Don't believe me. Drive 270 either way between DC and Frederick during rush hour for a couple of days. Then cut over to 355/Rockville Pike, the alternate non-interstate route, and drive that for a couple of days. Then wander around some nice Saturday and look at all the new development sprawling across the remaining open ground along those corridors. This should cure you of any delusion that expanding 270 or 495 will do anything more than create a wider parking lot.
If you want to live out there, fine … but if you're coming into DC, plan on taking the train and buy a house that is convenient to a MARC or Metro stop. Better yet, take a job out in a fringe city and avoid the commute altogether. If you work in DC, live in DC or an inner ring suburb. We don't need a wider 270; we need people to live closer to their jobs.
How do you get people to live closer to their jobs when the price of housing increases the closer you get to DC?
Maybe it’s time to start moving federal agencies out of DC.
I think a 270 expansion is in order. There simply is no good way into DC from the Frederick area that is not highly congested. I wonder if expanding the Metro is an option?
That stretch of 270 is awful, just awful to drive.
I just drove 270 and 495 yesterday. On a Saturday afternoon it’s tolerable. But 495 is a crapshoot any day any time. You never know whether it’s going to take two
Hours from Tyson’s to 95N or thirty minutes. There are only a few ways around and into DC. One more lane on 270 or 495? That may help a little .....
If only the issue was commuters coming to and fro from DC. Reality is two income families have spouses often working in opposite ends of the DMV and living somewhere in the middle, which is usually an affordable Maryland suburb. The employment highway runs from Northern Virginia all the way to the outskirts of Frederick, east to the BWI Business corridor.