A very sobering traffic observation from govt shutdown

[Anonymous]

I have noticed a drastic reduction in 495 traffic in Maryland in comparison with a slight reduction in traffic around Beltway Virginia. The notorious Silver Spring-Bethesda stretch of 495 has had WAY less traffic during the shutdown. What does this tell me? Maryland relies too much on federal employment whereas Virginia has stronger employment in private sector jobs.

Elected officials take notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have noticed a drastic reduction in 495 traffic in Maryland in comparison with a slight reduction in traffic around Beltway Virginia. The notorious Silver Spring-Bethesda stretch of 495 has had WAY less traffic during the shutdown. What does this tell me? Maryland relies too much on federal employment whereas Virginia has stronger employment in private sector jobs.

Elected officials take notice.

The federal government is the major employer in this area. If it weren't for that, almost no one that lives here would be here. It would be farmland and swampland. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. If the government closed shop and moved to Iowa, the entire northern VA economy that you claim isn't dependent on government would collapse too.

[Anonymous]

Meh, my commute's been awesome too. NOVA

[Anonymous]

DOD is fully funded, so all those folks at the Pentagon are still working. If it wasn’t, I’m sure you’d see a big traffic impact in NoVA as well.

[Anonymous]

VA has a lot of private contractors that could be more adversely affected by the federal shutdown. Also, some people use up more of their vacations the week or so after the holidays, winter getaways and such. So you are not wrong that MD has too much dependence on the federal government for employment and NOVA may have more private sector jobs, but I don't think this week's traffic directly reflects that.
Good symbolism though.

[Anonymous]

If you mean over the last week--please note: people were on vacation.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure this is a thorough take.

LOTS of other factors at play here:
- Where the open/closed fed job sites are actually located.
- The FFX and MOCO winter breaks were different this year.
- Proximity to metro and parking lots means differences in ways people get to work.
- Christmas returns (Tysons) are not an insignificant factor here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have noticed a drastic reduction in 495 traffic in Maryland in comparison with a slight reduction in traffic around Beltway Virginia. The notorious Silver Spring-Bethesda stretch of 495 has had WAY less traffic during the shutdown. What does this tell me? Maryland relies too much on federal employment whereas Virginia has stronger employment in private sector jobs.

Elected officials take notice.

Virginia has a lot of government contractors including General Dynamics, DynCorp, Northrop Grumman, MITRE, Booz Allen Hamilton, Raytheon. These are still open.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DOD is fully funded, so all those folks at the Pentagon are still working. If it wasn’t, I’m sure you’d see a big traffic impact in NoVA as well.

This. NoVa not dependent on govt jobs? Did you forget that DOD is HQ’ed in NoVa and is one of the agencies that are fully funded already?? (Plus, all military contractor jobs in NOVA that would disappear if not for proximity to the Pentagon).

[Anonymous]

I think folks were still on vacation. It’s my first day back and traffic was pretty bad as usual

[Anonymous]

Why is it “too much”?

[Anonymous]

Also, private schools mostly returned today, so lots of people only got back from vacation yesterday.

[Anonymous]

I'd imagine that if the entertainment industry collectively shut down, traffic in Los Angeles would be better as well.

[Anonymous]

so what you are saying is that the people who wouldnt vote for trump are affected?

[Anonymous]

So sobering! Ha.