You have never been in Montgomery County.
Getting anywhere in that weird place is like a nightmare. Not sure why, but the old roads just don’t let you get anywhere fast. Everything fans out like the wheel that DC designed ages ago, and crossing from 1 spoke to another is not real easy.
I’m talking 2-lane roads in the “country” as well as closer in urban, even though there isn’t necessarily much traffic. Something about the lay of the land and the roads makes them difficult to traverse anywhere near the time one could if one could as the crow flies.
It should take me no more than a 1/2 hour to get to Rockville. I can’t get there in less than an 50 min. It just can’t be done in reality. Meanwhile I can drive well past Baltimore in that time the other direction.
That was 1 of the reasons for this road. Bridging the many gaps between all the spokes.
Maybe people don’t want to be taxed for it AND pay when they use it.
If they had just built the "Outer Beltway" many, many moons ago - we would not have the troubles we have now.
Two concentric circles with "spokes" radiating out from the inner circle - I recently saw a map of a city in Japan that was set up this way. Works GREAT!
If they had built the "Outer Beltway", all pass-thru traffic from PA and other points north could have been routed onto the Outer - BYPASSING DC altogether ...
BTW - one thing though, the easements and rights-of-way that they secured back in the late 1950's for the "Outer Beltway" were NOT far enough out away from DC.
I live in Kensington [about 1 mile north of the existing Beltway] and can go north for about 3 miles on Connecticut Avenue to where the easement for the "Outer Beltway" STILL exists today ...