Langley HS PTSA Survey Results on VDOT's Proposed I-495 NB Ramp Closure

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Possibly closing an off ramp because it makes it difficult for kids to get to extracurricular? Really? There are a number of inside the beltway schools that have traffic issues - should we just start closing roads to benefit school traffic? What am I missing?

Why does Langley high school convenience get to dictate access and ramp closures on a major highway?

This is completely unreasonable.

I bet if it were any other high school, you'd be fine with it. Just the fact that it's Langley means you are outraged.

That's just silly. It's reasonable for parents whose kids attend other schools near Tysons (Marshall, McLean, Madison) to want to know whether you're asking VDOT to make it easier to get to Cooper and Langley will just make it harder to get to their schools. I haven't heard a clear answer, and VDOT officials have said previously that closing the ramp would be a "wash" (i.e., reduce traffic near the Balls Hill/Georgetown Pike intersection and make it worse elsewhere).

Of course it won't be a wash. It would just clog up other roads.

And I don't see why closing off Georgetown Pike going east has much of an effect on the buses traveling west.

That's what the VDOT official meant by a "wash."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another data point exemplifying why I am so grateful we spent extra money to live in a walkable neighborhood.

I can't even imagine the daily hell of having to involve the beltway in our child getting to school - what an awful way to live.

The issue isn't using the beltway to get our kids to school. It's trying to use our local roads and finding them backed up due to MD drivers using them as access to the Beltway. Big difference.

For Langley this is only an issue inside the beltway, not outside it. The MD drivers are going a different direction than the buses from school to outer beltway suburban neighborhoods.

Not true! The real problem is the 2+mile back up of cars - mostly Maryland severs - coming from the west and traveling EB on Georgetown Pike to the NB ramp. It gets backed up to Spring Hill Road now and competes with incoming traffic from Drivers using Swinks Mill Rd to get to
The ramp. And when there is an accident on GTP - almost weekly now - it shuts down the GTP further backing up the Beltway because no
One can exit off until the road is cleared.

[Anonymous]

^^^please excuse typos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another data point exemplifying why I am so grateful we spent extra money to live in a walkable neighborhood.

I can't even imagine the daily hell of having to involve the beltway in our child getting to school - what an awful way to live.

The issue isn't using the beltway to get our kids to school. It's trying to use our local roads and finding them backed up due to MD drivers using them as access to the Beltway. Big difference.

For Langley this is only an issue inside the beltway, not outside it. The MD drivers are going a different direction than the buses from school to outer beltway suburban neighborhoods.

Not true! The real problem is the 2+mile back up of cars - mostly Maryland severs - coming from the west and traveling EB on Georgetown Pike to the NB ramp. It gets backed up to Spring Hill Road now and competes with incoming traffic from Drivers using Swinks Mill Rd to get to
The ramp. And when there is an accident on GTP - almost weekly now - it shuts down the GTP further backing up the Beltway because no
One can exit off until the road is cleared.

How does this affect Langley students driving west?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another data point exemplifying why I am so grateful we spent extra money to live in a walkable neighborhood.

I can't even imagine the daily hell of having to involve the beltway in our child getting to school - what an awful way to live.

The issue isn't using the beltway to get our kids to school. It's trying to use our local roads and finding them backed up due to MD drivers using them as access to the Beltway. Big difference.

For Langley this is only an issue inside the beltway, not outside it. The MD drivers are going a different direction than the buses from school to outer beltway suburban neighborhoods.

Not true! The real problem is the 2+mile back up of cars - mostly Maryland severs - coming from the west and traveling EB on Georgetown Pike to the NB ramp. It gets backed up to Spring Hill Road now and competes with incoming traffic from Drivers using Swinks Mill Rd to get to
The ramp. And when there is an accident on GTP - almost weekly now - it shuts down the GTP further backing up the Beltway because no
One can exit off until the road is cleared.

How does this affect Langley students driving west?

I thought the issue was that it effects Langley parents or students who live west of the ramp/exit driving east to Langley.

And I'm sure it sucks, but there is traffic all over and VDOT needs to explain how closing the ramp would affect other area roads that also get a lot of commuter traffic.

[Anonymous]

The poster stated: "For Langley this is only an issue inside the beltway, not outside it. The MD drivers are going a different direction than the buses from school to outer beltway suburban neighborhoods."

