The Libertarian and Green Party candidates were not consulted on their positions on transportation for this article. Figures.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
I thought this was a WWE thread..
What a joke. A red herring to the hilt. If you cannot baffle them with erudite brilliance , throw more crap against the wall hoping something will stick. Pure unadulterated crap.
Toll lanes — like the Inter-County Connector.
“What’s embedded in people’s heads are those $45 tolls,” said AAA’s Townsend.>
Yes, and seeing those Virginia campaign ads for Barbara Comstock in which she talks about her opponent's support for those tolls isn't helping Governor Hogan's plan gain support.
Hogan is going to beat Jealous comfortably.
““What’s embedded in people’s heads are those $45 tolls,” said AAA’s Townsend.”
Toll Roads: The people who use the road, pay for the road. And if the road costs $45 per car during the evening rush hour because of monopoly pricing...well, then people need to SUCK IT UP. That’s CAPITALISM, isn’t it?
“What’s embedded in people’s heads are those $45 tolls,” said AAA’s Townsend.
Yes, and seeing those Virginia campaign ads for Barbara Comstock in which she talks about her opponent's support for those tolls isn't helping Governor Hogan's plan gain support.
This does not fully capture the issue. Almost 10 million people live in the Washington D.C.-Baltimore Combined Metropolitan Statistical Area, which extend from Southern Maryland to Winchester and Shepherdstown and from Frederick, MD to Fredericksburg, VA. We are the fourth largest metro area in the country, trailing only NYC, LA and Chicago. We are suffering the inevitable consequences of size, while too many people are still living in the 1960's and think that more asphalt will solve the problem.
The problem is sprawl. More people need to live closer to their jobs. This means putting the planning emphasis on protecting, rehabilitating, and in some cases reclaiming neighborhoods and communities in the core and the inner ring suburbs. The inner ring jurisdictions will have to accept densification. Densification is not a dirty word; it's what needs to happen when suburbs build out and become urban places. At the same time, the outer ring counties need to establish growth boundaries. Preaching limits to the fringe cowboys, who think they still live on the open range, is like spitting into the wind, but if nothing else it's a matter of fair warning. The exurbs need to be put on notice that -- if MD extends strip malls and sprawl all the way to Hagerstown and Gettysburg, and if VA strip malls everything out to the Blue Ridge and the Rappahannock -- they can't expect sensible, closer-in communities to destroy themselves to accommodate heroic commutes by people who want to live 40, 60 or more miles away from their jobs. Want to live 60 miles out? Fine. But take the train.
I live on Capitol Hill, where over 50 percent of people do NOT drive to work. The long distance suburban commuters immediately respond that such a model is simply not relevant to them, and that's true for many. But this misses the point. More and more of the jobs are in growing job centers in the suburbs and edge cities. The key regional issue is whether places like Frederick, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Reston, Herndon, Manassas, etc., etc, etc. will start planning now for denser, more balanced, multi-purpose neighborhoods that give a significant fraction of their residents the option of living close to work. Some are. But I ran an errand yesterday afternoon south of Manassas, in the new sprawl around Nokesville and Bristow. On my return there was a wreck on I-66, so I diverted up 28 through the Dulles corridor. It's sad to watch the transportation mistakes of the last generation being repeated so mindlessly. The assumption clearly is that everyone is going to drive everywhere. That doesn't work in a city this big.
“How do Hogan and Jealous compare on transportation?”
Hogan understands what the word means.