A practical vision for Montgomery County
Roughly seven in ten American commuters get to work by car, yet road capacity is being removed faster than it is built. We advocate for fixing bottlenecks, protecting travel lanes, and holding every transportation dollar to the same standard: measurable results for the people who actually use the system.
The three-part platform
Most county households depend on roads for work, school, caregiving, deliveries, and emergencies. Our platform asks transportation leaders to treat road capacity as essential public infrastructure — and to put every project, in every mode, through the same accountability test.
Target recurring bottlenecks, modernize interchanges, and widen constrained corridors where traffic data supports it. Congestion relief is not a luxury — it is billions of hours of American life returned each year.
Read the road capacity briefAbout half of one percent of U.S. commuters bike to work. Before a general-purpose lane becomes a bike lane, the public deserves published traffic analysis, usage thresholds, and a reversible pilot.
Read the bike lane briefTransit fares now cover only a small fraction of operating costs, and major capital projects run billions over budget. Fund what performs — and stop writing blank checks for what doesn't.
Read the transit spending briefThe case in numbers
Every figure below comes from federal data programs or established national research bodies. We cite our sources because we want transportation policy debated on evidence, not slogans.
Figures are the most recent published values from each source at the time of writing and are rounded for readability. Follow the source links in the footer to verify any number on this site.
Close to home
The Washington region consistently ranks among the most congested in the nation. Our county's recent transportation record shows exactly why a capacity-first, accountability-first approach is overdue.
I-270 and the American Legion Bridge corridor are among the region's worst chokepoints, yet meaningful capacity improvements have been studied, litigated, and delayed for decades while demand keeps growing.
The Purple Line's cost has climbed past $9 billion — far above the original public-private agreement — and its opening has slipped roughly five years. Imagine that funding applied to the bottlenecks drivers sit in every day.
Montgomery County made Ride On buses fare-free in 2025. With zero farebox revenue, every single trip is now fully subsidized — which makes honest, published per-rider cost reporting more important than ever.
How we evaluate every project
These standards apply equally to a highway widening, a bike lane, and a bus rapid transit line. Infrastructure that can't meet them shouldn't be built with public money.
Road capacity is public infrastructure. Removing it should require the same scrutiny, analysis, and public process as building it.
Commuters, freight, deliveries, and emergency services all depend on predictable travel times. Reliability is a core public good, not an afterthought.
Publish the cost, the capacity impact, and the before-and-after traffic data of every project — and let residents judge the results.
Spending should reflect how people actually travel. A mode carrying a few percent of trips should not absorb an outsized share of the budget by default.
Drivers are the overwhelming majority of road users. They deserve a meaningful seat at the table before changes become permanent.
Further reading
Montgomery County is not alone. Researchers and driver advocates across the country make the case for road investment and mobility. Explore their work — listing here does not imply their endorsement of this campaign.
Decades of surface-transportation research on highway investment, congestion pricing, public-private partnerships, and mobility — including Robert Poole's Rethinking America's Highways.
The long-standing national coalition of motorists, truckers, and highway-dependent industries advocating for road funding and against diversion of highway-user fees.
National transportation research nonprofit publishing state-by-state reports on congestion costs, pavement conditions, bottlenecks, and the economic returns of road investment.
The American Road & Transportation Builders Association — economic data and analysis on transportation construction investment and the highway program.
Randal O'Toole's long-running, data-heavy analysis of transit ridership, costs, and rail megaproject economics — required reading on what transit dollars actually buy.
Grassroots organization defending the interests of everyday drivers — from fair traffic enforcement to keeping roads open and usable for the people who pay for them.
Take a position
Pledge your support for transportation policy that fixes bottlenecks, protects general-purpose lanes, and ties every dollar of spending — on every mode — to measurable results for Montgomery County residents.