I argued it is not. LHS students are traveling to the school until for extracurriculars - sports, theatre, clubs etc... into the evening - coming from the West - eastbound to Langley - and competing with the Maryland commuters who are using GTPike and its feeder roads to avoid the Beltway and toll roads.

My apologies if that was not clear.

[Anonymous]

For Langley students driving West - from LHS - the issue is the commuter traffic using Dead Run Drive and Balls Hill Road as cut-throughs the I-495 NB ramp and clogging that intersection and GTPike inside of the Beltway. But the greater issue for students is actually GTPike outside of the Beltway and trying to get to school for their practices that begin after 5:00pm. As a previous poster stated, no school has enough gyms and fields to accommodate all the teams directly after school - and many coaches come from other areas and cannot get to Langley until 5:00pm or later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For Langley students driving West - from LHS - the issue is the commuter traffic using Dead Run Drive and Balls Hill Road as cut-throughs the I-495 NB ramp and clogging that intersection and GTPike inside of the Beltway. But the greater issue for students is actually GTPike outside of the Beltway and trying to get to school for their practices that begin after 5:00pm. As a previous poster stated, no school has enough gyms and fields to accommodate all the teams directly after school - and many coaches come from other areas and cannot get to Langley until 5:00pm or later.

Because they need to go home first? I don't understand. I'm a local to this area. When I had a game that day or even a practice or afterschool club meeting I just stayed afterschool. When we had an away game we rode a bus to the other school.

[Anonymous]

Many go home if they can to get homework completed. Nearly all class content is now online and they need their computers to complete work. (The school library is only open until 4:45pm.) Additionally, if students were to stay at school until 7:00pm when their practice ends, when are they supposed to eat? Many have lunch hour well before NOON. There aren't any food places within walking distance to LHS for freshman and sophomores who don't have cars. And then there are games that don't begin until 7:00pm with warm-ups around 6:00pm. Games go until 10:00pm. Who in their right mind would want their kid at the school for 14 hours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For Langley students driving West - from LHS - the issue is the commuter traffic using Dead Run Drive and Balls Hill Road as cut-throughs the I-495 NB ramp and clogging that intersection and GTPike inside of the Beltway. But the greater issue for students is actually GTPike outside of the Beltway and trying to get to school for their practices that begin after 5:00pm. As a previous poster stated, no school has enough gyms and fields to accommodate all the teams directly after school - and many coaches come from other areas and cannot get to Langley until 5:00pm or later.

Because they need to go home first? I don't understand. I'm a local to this area. When I had a game that day or even a practice or afterschool club meeting I just stayed afterschool. When we had an away game we rode a bus to the other school.

Since you are new to the area, you may not be aware that Langley also has the longest border in the county - stretching nearly 17 miles up to the Loudoun County Border. Don't even get started on the re-districting argument. Previous posters above have already run through that nonsense. And anyway, it's not the kids fault that School Board member Jane Strauss crafted these nutty district lines.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For Langley students driving West - from LHS - the issue is the commuter traffic using Dead Run Drive and Balls Hill Road as cut-throughs the I-495 NB ramp and clogging that intersection and GTPike inside of the Beltway. But the greater issue for students is actually GTPike outside of the Beltway and trying to get to school for their practices that begin after 5:00pm. As a previous poster stated, no school has enough gyms and fields to accommodate all the teams directly after school - and many coaches come from other areas and cannot get to Langley until 5:00pm or later.

Because they need to go home first? I don't understand. I'm a local to this area. When I had a game that day or even a practice or afterschool club meeting I just stayed afterschool. When we had an away game we rode a bus to the other school.

Since you are new to the area, you may not be aware that Langley also has the longest border in the county - stretching nearly 17 miles up to the Loudoun County Border. Don't even get started on the re-districting argument. Previous posters above have already run through that nonsense. And anyway, it's not the kids fault that School Board member Jane Strauss crafted these nutty district lines.

Do you even read? I said I went to school here. That's what a local means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For Langley students driving West - from LHS - the issue is the commuter traffic using Dead Run Drive and Balls Hill Road as cut-throughs the I-495 NB ramp and clogging that intersection and GTPike inside of the Beltway. But the greater issue for students is actually GTPike outside of the Beltway and trying to get to school for their practices that begin after 5:00pm. As a previous poster stated, no school has enough gyms and fields to accommodate all the teams directly after school - and many coaches come from other areas and cannot get to Langley until 5:00pm or later.

