Thanks to our readers who sent us their feedback on Empty Bike Lanes and Plastic Bags! Here are some of the responses:
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I feel this is actually non-partisan item. The question now is how do we get rid of them? No one asked us the voters and tax payers if we needed or wanted them. I feel like this is one topic we can get everyone on board on.
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I agree on the bike lanes. They were a terrible idea that I feel the people responsible for them should feel embarrassed spending the money to build, taking away a car traffic lane backing up traffic, and now seeing them unused.
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Too bad that people do not vote against Democrat stupidity.
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I hope that soon sanity will come back and we will have our roads open back to normal. And free plastic bags as soon as possible. Are there any normal people in power that can think straight? I hope they can more focus on crime!
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Bike lanes are a joke. As a homeowner in Montgomery County I was never asked about these ridiculous bike lanes. They are never used, all they do is back up traffic, and are an eyesore. This is not the countryside, this is urban areas. People need to get to work, appointments etc. and we don’t need to give up all these roads for bikes that never use them. What a colossal waste of taxpayer money. Take back the roads for cars.
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These bike lanes are making traffic infinitely worse and are just another extreme irritation in this county which make me want to move out of state even more than before. Traffic islands in the middle of 2-lane roads are another great irritation - I'm just glad I'm not a snow plow driver. It appears to me this county has done nothing but go downhill since I moved here 50 years ago.
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I don’t disagree with any of your sentiments. It seems to me we somehow need to educate those who are voting these people into office to show them why these policies are not in their best interest, much in the same way we canvassed for Hogan for Senator, sometimes correcting misperceptions in a kind way that sways them and maybe their friends.
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I have for probably 2 years been indignantly railing against the bike lane joke. It has become a travel game in my car as we travel around the County to give a prize to the first person who spots a bike in one of the lanes. And I would like to see the real cost, including those spread around to other budget lines to make the costs seem lower. I'm betting its in the millions if you include maintenance and replacement of the plastic poles which BTW seem to be taking a beating.
Not only are the lanes expensive but they are totally inept with their starts and stops and lack of continuity. And while I don't have statistics I'll bet there have been car accidents as a consequence of the patch work nature of the lanes and poles.
Our Council and Exec seem to work on a "kneejerk" basis. Three influential people or one new Left Wing theory will propel or "leaders" into costly and useless projects and spending.
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Hey Elrich / Katz / Glass:
Per below email from the MCGOP, this video below is so 'right-on' with vacant bike lanes 99% of the time as I have witnessed many times driving along Old Georgetown Road back and forth over many days.. No runners / bikers / e-Scooters / walkers,, etc..
And of course there have been put in place last year as I understand it about 200 - give or take - 'No Turn on Red' signs at various Red light intersections in MoCo creating longer and longer lines of cars sitting and idling while not being able to turn on a Red light.. How smart that is, having cars sit idling more and more spewing out more and more exhaust pollution..
I was talking to our Postal Mailman the other day, and he said that when turning right on his runs at intersections now with red lights, he is now being put behind on getting mail delivered each day causing longer days for him.. losing about an hour or more each day sitting in traffic lines idling his mail truck at red lights on his routes..
Really smart of our MoCo Leaders.
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I hate paper bags, they always break. The previous plastic bags ar DollarTree were 3 times thicker than now.
The bike lanes in Rockville are, as u say, ridiculous misuse of traffic lanes causing congestion. Rockville is probably 49% seniors. The oldest biker I know who u should interview is the 80+ senior, former jet pilot, who bikes to the Rockville Senior Center for their weekday lunches. The bike lanes are rarely used.
Now the Elrich jerks are making an exception to gas blower ban for illegal aliens. The whole idea of electric cars et al helping the environment is presently false as the electric power is still largely supplied by 45% efficiency fossil fuel combustion. So until solar and wind/wave power generation hits at least 80% of generation the bans are without scientific basis.
