Reply to Will DC resume commuter traffic patterns in the fall?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can't speak for any other routes, but for the last few years I've "commuted" crosstown during the evening rush via 295/695/Rock Creek Parkway and 295/695/66 to host trivia in various bars in NW and NOVA. During the pandemic I continued to utilize those routes for various reasons despite trivia obviously not being a thing.

[b]I can tell you that right now we're back to at least 70% of pre-pandemic traffic on those routes. We might get some lasting relief, but it'll be a minor improvement at best. [/b]

I'm wondering if this has to do with the demographics of the companies that choose to continue telework - perhaps the ones more likely to let their employees work from home are the newer, hipper, more tech-oriented companies that already attracted the kind of young, socially active, environmentally conscious employees who already eschewed cars in favor of Metro, bikes, and walking to work while the stodgy old companies that are forcing their employees back are by and large the ones where the car-obsessed suburban dwellers worked. [/quote]
This is why there is no way that they can continue to keep Beach Drive closed, keep the Jersey barriers block traffic lanes on several main arterials and not re-implement the reversible lanes.[/quote]

What do you mean, there's no way? Of course there's a way. All they have to do is not change what's there right now.

Anyway, Beach Drive is open, just not for people who want to drive cars on it.[/quote]
Sure. They could just keep things as is. [b]What you do you think will happen once traffic is 100% back to pre-pandemic levels if the current measures remain in place?[/b] Are there any other interests or considerations that the city government would want to take into account? [/quote]

I think that people will make different transportation choices. What do you think will happen?[/quote]
I am asking you what you think direct and anticipated results of your proposal would be. You say that people would make different choices. That's good. Any other consequences?[/quote]

DP. People making different choices [i]is[/i] a consequence.

What do you think will happen? Don't just beat around the bush, say what you mean.[/quote]

Not PP, but how privileged it is of you to place the burden for figuring out how to get back and forth to work without a car on employees when it is the employers who dictate whether WFH is an option. Many folks don't have the option to telecommute 2-3 days/week. Many folks cannot just "get a job closer to where they live." Many folks cannot "move closer to where they live." Many folks don't live near viable public commuting options. This may come as a surprise to you. Perhaps you are young, white and earn more than $75K/year and are in a position to make these choices. Many of the rest of us simply aren't.

Many folks cannot physically ride a bike many miles to work. Many of us have to pick up kids, groceries, and other heavy things on the way home. It is unrealistic and naive of you to think that all of this can be done on a bike -- particularly in the rain, on ice, or in the snow. That you yourself manage to do it does not mean that everyone else should be expected to do so.

So, please take your messaging and advocacy for a car-less society to the appropriate audience: employers who dictate that folks must commute in; city planners who failed to put in adequate, wide-spread, and affordable public transportation (a $12/day round-trip bus-Metro commute that eats up 2 hours/day is not going to meet this criteria, BTW, for somene who's paid $75K/year before taxes which is approx. $56K net); and employers who keep getting away with discriminatory hiring practices (e.g., ageism, racism, sexism) that prevent true job mobility (ever tried to get hired as a 55-year-old black man?).

In the meantime, please leave all of us who are struggling to make ends meet, who are digging quarters out of the dryer to add to a Metro card just to get back and forth to work, who have kids to pick up at camp, at school, from the babysitter, from a friend's house, who need to shop for more than a couple days' worth of groceries, who need to lug home several pounds of books, sports equipment, laptops, and whatnot home in backpacks and briefcases, or who need to take groceries to elderly parents after work or take them or kids to the doctor's, dentist's, or Target to get supplies for a school project, etc. on a weeknight already filled with errands -- ALONE![/quote]

I think the idea is that the people who can afford to walk or bike, or have no kids or fewer errands will be more likely to get off the roads, and people who have no choice will stay on them. This is a way of shifting culture away from car dependancy. It happens in fits and starts, some more painful than others. This is the way. [/quote]

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