Anonymous wrote:I feel this acutely now. I get on GW Parkway from 123 North, and the usual traffic volume often adds 12-20 min (red plus sign per Google). I am on GW Parkway usually anytime between 8-9am. I can't leave earlier due to kids drop off.

As the NoVa population grows overall (plus the Amazon people), is it just going to get a little worse each year?

Yup. Support policies that fund public transportation because it's the only way out. More roads and tolls don't ease traffic.

Also, you are traveling at the peak of the peak of rush hour. So yeah, it's going to be bad.

Anonymous wrote:How many of the drivists here would support making metro free so that “durned traffic gets outta muh way”?

the downside to that is metro would be in the poorhouse. services are already pretty crappy and they are getting some soret of income/assistance from DC, MD and VA. take away the fare money and i think service would get even worse

How many of the drivists here would support making metro free so that “durned traffic gets outta muh way”?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Uh... isn't that the whole idea tolls on a road? To create a more efficient supply-demand matching (those who place a higher value on time will pay the tolls) and shift lower-value traffic to other alternatives? One alternative is GW parkway. Seems like the tolls are working.

In this case, those lower-value traffic imposes huge negative externalities to the residents of the alternatives, who have paid high price in their housing to live closer to avoid the traffic on I-66.

I actually am sympathetic to what you're saying, but I would recommend that you use some of that money to lobby our politicians to build new roads, widen roads, or enact other incentives or penalties to encourage more use of the silver/orange lines. Because money is sure as hell the only thing that gets politicians to listen

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Uh... isn't that the whole idea tolls on a road? To create a more efficient supply-demand matching (those who place a higher value on time will pay the tolls) and shift lower-value traffic to other alternatives? One alternative is GW parkway. Seems like the tolls are working.

In this case, those lower-value traffic imposes huge negative externalities to the residents of the alternatives, who have paid high price in their housing to live closer to avoid the traffic on I-66.

Sorry your real estate gamble didn't work out.

Anonymous wrote:Uh... isn't that the whole idea tolls on a road? To create a more efficient supply-demand matching (those who place a higher value on time will pay the tolls) and shift lower-value traffic to other alternatives? One alternative is GW parkway. Seems like the tolls are working.

In this case, those lower-value traffic imposes huge negative externalities to the residents of the alternatives, who have paid high price in their housing to live closer to avoid the traffic on I-66.

Uh... isn't that the whole idea tolls on a road? To create a more efficient supply-demand matching (those who place a higher value on time will pay the tolls) and shift lower-value traffic to other alternatives? One alternative is GW parkway. Seems like the tolls are working.

This morning GW parkway was free flow, no congestion. I left my McLean house at 9:30 and was in my office by 10am.

As bad as 270 can be, it sounds like it's better than the NoVA mess these days.

I feel this acutely now. I get on GW Parkway from 123 North, and the usual traffic volume often adds 12-20 min (red plus sign per Google). I am on GW Parkway usually anytime between 8-9am. I can't leave earlier due to kids drop off.

As the NoVa population grows overall (plus the Amazon people), is it just going to get a little worse each year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:yes, but I395 has regular lanes which will remain. Also I think the 395 HOV lanes never had the number of cheaters that I66 had. And the introduction of HOT lanes to I395 will be accompanied by an extra lane - the old HOV lanes are two lanes, but with HOT there will be a third lane (which should help keep the tolls down)

The 3rd lane will just end in a choke point that backs up now with 2 lanes, so doubt that there will be much benefit.

The exit ramp to the Pentagon is going to be widened though.

The lanes across the bridge to DC will remain the same. Eventually DC should add a congestion charge of some kind.

Privatizing GW, is a bad idea. It’s still backed up at GW right at 9:15am because people outside the beltway want to avoid the expensive 66 tolls. Some People who used to carpool are on GW now as well as the single cheaters. 66 is all green per Google because not enough single riders who used to be on GW switched to 66. Basically the traffic just moved over. Privitazing GW will lead to more back up on Route 50. The only ones benefiting are the single drivers who live near 66 who used to be banned from 66 and earn enough $ that saving their commute time is worth the high toll fees.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to be able to leave my McLean house at 9:15am and arrive at my downtown office by 9:45am. Not anymore. The morning traffic is just terrible. Today traffic was so bad that it backed up to RT 123. What has happened? Is it because of I-66 insane pricing on all lanes? IF that is the case, it is just so unfair!!

haha

Yeah, your life in McLean must be full of injustices.

Remember the law of McLean relativity. The time it takes to get anywhere from McLean, when discussing the problems of transportation services or infrastructure provided to McLean, is double the time it take to get anywhere from McLean, when discussing the advantages of buying real estate in McLean.

Haha, so true. When talking real estate, the commute is always 20 minutes door to door.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP (and many other Nova residents) have just learned a very powerful, yet basic, economic lesson: everything has a quantifiable value. Your commute has a cost that is imposed on your state and the Virginia taxpayers. And now you are being assessed a price for that commute - either time or money.

I predict that many behavioral economists will be studying the HOT lane data in the next few years. It's a treasure trove of interesting findings.

What is special about my commute that it I should be charged SO much more than other resident taxpayers?

You commute on a highway that was already off limits at peak to single occupant vehicles. Ergo its possible to convert to HOT lanes without actually charging anyone who had the legal right to use it previously. No other road in the region is like that.

How DID you use it previously? If you were not a carpooler, what were you doing on I66 before the tolling began?

hybrid exemption or avoid restricted hours.

Hybrid exemption was such a shame. People were grandfathered driving hybrid Escalades while more efficient conventional cars, New hybrids, and all electrics were not granted HOV exception.

If they had continued exception enrollment, with whom growing hybrid/electric fleet, it would have quickly turned into parking lot.

How do you know the ratio of Escalades to Priuses? And the didn't continue exception enrollment, so that point is moot. How do you know that it was hybrids turning the road into a parking lot? Because when I drove my hybrid in at 7 am, the road moved just fine. Absent some disaster along the way, I reliably moved from the beltway to the Roosevelt Bridge in about 20 minutes.

This is just a cash grab. We continue to be taxed more and more and get little in return.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was an oversized truck stuck under Teddy Roosevelt bridge.

WTOP is your friend!!!!!

This is freaking happening all the time, especially after the 12 St Exwy and before the Capitol Hill exit. Why?! DDOT should fine the trucking companies.

Yes, I agree. The WTOP traffic reporters express their disbelief/frustration that there is no way to prevent these incidents. There must be a way to screen the trucks or ban them on the GW Pkwy.

It’s because drivers blindly follow GPS/wake!! There was a news show about this (maybe on Vice?) phenomenon. It has become a HUGE problem.

Like 1/4 mike before the bridge they should put a big bar across the road made of foam and tin cans so if you hit it, you KNOW you’re about get the top of your truck sheared off.