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Three years ago, Montgomery Country Government proposed adding bike lanes to Tuckerman Lane. The bike lanes would run from Grosvenor Station Metro to Falls Road. The bike lanes would continue on Falls Road to the Potomac Community Center. Tuckerman Lane is four lanes to Old Georgetown Road. Tuckerman changes to two lanes just past Old Georgetown Road all the way to Falls Road. This route (Grosvenor Metro to the Potomac Community Center) is used by a large group of bikers on the weekends and holidays and occasionally by individual or small groups of six or less bikers during the week.
In 2022, the County did a proposed study concerning Tuckerman Lane (see attached email), They proposed narrowing the existing traffic lanes so they could add bike lanes. They claimed that they sent a survey out to the county residents to see what they wanted. When I inquired if they sent questionnaires to the county residents along the proposed route, they did not respond. They did say they did receive survey results from members of the BICYCLE community. When I pointed out that they DID NOT survey people who lived along Tuckerman Lane or Falls Road, they claimed the proposal had been open for comments on the county’s website. After much digging through multiple layers of webpages, I found that the comment page had been posted for a little over 90 days, and was NOT noted anywhere on the County’s main web page (both maybe violations of the state and county rules).
The county apparently shelved the idea (for now) after receiving protests from citizens living along Tuckerman Lane and Falls Road.
I suspect that the county will attempt to revive the project within the next couple of years.
Why the push from Montgomery County to suddenly add bike lanes through the county? FEDERAL MONEY! The county gets federal money to convert/modify or otherwise change roads and add bike lanes. The county adds a small amount of county money, the US taxpayer pays the major bill and presto, the county changes perfectly good roads that people used to roads that no one wants to use anymore, not even the bicycle riders. Oh, and because the road has “bicycle lanes” the county gets to reduce the speed limit from 45 or 40 MPH to 35 MPH, add speed cameras, and INCREASE speed camera revenue! WHAT A GREAT WIN for everyone. NOT! A commute that used to take 20 minutes is now INCREASED to 45 or 40 minutes because of the bike lanes that no one wanted, or uses, lowered speed limits and more speed cameras.
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As far as the empty bike lanes, that may be one of the WOKEst waste of money in the recent history of Montgomery County who is very good at throwing away tax payers' money on absolutely worthless programs. I don't know what it cost to install those bike lanes nor can I effectively estimate the frustration costs of all those commuters who suffer traffic jams which may certainly have been lessened if those bike lanes had never been installed. In every single personal experience that we have had driving where a lane of traffic had been take away for a bike lane, we have yet to see a single bike rider using those lanes since they were installed.
The Elderly Property Tax program has been discontinued after seven years of a homeowner's participation. Our participation ended after the 2023 tax year. The loss of that tax credit resulted in our tax bill increasing by approximately an additional $1,000. The loss of revenue for Montgomery County that would have occurred by continuing to extend the seven year Elderly Property Tax Credit program could have been easily covered by simply not installing any bike lanes, all of which are hardly ever used. After several emails to the Montgomery County Council presidents, both previous and present, I was told that to continue that tax program was too politically sensitive because it would not have passed a continuing resolution in the Montgomery County Council because the minority members of the council felt it appeared to be favoring the elderly population. Yet, Montgomery County effectively continually reappraises our homes. Just this week we received yet another notification from Montgomery County that our home has been reassessed once again and that we will see increased assessments every year for the next three years thereby increasing our property tax bills every single year. That represents a 16.2% increase over the next three years. For those of us who have been retired for many years, this increasing property tax burden is forcing us to consider moving away after living in Montgomery County for the past 53 years.
On another matter, how was it possible for the county council to decide to become a sanctuary county without having that issue on the ballot? Even though the county is overwhelmingly Democrat by a four to one ratio, I think that there would have been a fairly good chance that sanctuary status would never have been approved by the voters. We should try to gather enough signatures to force the revocation of sanctuary status issue to be placed on the next ballot.
Montgomery County's continuing focus is to provide increased benefits to the illegals that have flooded the county while ignoring the long-term residents. We have become the California of the East coast.