Just Passing Thru

Last night Mama Wordbones and I checked out the new Union Jacks pub in Columbia Town Center. The restaurant bills itself as a “comfortable place where the food is just as important as the drink.”

That fit the bill perfectly for us after a day of yard work.

We quickly settled into a couple of the comfy lounge chairs in the “comfy” lounge by the fireplace which also features an oversized ottoman covered in the British flag. That brought a certain smile to my Irish eyes as I sipped on a pint of the Guinness and propped up my boots on the British flag.

Soon we were joined by a young man who appeared to be in either his late twenties or early thirties. He told us he was meeting a young lady for a first date.

“Are you from around here?” I asked.

“Tysons Corner,” he replied.

It turns out that his date wasn’t from Howard County either. She lives in Hagerstown but just happened to be in Ellicott City this weekend visiting her parents. She had suggested the two week old restaurant for their initial meet up.

This got me thinking about traffic. The remaining opponents of the Columbia Town Center redevelopment plans like to talk about all the additional traffic that 5,500 new residences will bring to Town Center. In our recent podcast with Dick Story he pointed out that most of our current traffic congestion can be attributed to “pass through traffic.”

This young couple was a perfect example of that phenomenon. Regardless of what we do in Town Center specifically and Howard County in general, all around us, growth will continue apace.

And those people will continue to pass through our county in ever increasing numbers.