Sequestration has forced the Department of Defense to ground fighter squadrons, scale back troop training and mothball navy vessels. So it should be easy to cancel a poorly designed, $11.8 million road project that will trim less than seven seconds from the commute of workers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health.

Bethesda residents who live near the Rockville Pike/Cedar Lane intersection are vociferously opposed to the block-and-a-half-long merge lane that independent traffic engineering consultant Joseph Cutro has warned would “significantly increase the number of sideswipe accidents while doing virtually nothing to ease traffic congestion.”