Anonymous wrote:They should really get rid of electric car in HOV range. It is still clogging a lane even if electric if only one person. Also make HOV a minium of three people in car.

This is the plan for the near future

I moved here in 2007 and I knew to stay away from 66 then. This is hardly new info.

What if we expanded it to a 20 lane highway and then didn’t charge anything for it? With climate change it’s getting too hot to bike or take the metro. And DC should make more free parking garages. That way I can have my independence and freedom.

PS you’d better not raise taxes to pay for any of that

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean unless you like strangers in your car for the HOV - then by all means...

Carpool?

Slugging.

True story - in the '90's my friend's serious boyfriend moved to DC from our southern state for a job. He met some woman in the slug line and started a relationship with her. She got pregnant and he ghosted my friend for several years until he finally came clean and told her what happened. It was bizarre.

So did he get together with the slug pregnant girlfriend or no?

He did not. He supported her and the child - one of those weird situations where he actually did a stand up thing, even bought her a townhouse, but they did not have a romantic relationship. But he ghosted my friend for years. They were talking marriage, had a joint bank account. My friend did not get back together with him once he made re-contact.

See now if there had been HOT lanes back then instead of just HOV, he would have saved a LOT of money.

Anonymous wrote:I just drive through your neighborhoods now in my big honking SUV took a wrong turn yesterday and actually turned around in one of your driveways! Thanks VDOT!

man everyone's soooo jealous of you living far out and sitting in traffic every day

It used to be illegal to use the road. Now you can use it for $46.

That's the only difference. It gave an advantage to the very rich, but it did not take away anything.

I just drive through your neighborhoods now in my big honking SUV took a wrong turn yesterday and actually turned around in one of your driveways! Thanks VDOT!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote: Am I reading that right? The toll to DC is $46.50? Holy crap!

This is not new. It's been like this ever since they started the tolls.

Ride metro or encourage slugging.

holy crap.. that's even worse. So, it's not like the tolls gradually went up but it was this expensive when it was opened? When did it open?

THE TOLL IS RARELY $46.50! Riders paid an average toll of $12.59 this year.

https://wtop.com/dc-transit/2019/01/average-i-66-price-speeds-from-first-year-of-tolls-and-extended-hov-hours/

LOL. The average. So all those hours in the beginning of the day when it's fifty cents. And the early afternoon. Fifty cents. And moreover, 12.79 is ok??

Anonymous wrote:I commute on a motorcycle. It’s easy and free.

Me too.

Anonymous wrote:I do agree with the PP though, it's annoying that they extended the hours, so that people who worked, say 6AM-3PM, or 9AM-6PM can no longer take advantage of non-HOV hours like you could before. Now non-HOV is before 5:30, after 9:30, before 3, and after 7.

They have to. Since the full route was completed in the early 1980's, the population of the DC regional area has more than doubled. The three spot expansions are not nearly enough to increase the capacity to handle the additional volume of traffic in the region. So they are trying to regulate the use of the road. The times are set based around volume trafficking. The number of people who use the road between 5:30-6:00 AM and 6:00-7:00 PM has increased with many people time-shifting as you have been doing and the volume is such that it warranted adjusting the schedule to keep the road from being a very expensive traffic snarl every morning and every evening.

The point is that more people have to carpool or be diverted to public transportation like Metro and VRE. For those that want the luxury of driving into town solo, it comes with a price.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:No one has bought with a single person driver commute dependent on 66 for decades. Until the tolls were added, only HOV 3 then HOV 2 were allowed. Now people can legally drive single singleton drivers, they just have to pay. The pay is dependent on how many people are using the road. If you dont want to pay, you can car pool, take another route or take Metro- which were your options all along.

This.

But Americans are obsessed with their personal vehicles as some sort of mini home they must take with them always.

No. We value the freedom of movement that personal vehicles provide.

I value the freedom of my attention span. Metro gives me that, and I usually spend it reading for pleasure. Driving does not, as I am focused on driving.

Unless your commute demands it, I honestly don't understand why someone would choose 66 over metro.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean unless you like strangers in your car for the HOV - then by all means...

Carpool?

Slugging.

True story - in the '90's my friend's serious boyfriend moved to DC from our southern state for a job. He met some woman in the slug line and started a relationship with her. She got pregnant and he ghosted my friend for several years until he finally came clean and told her what happened. It was bizarre.

So did he get together with the slug pregnant girlfriend or no?

He did not. He supported her and the child - one of those weird situations where he actually did a stand up thing, even bought her a townhouse, but they did not have a romantic relationship. But he ghosted my friend for years. They were talking marriage, had a joint bank account. My friend did not get back together with him once he made re-contact.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean unless you like strangers in your car for the HOV - then by all means...

Carpool?

Slugging.

True story - in the '90's my friend's serious boyfriend moved to DC from our southern state for a job. He met some woman in the slug line and started a relationship with her. She got pregnant and he ghosted my friend for several years until he finally came clean and told her what happened. It was bizarre.

So did he get together with the slug pregnant girlfriend or no?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean unless you like strangers in your car for the HOV - then by all means...

Carpool?

Slugging.

True story - in the '90's my friend's serious boyfriend moved to DC from our southern state for a job. He met some woman in the slug line and started a relationship with her. She got pregnant and he ghosted my friend for several years until he finally came clean and told her what happened. It was bizarre.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a metro line that runs right along 66, isn’t there? I do not understand the insistence of people to sit in little metal boxes staring at tail lights when the train goes to the same place

Only up to vienna.

Exactly. The orange line runs along 66 where the toll is in effect. I used to carpool on 66 with my kids heading to daycare; now that they are in ES, I take the metro.