MD 355 resurfacing project begins near Pooks Hill in Bethesda (Photos)

Maryland State Highway Administration contractors have begun a resurfacing project on Rockville Pike (MD 355) north of downtown Bethesda. The nighttime work is currently taking place in the Pooks Hill area near Pooks Hill Road and Alta Vista Road. Last night, all lanes were closed except one. This follows a similar project last year on Old Georgetown Road. So if you want to avoid dings in your car's finish, you'll want to take Old Georgetown between Bethesda and Rockville, instead of Rockville Pike, for the near future.

355 Bus Rapid Transit open houses June 26 & 27

What's a $10 billion boondoggle with branding that brings to mind a creepy man wearing a trenchcoat? Montgomery County's proposed $10 billion Bus Rapid Transit network, devised with consulting help from Communist Chinese officials, and branded as "Flash," despite moving only one mile every four minutes. The public will have an opportunity to learn more about the MD 355 BRT route proposed to run between Clarksburg and the Bethesda Metro station at two open houses next week.

Open House #1 will be held Wednesday, June 26, 2019 from 6:00-8:00 PM at the Activity Center at Bohrer Park, located at 506 S. Frederick Avenue in Gaithersburg. The second Open House will be held the next evening, Thursday, June 27 from 6:00-8:00 PM in the Wisconsin Multipurpose Room at the B-CC Regional Services Center, located at 4805 Edgemoor Lane in downtown Bethesda.

You'll notice several key factoids are not emphasized to the public about this particular BRT proposal.

First, if dedicated lanes are utilized, the vehicle capacity of already-jammed MD 355 will be slashed by 33%. If you know that BRT advocates' most-optimistic number for the percent of people who will "get out of their cars" (as the globalists like to say) is only 16% in the best-case scenario, in a "flash" you can quickly calculate that the BRT will have the effect of severely-worsening rush hour traffic - and increasing exhaust emissions from additional idling in traffic jams.

Second, speaking of fumes, these buses run on diesel fuel. Unlike the futuristic subways on wheels depicted in glossy promotional materials you paid for, the buses look just like Metrobuses. That was exposed in one of the most cringeworthy PR disasters of the BRT push, when the actual bus was displayed at the County Fair, and it looked like a junky Metrobus.

Third, the 355 route - like Route 29 and Georgia Avenue BRT lines - will require demolition of thousands of residential and commercial properties between Clarksburg and Bethesda. Watch this very closely, and keep track if all of the same activists who are raging against 37 potential home demolitions for Beltway Express Lanes yell and scream about thousands of demolitions for BRT. I expect to see heartfelt columns from John Kelly denouncing the greedy developers and their puppets on the County Council and Planning Board, and extensive local news coverage of anti-highway folks jumping up and down and lighting their hair on fire to stop BRT! And like the anti-Express Lane and anti-M83-Highway campaigns, shadow-funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, of course.

In the fine print, you'll notice the County is "still studying" the "property impacts" of BRT. LOL.

Fourth, the only thing the Flash does fast is eat up taxpayer money. 355 "Flash" will take a turtle-like 87.2 minutes to travel the 21.8 miles from Clarksburg to the Bethesda Metro station. And then you're not even at work, because you still have to transfer to Metro to reach where the actual jobs are in the District or Northern Virginia. Better pack a Red Bull, my friend.

It's a simple fact that only transit projects that can beat automobile travel times will get ridership, meaning "Flash" is dead-on-arrival. This, of course, is why the War-On-Cars County Council is trying everything to increase auto commuting times, proposing nuclear options ranging from changing the speed limit to 25 MPH along 355, reducing the width of lanes to 10' and seizing one lane in each direction for the bus.

But that still won't create ridership, or "get people out of their cars." Why? Because increasing your auto commute by another 34 minutes still won't take as long as the average one-way transit commute of two hours. So you'll just end up with empty buses running past heavier traffic congestion and thicker clouds of exhaust from idling vehicles. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Why would County officials press ahead anyway, knowing all this? Because BRT isn't meant to improve travel or be a success. It's simply meant to allow urban-density development along all the routes it travels, by magically qualifying them for "transit-oriented development" by being on a "rapid transit line." The Council's developer sugar daddies couldn't be more pleased.

