Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a parent who just arrived at Langley to pick up my student. It is now 3:49. I was stuck on GTP, as usual, for 25 minutes over a stretch of two miles - from Spring Hill Road to Cooper MS. The line of MD drivers - in both directions - trying to get to the Beltway north ramp was unreal. Not only was GTP at a standstill, but so was Swinks Mill, Balls Hill, and Dead Run. All MD drivers headed for that ramp, along with some very frustrated VA drivers just trying to use GTP.

A PP asked why students would be headed east on GTP at this hour - many are parents trying to get to LHS to pick up our kids who have to stay after. There are late buses that run on certain days, but they leave school much later and get stuck in the same traffic, making the kids that much later.

VDOT, if you happen to be reading this, PLEASE close the northbound beltway ramp off of GTP in the afternoons, starting at least by 2:15. There is no reason our local drivers, including teachers, parents, and students, should have to wait in this insane traffic jam just so Maryland drivers can get a toll-free shortcut home.

If you were traveling on Georgetown Pike east to Cooper, it doesn’t seem like you’d be in a position to know the traffic situation on Swinks Mill, Old Dominion, Balls Hill and Dead Run at the same time. Perhaps you’re just offering up a list of roads near Cooper and Langley that you think should be off-limits to drivers who don’t live in the Langley HS district?

Anonymous wrote:I’m a parent who just arrived at Langley to pick up my student. It is now 3:49. I was stuck on GTP, as usual, for 25 minutes over a stretch of two miles - from Spring Hill Road to Cooper MS. The line of MD drivers - in both directions - trying to get to the Beltway north ramp was unreal. Not only was GTP at a standstill, but so was Swinks Mill, Balls Hill, and Dead Run. All MD drivers headed for that ramp, along with some very frustrated VA drivers just trying to use GTP.

A PP asked why students would be headed east on GTP at this hour - many are parents trying to get to LHS to pick up our kids who have to stay after. There are late buses that run on certain days, but they leave school much later and get stuck in the same traffic, making the kids that much later.

VDOT, if you happen to be reading this, PLEASE close the northbound beltway ramp off of GTP in the afternoons, starting at least by 2:15. There is no reason our local drivers, including teachers, parents, and students, should have to wait in this insane traffic jam just so Maryland drivers can get a toll-free shortcut home.

Anonymous wrote:I’m a parent who just arrived at Langley to pick up my student. It is now 3:49. I was stuck on GTP, as usual, for 25 minutes over a stretch of two miles - from Spring Hill Road to Cooper MS. The line of MD drivers - in both directions - trying to get to the Beltway north ramp was unreal. Not only was GTP at a standstill, but so was Swinks Mill, Balls Hill, and Dead Run. All MD drivers headed for that ramp, along with some very frustrated VA drivers just trying to use GTP.

A PP asked why students would be headed east on GTP at this hour - many are parents trying to get to LHS to pick up our kids who have to stay after. There are late buses that run on certain days, but they leave school much later and get stuck in the same traffic, making the kids that much later.

VDOT, if you happen to be reading this, PLEASE close the northbound beltway ramp off of GTP in the afternoons, starting at least by 2:15. There is no reason our local drivers, including teachers, parents, and students, should have to wait in this insane traffic jam just so Maryland drivers can get a toll-free shortcut home.

Anonymous wrote:

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

It’s clear you don’t understand the issue or the proposal. No one is proposing closing GTP , in any direction! On the contrary, we’re trying to alleviate congestion on that road (and feeder roads) by closing the Beltway exit, headed north, in the afternoons. That’s why GTP is always backed up in the afternoons, headed east. MD drivers use it to access the beltway, when they should be using the toll road instead.

Anonymous wrote:Pp here. My DH told me the old dominion and balls hill rd intersection has a sensor that turns the light green. Is this true?

Old dominion backs up for a mile often because people done pull up enough for the light to turn green - according to my husband.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It’s clear you don’t understand the issue or the proposal. No one is proposing closing GTP , in any direction! On the contrary, we’re trying to alleviate congestion on that road (and feeder roads) by closing the Beltway exit, headed north, in the afternoons. That’s why GTP is always backed up in the afternoons, headed east. MD drivers use it to access the beltway, when they should be using the toll road instead.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pp here. My DH told me the old dominion and balls hill rd intersection has a sensor that turns the light green. Is this true?

Old dominion backs up for a mile often because people done pull up enough for the light to turn green - according to my husband.

Did you mean "don't" rather than "done"?

Can't imagine that intersection will get any better with the dozens of new homes going up at Mehr Farms there.

Anonymous wrote:Pp here. My DH told me the old dominion and balls hill rd intersection has a sensor that turns the light green. Is this true?

Old dominion backs up for a mile often because people done pull up enough for the light to turn green - according to my husband.

Anonymous wrote: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 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.