White Flint Sector Plan: Congestion Pricing?

Get ready for it folks! The Montgomery County, Maryland Planning, Housing, and Economic Development (PHED) Committee is now taking up ‘Transportation Issues’ for the proposed White Flint Sector Plan. And what are the recommendations of the PHED staff, in the staff report by Glenn Orlin, the Deputy Council Staff director?


Well, let’s see how our great ‘vision’ for a lowered carbon footprint, ‘sustainable’ urban’ ‘pedestrian-friendly’ development fares. First Mr. Orlin makes clear, “Incorporating a new or expanded transportation project in a master plan does not even guarantee it will be built in the long term.”

Yep, there you have it in black-and-white on the first page of the staff report. We may never get any new public transportation. 20,000 new jobs, with people needing to go to and from work sites? We’ll get those. 9800 new residential units on 400 acres? We’ll get those. 7.49 million new square feet of commercial/residential space? We’ll get that. But the public transportation needed to support the tens of thousands of new residents and job holders? Well, not so fast…

Instead, Mr. Orlin states that ‘A plan in balance does not mean the traffic conditions at build-out will be deemed ‘good’ or even ‘fair’ more likely the traffic congestion will be at the borderline between ‘tolerable’ and ‘intolerable.’ Finally, an honest public employee. The traffic will be at the borderline between tolerable and intolerable.

How does the ‘Plan’ envision achieving even the most pitiful ‘tolerable’ traffic? Well, the non-auto-driver mode share for employees in White Flint would have to increase to 50 percent. Or, as Mr. Orlin posits it, “…so this would mean the proportion of commuters to White Flint not driving would have to nearly double.”

How could it reach 50%? How about congestion pricing? How about removing the median on Montrose Road between I-270 and Montrose Parkway and replacing it with a reversible lane, as is done on Colesville Road or Georgia Avenue? How about widening Rockville Pike from 6 to 8 lanes between Edson Lane and the Beltway? That is what the Planning Board and Mr. Orlin envision for our community. The roads should look more like the roads that represent some of the worst traffic nightmares in the region.

If you can’t wait for this traffic disaster to come your way, just sit tight and it will. IF you don’t quite see this ‘vision’ for your neighborhood, or for our county, please email the County Council immediately. Tell them you don’t want the ‘intolerable’ traffic that the Council staff says will happen. Tell them you don’t think the FAR is in balance with the infrastructure. Tell them you want the density decreased so our infrastructure can support it and tell them not to approve unachievable density plans. This is not sustainable.

Who is on the PHED Committee? Councilmembers Mike Knapp, Nancy Floreen, and Marc Elrich.

To contact the council email county.council@montgomerycountymd.gov; to read Mr. Orlin’s report, go to  http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/content/council/pdf/agenda/cm/2009/091130/20091130_PHED2.pdf