Finally, there's no demand for bus service on 355. I'm the only journalist to conduct spot checks on the $1 million Ride On Extra service between Shady Grove and Medical Center Metro stations. I've yet to find any significant ridership even during rush hour on this line. During peak evening rush hour, I counted one person riding the Ride On Extra in each direction on 355 at Edmonston Drive. During another peak evening rush hour, a Ride On Extra departed Shady Grove Metro station with no passengers on board.

This is a boondoggle of astronomical proportions. For a fraction of the cost of BRT, we could build the M-83 Highway, the long-delayed new Potomac River crossing, the Rockville Freeway between Montrose Road and the ICC, and the equally-long-delayed Georgia Avenue-Norbeck Road interchange. Each one of the aforementioned highways would carry more commuters each day than the entire $10 billion BRT network. And the Potomac River crossing, like I-270 and Beltway Express Lanes, could be built at virtually no cost to taxpayers by private firms that would earn back their investment through tolls on those new lanes and roadways.

In an economically-moribund county where the government's debt - if it were a government department - would be the third-largest department in the County government, highways make the most sense: moving the most people for the lowest cost of any mode of transportation.

Rockville Pike lane closures Tuesday by NIH/Walter Reed in Bethesda

Expect single lane closures in both directions on Rockville Pike (MD 355) in Bethesda on Tuesday, January 24, between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM. The closures will be in the block between Jones Bridge Road and Cedar Lane, in front of NIH and Walter Reed.

This is related to the project that will build a tunnel underneath the Pike, and high-speed elevators down to the Medical Center Metro station on the east side of the state highway.

Signs posted banning parking on Wisconsin Avenue next week in Bethesda

Signs appeared up and down Wisconsin Avenue on Friday advising drivers that there will be no parking along that state highway between August 1 and August 5 next week, from 5:00 AM to 8:00 PM.

In another acknowledgement that seizing an automobile land for Bus Rapid Transit would reduce road capacity by 33%, Montgomery County is taking this step to increase road capacity during the WMATA SafeTrack "surge" on the Metro Red Line next week. The added capacity is designed to help additional buses being deployed move faster along this busy commuter route, as well as commuters in their own cars.

As repairs are made to the poorly-maintained subway system, station closures and slow service will inconvenience riders, who are advised to find alternative transportation if possible.

Carmageddon? Part of SB MD 355 to close in downtown Bethesda this Saturday (Photos)

I noticed these vague electronic message signs promising what sounds like a traffic nightmare on Wisconsin Avenue - the closure of southbound MD 355 this Saturday, June 13, from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Sure, it's not a weekday rush hour. But traffic can be mighty bad up and down 355 in Montgomery County on weekends.

So I had to check with the MD State Highway Administration. SHA Assistant District Utility Engineer Mark Loeffler said a portion of southbound Wisconsin Avenue will indeed be closed this Saturday morning.

The closure is required to accommodate a crane that will "hoist steel to the top of the building at 7514" Wisconsin Avenue, Loeffler explained. He expects the job to take "about a half of [a] day" to finish. 7514 is an office building.

Southbound traffic will be detoured onto Commerce Lane, Loeffler said. The only problem is, Commerce Lane will require a series of turns to get back to Wisconsin south of the closure. Old Georgetown Road is one-way heading away from Wisconsin where Commerce meets it. Then you'd have to turn onto Woodmont Avenue, turn left onto Montgomery Lane, and take Montgomery back to Wisconsin.

What could possibly
go wrong, right?

BETHESDA WATER MAIN BREAK UPDATE (PHOTOS)

All lanes of MD 355 are expected to be open for rush hour this morning in downtown Bethesda. WSSC crews completed work on a water main break in the southbound lanes, between Woodmont Avenue and Battery Lane, last evening. Crews were at work on a nearby site, as well, in the 4700 block of Chestnut Street:

Photos by Jason Yang

ROAD RESURFACING IN WHITE FLINT (PHOTOS)

Rockville Pike (MD 355) is currently being resurfaced between Montrose Parkway and Nicholson Lane. You may encounter grooved surfaces and uneven roadway along this segment, as well as traffic delays.

2 LANES OF NB 355 CLOSED BY WALTER REED IN BETHESDA, UTILITY WORK IN DOWNTOWN BETHESDA (PHOTOS)

The same right lane closures on northbound Wisconsin Avenue, and Montgomery Avenue, are in effect tonight.

