Chuy's sets opening date in Rockville

Tex-Mex restaurant Chuy's will open at Federal Plaza on Rockville Pike on Tuesday, October 4, according to a spokesperson for the new location.

Hooters closes in Rockville (Photos)

Hooters of Rockville abruptly closed yesterday, more than a month earlier than originally announced. The bar was due to close November 1 after reaching a deal with Montgomery County to not renew its liquor license. That agreement followed the tragic incident in which a patron of the popular Rockville Pike restaurant struck and killed County police officer Noah Leotta after consuming alcohol there.

The driver pled guilty after the wreck, and the future of the restaurant was in doubt prior to the deal being worked out with a Hooters lawyer.

All signage at Hooters was gone by yesterday evening, with a ghostly imprint of their famous owl logo still visible on the window despite its removal.

Rockville construction update: Chuy's (Photos)

The lighted sign has been installed on the front facade of Chuy's, the Tex-Mex chain restaurant opening next month at Federal Plaza on Rockville Pike. Some furniture is in place in the dining room, as well as some stringed, colored lights under the front overhang.

Rockville Florist moves...out of Rockville (Photo)

Rockville Florist has left its 785-C Rockville Pike store location for its new address, 12162 Darnestown Road in Gaithersburg. Montgomery Village Florist is at that location, so it appears the name Rockville Florist is most likely not going to survive. It wouldn't make sense anyway, as the store is no longer within Rockville.

Rockville construction update: East Grill Karaoke (Photos)

East Grill Karaoke, a new restaurant coming to Courthouse Center in Rockville, appears to be getting closer to opening. Furniture is in place in the dining room, and they are hiring staff. The shopping center is also home to the venerable Apollo, and is located at the intersection of N. Washington Street and E. Middle Lane.

Rockville candy store predicts "one scary election" (Photos)

ITSUGAR at Rockville Town Square has put America's "scary" presidential campaign front and center. Get ready to argue with friends and family on Gibbs Street while gobbling down the sugary treats representing your candidate. For Libertarians and Greens, there is no Gary "And what is ITSUGAR?" Johnson or Jill "I was invited to vandalize private property" Stein up front.

Trump or Treat? Or Happy Hilloween? You decide, unless you "don't know what you're going to do" like some establishment Republicans. Ghastly renderings of Donald Trump square off at the Square with a depiction of Hillary Clinton as a witch.

Veirs Mill BRT would seize property, cripple traffic in Rockville and Wheaton (Photos)

Don't tell BRT proponents, but
parts of Veirs Mill Road actually
do have 3 lanes; in those
spots, one lane would be
seized for BRT and closed
to automobiles except at right
turns

Rockville's Mayor and Council were briefed on the Maryland State Highway Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Study study for the Veirs Mill Road corridor last night. All of the options most likely to be considered for final selection by the SHA will have impacts on private property, and could end up worsening traffic congestion rather than easing it.

The driving force behind the BRT push? Certain (not all) commercial property owners along Veirs Mill, who would be able to redevelop their land into mixed-use town centers with transit-oriented height and density. Ironically, most of the future "growth" cited as justification for BRT will only be possible with the addition of BRT. And, like the placeholder schools that never get built, BRT will be counted under ever-more-laughable MoCo traffic studies as phantom capacity to reduce fees and restrictions on developers. In fact, the County Council is on the verge of weakening traffic standards yet again. Under a system that allows an empty bus to count as though there is now capacity for 50 additional cars, God help us.

While the main route is between the Rockville and Wheaton Metro stations, consideration is also being given to extending the BRT to Montgomery College. The SHA will hold a public meeting on the study on September 28, at 6:30 PM, in the Montgomery County Executive Office Building cafeteria at 101 Monroe Street in Rockville. Feedback from residents at that meeting will factor into the final SHA recommendations, which will be presented to the Mayor and Council at their October 10 meeting.

Beyond the no-build Alternative 1, the first option is Alternative 2, which would not provide dedicated lanes for BRT, but would give the buses signal and position priority at certain intersections.

Dedicated queue jump lanes that would be added at some intersections "may require additional right of way with impacts to property in Rockville," according to the report. With queue lanes, Metrobus Route Q9 would get signal priority at those intersections, but otherwise operate in mixed-traffic along the entire route. The report does not give a detailed explanation of how lights can be properly synchronized (already a weakness in Montgomery County) if buses are forcing the lights to change at random intervals.

For Alternative 3, the third through or turning lane of each side of Veirs Mill (where they currently exist) would be seized from automobiles, and turned into a dedicated lane for buses only. The report is deceptive about this fact. It shows Veirs Mill as a two-lane-per-side road only, and purports that "a lane is added" for BRT use. That is simply not true for the entirety of Veirs Mill Road. Yes, they will add a BRT lane where there are only two lanes. But on parts of Veirs Mill, they will be seizing a lane. Eastbound, a through or turning lane would be seized "in the vicinity of Atlantic Drive and the Twinbrook Shopping Center and continue...all the way to Wheaton." A significant portion of the last stretch between Connecticut Avenue and Wheaton currently has three through lanes open to cars in one or both directions today.

Traffic congestion caused by reduced capacity in those spots would have a referred impact up and down the road, as any traffic jam does, worsening congestion in the corridor. Add in the new high-density development BRT would permit, and the thousands of new cars that would bring, and you have a recipe for disaster.

It is also unclear how a third lane - and a bike lane, and a multi-use path, based on the diagrams shown here - could be added on the outside of two-lane stretches where access roads today exist for residential homes on Veirs Mill. The report doesn't detail what will happen in those cases, which are numerous along the road.

Loss of a third lane will reduce vehicular capacity on the affected parts of Veirs Mill by 33%. The highest, rosiest claim for how many drivers would "get out of their cars" and switch to BRT was 16%. When you simply do the math, you find that BRT will not only not improve traffic flow (other than getting oft-stopping buses out of the second lane where Veirs Mill is only two lanes), but will actually leave drivers with a net loss in total road capacity.

A Cadillac option, Alternative 5b, would mostly solve the problem of reduced capacity by creating new, separate lanes for BRT in the center of Veirs Mill, rather than taking existing traffic lanes. The dedicated center lanes would have to drop to a single lane between First Street and Atlantic Avenue. Not solved with this option is the eminent domain threat to private property. Rebuilding the entire length of Veirs Mill Road and adding bus lanes would require condemnation of property along the corridor. The report also ignores the potential need to relocate utility poles along Veirs Mill, a very costly proposition.

At the high price and low ridership forecasts for BRT, there appears to be no sensible argument in favor of it.