The Road for the Masses

The bi-partisan effort to get the mess called the Intercounty Connector (ICC) approved and built is now complete. This highway was built over the objections of common sense, environmentalists, and others who see the cost to build this boondoggle as a massive waste of money. The highway is officially open. This is a toll road, designed and built to accommodate high income and other well-off individuals so they can burn oil and pollute the environment without having to share the road with low-income riff-raff. The first few days were free to use, and about 36,000 travelers used the road the first day. On subsequent free days, an average of about 30,000 cars used the road. On the first day tolls were assessed, 8,500 commuters saw fit to use it. That's a 76% drop in use in one day! They don't tell you what the toll is but if you don't have EZ-Pass, you're billed the going toll PLUS a $3 'service charge'.
This is indeed a road designed for the masses of workers.
That's why I was amazed to see the editorial in the Frederick News Post (Long & Lonely Road, Feb. 27). In it, the editors state, "...it could be years before we know whether the impact on commuters is worth the $2.56 billion cost to build (it)..."
How incredible! We have to wait YEARS to know whether or not we wasted $3 billion?
Is that what passes for conservative, fiscal responsibility these days? I would be laughing if it weren't so damn serious.
There is nothing Conservative whatsoever about spending $3 billion on the chance that traffic congestion will diminish. The approximately .35 per mile toll is nothing less than a tax on people who commute; a tax that actual working people can ill-afford.
We all understand, I think, that expenditures for new or 'improved' roads are only further subsidies to wealthy and well-connected land speculators and their crony developers. There has never been a road built in any city in the United States over the last 55 years that has reduced traffic. In fact, studies show that for every mile of new road built, there is an increase of 2 miles driven.
As someone once observed: Building roads to relieve traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity.
Our local newspaper does its readers a disservice by blurring facts. They further the popular myth that more is progress and that progress is good. And if it turns out not to be good, then we're told that it's just 'inevitable', so get over it.
It's time we got over the foolishness that growth is good, that it's 'grow or die' and that, somehow, spending billions is good for the economy.
Conservatives are very frugal when it comes to doing what government is supposed to do: serve the people, yet their largess knows no bounds when it comes to feeding the wealthy, corporate hogs.
The time has come to put some truth to the nonsense of growth and the lie that transferring wealth from working people to the rich is 'progress'. If that's what 'business' is all about then we need to make sure that Maryland is NEVER 'Open for Business'.