But it gets worse just north of town, where 2 lanes of NB 355 are closed for road work between Jones Bridge Road and Cedar Lane.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY BRT WOULD TAKE 13-21% OF ITS RIDERS FROM METRO ALONG 355, PLANNER SAYS

Montgomery County Planning Department Master Planner Larry Cole told the Rockville Planning Commission last night that a bus rapid transit line along MD Route 355 would take "13-21%" of its ridership from Metro.

Why is this important?

For two reasons. First, it highlights the duplication of existing subway service by BRT. In fact, Commissioner David Hill questioned Cole on that very point at last night's briefing at Rockville City Hall.

Secondly, it confirms my argument from the beginning of this sham of a process regarding BRT:  the duplicative service will attract mostly those who already use transit. In the process, it will slash the already insufficient revenue of the Metro system.

Where will that shortfall be recovered from? From you and I, the taxpayers. And again from you and I, in the form of future Metro fare increases.

It begs the question again - if the county has a magic $5 billion in extra revenue to pay for the BRT system, wouldn't that money be better spent on projects that will actually reduce congestion? These would include M-83 Midcounty Highway Extended, the Rockville Freeway, a new Potomac River bridge, expanded MARC service, the Purple Line and an extension of Metro to Gaithersburg and Germantown.

In contrast to those projects, the ridership, density and demand numbers for BRT simply don't add up.  With no solid evidence that drivers will "get out of their cars," it's safe to assume Metro ridership will be the target audience for the Emperor's New Bus, thereby providing no congestion relief.

What could ultimately end up happening, is a small BRT ridership, taken in even greater numbers from Metro than Cole's projections suggest, riding $5 billion buses along a now even-more-congested Route 355. And Metro in even worse financial straits than ever.

Rockville Planning Commissioners were understandably skeptical of Cole's presentation.

Commissioner Jack Leiderman asked Cole if he was attempting to "punish" drivers by removing 2 car lanes from 355 for BRT. Cole arrogantly responded that drivers "don't own" those lanes.

Mr. Cole, those of us who live in Maryland not only own those lanes, but we paid for their construction, and continue to pay for their maintenance.

Cole made the mistake of comparing the seizure of 2 lanes for BRT to HOV Lanes on I-270. Anyone who actually drives on 270 knows that the HOV idea was a complete failure, and does continue only as a punishment for drivers. The HOV lane is that one which you turn to the left and see hardly anybody in, while you're crawling or at a complete stop on 270. Not only is traffic still jammed, but you're moving even slower, thanks to the loss of 25% of capacity in the Express lanes.  And during rush hour, many HOV drivers are using the lane illegally.

Cole wasn't done making odd comparisons.

When a skeptical Commissioner Dion Trahan quizzed Cole as to how losing already-jammed lanes would reduce gridlock, Cole referred to Ballston in Arlington.

Cole repeated a popular urban myth among "smart" growth advocates, that traffic on Wilson Boulevard in Ballston and Clarendon has actually decreased, despite massive, dense redevelopment.

This is an apples to oranges comparison, and complete bunk. First, the "less traffic" argument is hardly accurate as it relates to Arlington.

But, more importantly, there is no comparison whatsoever between Wilson Boulevard and 355.

The daily traffic count on Wilson is around 15,000 vehicles.

The daily traffic count on Rockville Pike is 43,000 to 46,000 cars.

Wilson is a lower-capacity road than 355.

And Wilson is not an arterial road of the scope of 355.  355 carries heavy traffic from Washington, Frederick, Carroll and Montgomery counties along a corridor that has only one alternative, 270.

In contrast, drivers traveling west-east into Washington through Arlington have many parallel routes to choose from.  Rockville Pike is not Wilson Boulevard, and you can't make it so just to satisfy ideology or developers.

Speaking of which, Cole seems to favor both. Cole's recent suggestion to kill the grade-separated Montrose Parkway certainly revealed an anti-highway, pro-developer bias. That's not a good starting point for a planning department that is supposed to ensure adequate mobility of citizens via a multimodal transportation system.

But there's more ideological dreaming, "behavior-modification" scheming, and development cheerleading going on than planning in Cole's department.

Asked by the commission's chair, Jerry Callistein, why no planning has been done for BRT parking, environmental studies, BRT-Metro transfers, BRT vehicle storage, etc., Cole essentially responded that the dog ate his homework. It's hard enough to get the BRT plan passed without worrying about those little details, Cole suggested.

Unsatisfactory answers were the rule in a presentation on an unsatisfactory boondoggle of a BRT proposal.