A Vision for the I-270 Corridor
The Idea
- Extend the Red Line to Gaithersburg and Germantown Town Center
- All-day, two-way MARC service between D.C. and Frederick, with trains every 15 minutes in rush hour
- MARC commuter trains to Hagerstown
- Light rail from Shady Grove through King Farm, Kentlands, and Germantown to Clarksburg Town Center (the Corridor Cities Transitway)
- Light rail along Route 355 from White Flint Mall to Lakeforest Mall, with the roadway rebuilt as a European-style boulevard
The Maryland State Highway Administration is promoting a $4 billion plan to add toll lanes to I-270 between Shady Grove and Frederick. But there is a better answer. The transit vision for the I-270 corridor would provide more and better transportation, do more for economic development, and be better for the environment. It will even cost less.
Why Transit?
Widening the highway won't get rid of congestion, despite the enormous cost-the last time I-270 was widened, traffic was as bad as ever in less than ten years. And it won't do anything about traffic on overcrowded local roads. Investing in a transit vision will:
- Get commuters to work without the pain of fighting traffic.
- Provide easy access to jobs in Frederick City, Germantown town center, Lakeforest, Old Town Gaithersburg, and the Rockville Pike Corridor.
- Stimulate a different, more compact growth pattern.
- Promote economic development economic development in an environmentally sustainable manner.
- Support the revitalization of Hagerstown.
- Protect 251 families whose homes will be demolished if I-270 is widened.
What Now?
The Action Committee for Transit, Sierra Club, and others first called for an I-270 transit vision in 1997 called for an I-270 transit vision. For twelve years, the State Highway Administration has studied one expensive road-widening plan after another, while refusing to analyze an all-transit solution for the corridor.
Now the Maryland Department of Transportation has asked county governments what it should do next. This is the time to be heard. Here's what you can do:
- Send an email to your local government:
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Years of Resistance to Transit Alternatives for I-270
The State Highway Administration has been studying plans to widen I-270 north of Shady Grove for many years. By 1997, work was well underway. But the Action Committee for Transit and the Sierra Club objected to the SHA's plans, arguing that a transit alternative was needed in the study.
In 1997, the Transportation Planning Board of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments rejected SHA's plans for an I-270 study and told the state agency that it had to include a transit alternative. ACT's September 1998 newsletter gives the details.
SHA responded by promising to add an Alternative 5 consisting of the Corridor Cities Transitway plus HOV-only lanes on I-270. ACT objected to this, since HOV lanes are roads and not transit. But the Alternative 5 that was actually studied wasn't even a real HOV alternative. It added numerous general-purpose lanes in addition to the HOV lanes. Between Shady Grove and Watkins Mill Road, the highway would be 14 lanes wide. In the area just north of Shady Grove, there were six new lanes of regular traffic. One existing northbound lane - a lane that SHA had opened to all cars after promising HOV when the project was approved – would be converted to HOV.
Montgomery County's Transportation Policy Report of 2001 tested a scenario much like today's I-270 transit vision. Traffic modeling showed transit ridership was huge, with the Metro extension alone showing more ridership than the current eastern Red Line outside Silver Spring. The expanded MARC service also showed very high ridership. Yet SHA persisted in its highway-first approach. Under the Ehrlich administration, the study added two new scenarios with toll lanes, but still no all-transit scenario.
Today the Obama Administration is seeking to transform national transportation policy, resulting in a level playing field for transit project reviews, and substantially more money for commuter rail and transit. Studying and planning for a comprehensive transit system alternative would position Maryland to win funding for this expanded transit system.
September 8 2009