Loudoun Now continues to offer the Catoctin Coalition, PEC, JTHG, and others a platform to spread lies and misinformation to Loudoun Citizens in their latest publication of Martha Polkey’s “opinion”: https://loudounnow.com/2018/10/17/op-ed-rt-15-plan-threatens-cascade-of-loss-for-rural-northern-loudoun/
Ms. Polkey has been the ringleader behind stopping all improvements to this road for 20+ years with the result being many deaths and the massive delays we all sit in daily. Nowhere in this ridiculous narrative of bogus lies and misinformation or in any of her other constant publications does she provide ANY realistic solutions to the problems on Route 15. No, she keeps pointing to “traffic calming” (code for slowing cars down) as a means to decrease congestion which is a big lie. Her goal is to make Route 15 so unbearable that no one wants to use it. The real boondoggle here is the idiotic roundabouts that she proposes which will saddle Loudoun taxpayers with $60 to $100 million dollars in debt and will fail on day one. Roundabouts are not designed to regulate peak one-way directional traffic and comparing Route 15 (a long stretch of highway) with Gilbert’s Corner (one intersection) is an apples to oranges comparison.
How about public input?
Ms. Polkey would have you believe that it was all a show but the facts are she just doesn’t like the outcome. Survey after survey shows massive support for widening with proper medians. Don’t believe her lies, Ms. Polkey had direct input to the consultants who were studying every solution. Some of her strange “ideas” probably lead to tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars of extra work for the consultants to analyze. How about those who were supposedly not represented on the stakeholders committee? Supervisor Higgins directly mailed over 800 homes informing them of the work being done on Route 15 and how to give feedback. We frequently call out Supervisor Higgins for not moving this project forward fast enough but he has made sure people are involved. At this point, if you live along Route 15 and don’t know what is going on then you just don’t care.
Supervisor Higgins “slammed the door shut?”
What a fat lie. Ms. Polkey and her associates (PEC, JTHG, Ruritans, Ian Lockwood) constantly meet with Supervisor Higgins and county staff trying push their “solutions.” The mere fact that Mr. Lockwood’s “proposal” (which was really just 100+ pages of regurgitated BS from his previous presentations) was included in the document presented to the Board of Supervisors at the September 20th meeting shows that their “solutions” were considered. Again, the problem is Ms. Polkey and her group do not like the outcome so they are trying to say the process was not followed and people weren’t informed.
Less access?
Yes, this is going to happen and is a minor consequence of progress. Some homes will have to be “inconvenienced” and won’t be able to make left turns directly from their driveway. The safety and efficiency of the roadway for thousands of citizens trumps a handful of people’s need to make occasional left turns directly from their driveway. Its debatable whether they can make these left turns today due to the traffic and safety issues. Our suggestion? Move the driveway to another access road instead of directly connecting to Route 15 if possible.
Our elected officials should stop wasting their valuable time (and our taxpayer dollars) on solutions that have already been studied and shown not to work. Instead, they should be concentrating on a project plan which would expedite Route 15 safety and congestion improvements.
Fix Route 15 Now!