DCist: Transit on Thursday: Not Down With ICC Edition

washcycle

Thu, 29 May 2008 17:07:29 -0500

Oh and while we're at it the ICC's bike trail is going to totally suck (if they don't end up scrapping the trail for "budgetary" or "environmental" reasons)

TripleE

Thu, 29 May 2008 17:06:10 -0500

Eight years ago, I spent about six months commuting from Gaithersburg to Beltsville with work covering my mileage, since it was a temporary assignment. Then, I would have loved the ICC. Other than that, as someone who's worked in G'burg for 8 years, and lived there for most of it (I'm in Friendship Heights now), you'd think I'd be all over this. Hell, theoretically, it'd make living in much cheaper, way more interesting, Silver Spring a possibility to me. No. Hell no. DO NOT WANT. I'll happily pay another 10% extra in taxes for a Purple Line (and/or anything that connects the Red Line to the Orange in VA), but the ICC is pointless. I'm even cool with some further expansion of jobs, development, etc. that makes the parts of Montgomery county that touch DC more of a dense city. Please, built that shit up nice and tight with public transit all over the place. I don't love the weird Disneylandish feel of Silver Sprung or whatever, but it still beats the crap out of strip mall after strip mall with inside malls breaking them up feel of G'burg, Germantown, etc. Chill out on the 1950's car culture, and make it easier for me to commute in the morning without paying for $4 a gallon gas. Don't do something that'll just bring more condos and strip malls farther out of the city center. And sure as hell don't build yet another * Mills type mall in nearby PG. Jeebus, that's the last thing anyone needs. DO NOT WANT. ~EEE~

flapjack

Thu, 29 May 2008 14:25:34 -0500

Thanks for the kind words IMGoph. I still hold out a tiny sliver of hope that someone will come to their senses and call the whole thing off. songfta: I'm all for it. They park all their stuff out in the open, wouldn't be hard to reach. :)

IMGoph

Thu, 29 May 2008 14:23:13 -0500

i used to live at the corner of 15th and T, loganmo (the big house on the southwest corner), and i witnessed a nice grisly head-on crash on the corner right in front of the house. wasn't the fault of the road itself there, per se, but i did see a lot of traffic flying along at really hight speeds through there.

loganmo

Thu, 29 May 2008 14:20:36 -0500

I live at 15th and T...Ill be honest....I rarely see any significant amount of traffic, and I hardly ever see anyone going at what appear to be freeway speeds-what exactly is the problem that needs solving??

songfta

Thu, 29 May 2008 14:18:28 -0500

Why Maryland is building a road back to the 20th Century - which is exactly what the ICC is - is beyond me. Any and all new transportation projects in this region need to be mass transit: light rail, Metro, and the like. Simply building another multi-lane pavement albatross is fighting against reality, and I'm disgusted at how short-sighted the ICC is. And where are the damn monkey wrenchers when you need 'em? The whole area along the ICC construction corridor is perfect for such activity, methinks. It would make for better reading, that's for sure!

IMGoph

Thu, 29 May 2008 14:15:06 -0500

flapjack: sorry to hear that you're going to be negatively affected by the ICC. the damn thing should never have been allowed to be built. too bad. hopefully this will be the last huge freeway we see built in the area (though i guess we were saying that when the last big freeway was built)....

monkeyrotica

Thu, 29 May 2008 13:17:07 -0500

People still go to malls? What a quaint old custom, not unlike balls, cotillions, serenades, and box socials. I ain't having nothing to do with a place that ain't got both an Orange Julius and a Hickory Farms.

dino

Thu, 29 May 2008 13:12:48 -0500

Konterra? That is a TERRIBLE name for a mall. OTH, it's a great name for an anti-depressant or stool softener.

flapjack

Thu, 29 May 2008 13:03:59 -0500

It would seem that way Reid.

