RTO and Traffic

[Anonymous]

Traffic feels worse than pre-pandemic. More and more people are heading to full day RTO — which compresses and intensifies rush hours.

Metro is still only at 75% pre pandemic levels, with reduced bus service (bye circulator), and budget shortfalls.

https://www.route-fifty.com/infrastructure/2024/05/why-washington-metros-leader-bullish-post-pandemic-transit/396645/

Slugging is dead.

Is it going to get even worse?

I would love to take metro, but unfortunately my office is not near a station, and the nearest bus stop would take me longer to walk to than it takes to drive to work (even with traffic)

[Anonymous]

Perhaps you could find a carpool?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps you could find a carpool?

No one from my work lives near me; we live near my spouses work while most people I work with have SAHM or aren’t married.

[Anonymous]

RTO for the sake of...RTO. Get off the roads for the folks who have to be in-person such as doctors, teachers, etc, FFS.

RTO is so stupid.

[Anonymous]

I hate Tuesdays and Wednesdays. All these clowns doing their in-office days and clogging up traffic. Go back to the burbs!

-Someone in the office five days per week living 10 minutes from the office

[Anonymous]

It doesn't help that DC apparently didn't anticipate RTO and turned full travel lanes into bike lanes and refuses to enforce no parking/no standing zones downtown. The city's capacity to move vehicles downtown is 50% of what it was preCOVID.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate Tuesdays and Wednesdays. All these clowns doing their in-office days and clogging up traffic. Go back to the burbs!

-Someone in the office five days per week living 10 minutes from the office

Why are you driving if you're just 10 mins from the office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't help that DC apparently didn't anticipate RTO and turned full travel lanes into bike lanes and refuses to enforce no parking/no standing zones downtown. The city's capacity to move vehicles downtown is 50% of what it was preCOVID.

DC is not near pre-COVID capacity and we don't really need a 4-lane replica of I66 downtown. If that bothers you then take the metro or get a job that allows more WFH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate Tuesdays and Wednesdays. All these clowns doing their in-office days and clogging up traffic. Go back to the burbs!

-Someone in the office five days per week living 10 minutes from the office

Why are you driving if you're just 10 mins from the office.

Presumably because she doesn’t have a death wish.

[Anonymous]

It's much worse. More people. People RTO then the people who work from home with more flexibility ALL on the roads at the same time. 20 miles here can take 3 1/2 hours at times.

[Anonymous]

It probably is worse but it def feels worse. Your commuting tolerance was lowered by WFH.

But remember, if you driving to work, you are part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It probably is worse but it def feels worse. Your commuting tolerance was lowered by WFH.

But remember, if you driving to work, you are part of the problem.

Remember, houses near transit with good schools cost more than most people can afford.

[Anonymous]

I think one reason it feels worse is that people have less patience with commuting and are resentful of the time spent in the car so they drive more aggressively and in many cases more dangerously. I see a lot more behavior like:

- moving into an oncoming lane to bypass left turn traffic

- refusing to zipper merge or to allow incoming traffic to merge from highway entrances even when doing so would be more efficient for everyone

- dangerous weaving through highway traffic at high speeds

etc.

This leads to more crashes as well as just a general sense of frustration and lawlessness. Capacity is still not at pre-Covid levels so the actual congestion is not as bad as it was pre-Covid. But I think so many people have limited tolerance for it and wish they were back at home working that it's really diminished the quality of driving and safety (and this was not an area known for great driving pre-Covid either so a decline is truly alarming).

I agree RTO for it's own sake is silly but at this point I just don't want to die in a fiery car crash commuting. We actually moved to make metro and train commutes more convenient and while it takes longer than a driving commute would it's annoying from a finance perspective because we already pay for the cars so we're not saving a ton of money (though we may try to go down to one car soon). But it's safer and less stressful. We can read or scroll during commutes. And there is something relieving about just giving in to process -- if the train is late then I'm late and that's my excuse and if you have a problem with it then I could be at my desk working at 7:30am if I WFO.

Driving sucks.

[Anonymous]

It’s a huge issue. And, not enough parking.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think RTO is anywhere near 75% of pre pandemic yet so if Metro is already at 75% pre pandemic levels then it’s doing just fine