Friday, November 17, 2017

Montgomery County Council clueless in meeting with Maryland transportation official

Another clueless performance by the Montgomery County Council in a transportation meeting yesterday has some in the business community questioning their fitness for office. In a failed attempt to dress down Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's transportation secretary Pete Rahn, their politically-motivated meeting ended up instead exposing how poorly-informed the Council is on the basics of modern infrastructure, its operation, and financing.

Councilmembers repeatedly demanded "transit" be part of Hogan's massive Express Lanes plan for the Capital Beltway, I-270 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. They were unaware that it is standard practice for regular and rapid buses to use Express Lanes on highways.

Council President Roger Berliner asked Rahn if he could "fold in" the stalled Corridor Cities Transitway BRT project into the $9 billion dollar Express Lanes project. This was patently absurd for two reasons: The CCT runs on a completely different route than I-270, for starters. And the CCT, like all bus and rail service, will be a money-loser; transit does not generate profits like Express Lanes. What sane private corporation would try to combine the potentially-narrow profit margin of these particular Express Lanes with a surefire money drain like the CCT?

Finally, Councilmember George Leventhal showed how out of touch he is with his constituents when he advised Rahn that the more transit is part of the Express Lanes plan, "the more it will be easier (sic) to assuage our constituents." Huh? His constituents, tired of being stuck in traffic, want the popular Express Lanes plan proposed by Hogan. Leventhal should listen to voices beyond the yes-men in his office before daring to speak on behalf of his constituents.

Rahn, in contrast, demonstrated he has his finger on the pulse of frustrated Maryland drivers. His only misstep was waffling on how much the project might end up costing taxpayers, off-message with Hogan's promise that private companies would take on the financial burden.

Business leaders watching the hearing - and Montgomery's moribund private-sector economy and plunging wealth numbers - were reminded of a similar amateur-hour performance by the Council earlier this fall. In a worksession on autonomous vehicles, councilmembers showed a laughable lack-of-knowledge of the basic nuts-and-bolts of this now-arriving technology.  Many referred to autonomous vehicles as a futuristic fantasy, apparently unaware that Tesla vehicles on the road right now have fully-autonomous capability. The Council also didn't know how the cars might be insured. As more evidence that the Council hadn't even done the most basic research ahead of the session, they didn't know Volvo had just announced it would take on drivers' insurance liability itself.

Clueless.

5 comments:

  1. WOW On WMAL radio this afternoon they were discussing and taking calls on the KFC female murder case. The station reached out to every single Montgomery Council member to appear on the show. And get this: Every single Council member emailed the station back and said they would not be on the show / radio.

    They refused to defend the immigration policies in Montgomery County.

    And one man phoned in on the show saying he spent several hours in traffic court in Fairfax County. 90% of the folks there were here illegally and had no licenses. The judge actually told all of them from Virginia to move to Maryland where the immigration laws are easier for them and they can get a drivers license much easier.

    Can you believe this ??? I certainly can !!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 4:05: Oh, I can believe it. It hard to come on the radio and defend an indefensible policy. Especially when we now definitively have a victim (in the KFC case) who lost her life as a direct result of that policy. That's why the MoCo cartel unleashed a troll army against me after I published my expose on this. We have a confirmed victim of the sanctuary policy, a young mother walking home from work.

      Delete
  2. 6:22: People who are tired of dumbasses like you, that's who. Toll lanes and toll roads are profitable. Transit is not. If you don't know these basic facts, why do you even enter the debate?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Toll roads are profitable?????? How fucking dumb are you???? There isn't a single toll road in the DC area that isn't massively subsidized. You honestly don't know that?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Robert Dyer, 2006:

    "I absolutely oppose widening the Beltway, especially when it threatens homes in my District. I oppose toll lanes and toll roads, as they penalize low-income drivers."

    ReplyDelete