AMDCer

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:53:53 -0500

Having grown up in College Park/Hyattsville, I've been hearing about the ICC for the last 30+ years. Amazingly, somehow the area has managed to grow and thrive without it, effectively dismissing the arguments for it. I agree we need something to mitigate the congested mess that is College Park during rush hour, but the purple line could address a lot of that. I say no ICC - I'm proud that Maryland has managed its growth so much better than Virginia, where I think it's been discovered that one new highway begets another, and another, which only leads to more Applebee's.

Reid

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:49:35 -0500

Wait, that Gould guy is descended from Jay Gould!? Jesus, the unscrupulous bastard gene is strong in that family.

UrsusMajeure

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:43:26 -0500

"This article was taylor made for the Post, stamped from the dough of suffering with a heartshaped cookie cutter." As Reid notes, aside from Marc Fisher, the Post editorial staff has been consistently pro-ICC. The ICC price tag, including financing, was estimated at near $3 billion in the 2003 study. Given the sharp spikes in the prices of fuel and concrete in the interim, I wouldn't be surprised to see the cost upwards of $4 billion when all is said and done. And the only benefit will be speedier travel for those willing to pay the toll between Rockville and Konterra/BWI, though at the additional cost of greater congestion on I-270, I-95, and I-495.

PWM

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:38:30 -0500

The only benefit of the ICC I can even dimly imagine would be creating new traffic capacity for the proposed Konterra mega-mall (I think its supposed to be the biggest mall on the east coast once its built, exactly the kind of smart development this region needs) that's supposed to be built at the PG end of the ICC. Last I've heard, the Konterra developers have gotten some sort of ok from the powers that be. Also, apparently people who commute between Gaithersburg and Laurel think its cool. Basically, its good for enabling things we shouldn't really be doing anyway. Otherwise, this post is pretty accurate in explaining why the ICC is straight garbage.

Reid

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:35:56 -0500

Does the Post article even acknowledge that the Post endorsed the construction of the ICC? Granted, they also endorsed Barry. And look how many papers that story ended up selling. Damn, they're a devious bunch.

Vaughan

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:30:38 -0500

oh my lord. konterra? he's basically named the development "swindle-land." nice. creative of him to change "con" to "kon." keeps it all looking legal, i guess.

monkeyrotica

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:13:30 -0500

This article was taylor made for the Post, stamped from the dough of suffering with a heartshaped cookie cutter. The people who would use the ICC wouldn't be using public transit anyway. They woudn't take Metro from Laurel to Rockville even if it was available with plush velour seats and free Starbucks and hot-and-cold running masseurs (with release). This is what happens when you allow developers to build whatever they want whenever they want, regardless of impact on existing road and service infrastructure. Annapolis saw a pile of money in tax revenue coming their way, so they sold your birthright for a mess of pottage and now all Montgomery County has to show for it is the mess. But there's plenty of blame to spread around the NIMBYs as well. Regardless of whether it's ICC or the Purple Line, they come out of the woodwork and piss and moan about how terrible growth is. They're living in some 1950s fantasy land where everybody drives the speed limit and nobody speaks Spanish. And they hold up construction for decades until the price of any solution quintuples. You know what? If you don't like roads or subway lines, move your ass to Saskatoon, ess the eff up, and get the eff out of our way. And stay off my lawn.

flapjack

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:12:37 -0500

ICC - bad bad bad bad bad. It will destroy part of my neighborhood, raze acres and acres of woodland, make the already congested area even more congested, increase the noise level from traffic exponentially (I can already hear traffic on 29 and 95), and will cost an already cash strapped state even more money. All so some fat ass self-righteous bastard (read: Kingdon Gould) can get the development he's always wanted - Konterra. There is no silver lining. It's all about money. Money that's going into the pocket of one sleazy, disgusting, cold-hearted man. Pity O'Malley turned out to be just as worthless as Bahama Bob Ehrlich. I need to stop before I give myself a stroke...

TimmyTucker

Thu, 29 May 2008 12:09:33 -0500

Honey, I Shrunk the Number of Lanes Look out for the sequel: "Honey, I Blew Up Your Car"...coming soon to an urban freeway near you!!