy around it.
The county has been talking about BRT and bus lanes on 355 for decades; it's insane that you think it'd actually happen without some redundant $5M study, 5 years worth of community meetings, and a subsequent 5 years worth of lawsuits. Your conspiracy makes zero sense to anyone who has ever spent any real time in slow-mo MoCo.
I suggest that you actually drive on the roads to see reality. I see countless bikes on the bike lanes, and bravo to the bikers for reducing the number of cars on the road. Let's be grateful for a county that realizes the need to facilitate other forms of transportation. And, for not buckling to the car obsessed people among us.
I understand why bikers might not want to drive in the same main line as cars and why they're prohibited from driving on the sidewalk. But creating infrastructure for a handful of bikers in hopes of getting more people to bike is short-cited because the # of people going through will never meaningfully increase and people who commute by bike to work are people who don't need to bring tools or equipment to their work, who don't need to look or smell presentable once at work, and who have no health conditions prohibiting them from biking. I lived in a west coast city that did this and 90% of the people using them were young white men going to retail type jobs. Seems short-cited.
I just wanted to say how proud I am of this community for coming together and weathering this tumultuous few months in our history. These temporary bus lanes have caused absolute MINUTES of delays in our time-sensitive drives to the grocery store. Their large and imposing stature has left even the strongest gym goer trembling in their lifting shoes. This arm of the Marxist Socialist Public Transportation Cabal has been defeated, but we must stay vigilant - I came across a bike lane the other day and just about had a fit of the vapors. Luckily I was able to get in my internal combustion engine vehicle and drive away (minding the speed limit and No Turn On Red signs, of course).
Those Big Scary Buses™️ will plague our streets no longer! I am currently forging some medals for all those interested in showing off a token of their bravery. Make sure you all go on Facebook and mark yourself Safe, and just know that resources are available for any suffering a case of PTBD (post traumatic bus disorder).
10:59: Does the MDSHA spokesperson also have to look outside and get back to us on whether the sun rose this morning? That's how settled the question of the lanes being temporary was. It's the fact that it was no longer settled at that late moment that is the dead giveaway that the issue was now in flux, under the pressure campaign of County officials.
6:41: Yes, and the significant development is that we have now provided these bike facilities, and they have not changed commuter behavior. No new riders in any meaningful number are adopting bicycle mode, even with elaborate and expensive infrastructure provided for their safety.
I think it was a valuable experiment, but now any legitimate public official needs to declare the experiment a failure, and concluded. Bike lanes should now be removed from these roads, where the numbers clearly do not support their continued detrimental impact on the vast majority of commuters.
The spokesperson simply checked to make sure of the timeline of when the paint was being scraped up to make sure they didn't say something that was incorrect. Is making sure you have your facts straight before opening your mouth really that foreign of a concept to you, Dyer?
4:49: That's not what the reporter asked - he asked if the lanes were still just temporary. And it took two days to get an answer.
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