Because they need to go home first? I don't understand. I'm a local to this area. When I had a game that day or even a practice or afterschool club meeting I just stayed afterschool. When we had an away game we rode a bus to the other school.

Since you are new to the area, you may not be aware that Langley also has the longest border in the county - stretching nearly 17 miles up to the Loudoun County Border. Don't even get started on the re-districting argument. Previous posters above have already run through that nonsense. And anyway, it's not the kids fault that School Board member Jane Strauss crafted these nutty district lines.

You sound like you are new to the area. Janie Strauss did not craft the Langley boundaries - although she has tried to take credit for preserving them. They were crafted under her predecessors, including Stu Mendelsohn, a Republican appointed to the School Board when the SB was appointed rather than elected.

If the situation is truly bad enough that the ramp should be closed, Langley parents ought to state publicly that FCPS should move the western-most Langley neighborhoods to other middle and high schools, such as Herndon, and also support moving students who live in condos and apartments near Tysons from Marshall and McLean to Langley to address the overcrowding at those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For Langley students driving West - from LHS - the issue is the commuter traffic using Dead Run Drive and Balls Hill Road as cut-throughs the I-495 NB ramp and clogging that intersection and GTPike inside of the Beltway. But the greater issue for students is actually GTPike outside of the Beltway and trying to get to school for their practices that begin after 5:00pm. As a previous poster stated, no school has enough gyms and fields to accommodate all the teams directly after school - and many coaches come from other areas and cannot get to Langley until 5:00pm or later.

Because they need to go home first? I don't understand. I'm a local to this area. When I had a game that day or even a practice or afterschool club meeting I just stayed afterschool. When we had an away game we rode a bus to the other school.

Since you are new to the area, you may not be aware that Langley also has the longest border in the county - stretching nearly 17 miles up to the Loudoun County Border. Don't even get started on the re-districting argument. Previous posters above have already run through that nonsense. And anyway, it's not the kids fault that School Board member Jane Strauss crafted these nutty district lines.

Do you even read? I said I went to school here. That's what a local means.

My goodness. Please accept my apologies. When I read it quickly on my small phone screen I thought it is said you are a new local to the area. So sorry to have offended you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Possibly closing an off ramp because it makes it difficult for kids to get to extracurricular? Really? There are a number of inside the beltway schools that have traffic issues - should we just start closing roads to benefit school traffic? What am I missing?

Why does Langley high school convenience get to dictate access and ramp closures on a major highway?

This is completely unreasonable.

I bet if it were any other high school, you'd be fine with it. Just the fact that it's Langley means you are outraged.

That's just silly. It's reasonable for parents whose kids attend other schools near Tysons (Marshall, McLean, Madison) to want to know whether you're asking VDOT to make it easier to get to Cooper and Langley will just make it harder to get to their schools. I haven't heard a clear answer, and VDOT officials have said previously that closing the ramp would be a "wash" (i.e., reduce traffic near the Balls Hill/Georgetown Pike intersection and make it worse elsewhere).

The point of closing this ramp is to force MD drivers to use the toll road to access the beltway. Not to push traffic into other areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Possibly closing an off ramp because it makes it difficult for kids to get to extracurricular? Really? There are a number of inside the beltway schools that have traffic issues - should we just start closing roads to benefit school traffic? What am I missing?

Why does Langley high school convenience get to dictate access and ramp closures on a major highway?

This is completely unreasonable.

I bet if it were any other high school, you'd be fine with it. Just the fact that it's Langley means you are outraged.

That's just silly. It's reasonable for parents whose kids attend other schools near Tysons (Marshall, McLean, Madison) to want to know whether you're asking VDOT to make it easier to get to Cooper and Langley will just make it harder to get to their schools. I haven't heard a clear answer, and VDOT officials have said previously that closing the ramp would be a "wash" (i.e., reduce traffic near the Balls Hill/Georgetown Pike intersection and make it worse elsewhere).

The point of closing this ramp is to force MD drivers to use the toll road to access the beltway. Not to push traffic into other areas.

How do you "force" them to use the Toll Road when they currently use other roads to avoid the tolls? It seems like that would require something more draconian than closing an exit ramp. Otherwise they'll just seek out different alternatives to the Toll Road.