Archive: May 2007
Accident Reconstruction Closes Beltway Lanes
Delays are expected on the Capital Beltway in Prince George's County as investigators reconstruct a series of collisions Wednesday night that resulted in the deaths of two people and injuries to 15 others. According to Maptuit, two right lanes of the inner loop are closed near Ritchie Marlboro Road in Forestville. Traffic begins to slow at Route 214. The investigation also blocks the ramp from Ritchie Marlboro Road to the inner loop. Two left lanes of the inner loop will be closed later today when investigators are finished on the right side of the highway. UPDATE: Maptuit reports that the investigation was complete and lanes were reopening at 11:22 a.m....
By Kyle Balluck | May 31, 2007; 10:54 AM ET | Comments (18)
Community Bike Ride on Sunday
The weekend weather forecast sounds pretty good so far for the Arlington & Alexandria Community Bike Ride that begins on Sunday morning. The temperatures Sunday should range from the high 60s to the mid-80s, with a chance of an isolated thunderstorm during the day. Click on Bike Ride logo for more information. This is not a competitive event, and it sounds like a great chance to get to know what the two communities have to offer for bikers. There are two types of rides: One is a "family ride" loop of seven miles that will take you along some of the popular and pretty flat trails. The "community ride" is a 23-mile loop along streets as well as trails. The early registration, which ends today, is $15 per adult and $30 per family. Here's a link to the online registration form at the Washington Area Bicyclist Association Web site. On...
By | May 31, 2007; 10:41 AM ET | Comments (9)
Road and Rail Commuter Updates
I've got a few road and rail updates that could affect your travels across the region this week and beyond. Route 29 (Maryland): The final round of paving on the Route 29 project north of Four Corners in Montgomery County is now scheduled to begin on Thursday night. (The State Highway Administration had been hoping to get it underway tonight.) Many commuters have been asking about this one, wondering in particular if the project was already finished, despite the remaining bumps and raised up manhole covers. The final round of paving work will start on the southbound side, then move to the northbound side. Work will occur between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. each weeknight (no Friday or Saturday night work) and should be completed in the next two to two and a half weeks, weather permitting. There will be double-lane closures for the final layer of asphalt and line...
By | May 30, 2007; 1:42 PM ET | Comments (0)
Work Beginning on Transit Center
We've quite rightly focused many of our transportation discussions on the upcoming transit and road projects in the Tysons area, but beginning just a bit earlier on the Maryland side is the construction of the Silver Spring Transit Center. If your commute by car, bus or rail takes you through downtown Silver Spring, you're probably starting to notice the scattered preparations. There's a new median along Colesville Road, curb work along Wayne, Dixon and Ramsey avenues and new paving heading toward the MARC rail platform. They're just warming up. During the daily rush, 145 buses an hour pass through the station. By the time we're deep into the summer, the Metrobuses and Ride Ons --145 of which use the station each hour during the rush period -- will have moved out of the bus bays near the Metrorail entrance to their temporary stops on the nearby streets. Since Discovery opened...
By | May 30, 2007; 5:01 AM ET | Comments (0)
Transit Track Work This Week
I promised readers during today's Live Online that I would give an account of this week's Metro track work and resulting delays. (This was after getting several complaints about the delays caused by single-tracking this past weekend.) By the way, Lena Sun, who covers Metro for The Post, said I should tell you that Metro's Trip Planner -- normally a very useful feature for finding train times -- doesn't take track work delays into account. During the track work periods, she says, it's best to check the "Next Train" feature on Metro's Web site, which will tell you when the next three trains are scheduled to arrive. Here's what's up this week. Red Line: Add up to 15 minutes to your regular travel time between the Silver Spring and Forest Glen because of track maintenance that results in single-tracking of trains between 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. each weekday. Riders...
By | May 29, 2007; 3:25 PM ET | Comments (0)
Welcome Back to the Work Zone
At the risk of killing the fine mood you might still be in after a splendid three-day getaway, I thought you might like to know the lastest on some of the construction projects that will resume today and later this week. Klingle Bridge: The District today expects to begin a new phase of the construction project that splits Connecticut Avenue traffic as it crosses the bridge. The work shifts to the second northbound lane, but during morning rush time, you'll still find three lanes open southbound and one northbound. During evening rush, the pattern will be reversed. Watch for those overhead red/green arrows that indicate which lanes are open, but don't get them confused with the regular traffic lights that control intersections on either side of the bridge. South Old Jefferson Davis Highway: Closed during the morning rush today for emergency repairs between Boundary Channel Drive and South 6th Street....
By | May 29, 2007; 5:01 AM ET | Comments (0)
Holiday Weekend Travel Tips
The Virginia and Maryland highway departments are suspending road work for the holiday weekend. In Virginia, all of those temporary closures that so annoy you at places like the Springfield Interchange and the approaches to the Wilson Bridge will be clear from noon Friday to noon on Tuesday. But watch out for areas throughout the state where the work zones are longterm. Similar deal in Maryland: There won't be any orange barrels temporarily closing lanes on roadways like Route 29 or I-95 or I-270 until 9 p.m. Tuesday, but concrete barriers and rough pavement will still be where you last saw them. (That means traffic may still be slow on the Capital Beltway's inner loop at the Legion Bridge and on the northbound George Washington Parkway, because of the bridge repainting project.) The transportation agencies give the same simple holiday travel advice that you readers give to me when we...
By | May 25, 2007; 5:10 AM ET | Comments (0)
Metro Plans Service Changes
The Metro board this morning took two steps of interest to bus and rail travelers. First, board members agreed to detour some bus routes this summer because of the reconstruction at the Frederick Douglass Bridge, which brings South Capitol Street over the Anacostia River. Commuters on the eastern side of the region are worried about the impact of shutting down the bridge for this work during July and August. Vehicles will be detoured to the 11th Street Bridge, but even though traffic declines by 12 percent during the summer, congestion is likely. The District Department of Transportation is hoping that its public information campaign and its "Bridge Bucks" program to encourage use of transit will ease the impact. Now, Metro will make its own adjustments in its bus routes to accommodate the shutdown. Specifically: Metro will temporarily change the routes and fare for Metrobus routes A9, P17, P19 and W13,...
By | May 24, 2007; 7:42 AM ET | Comments (2)
Gas Prices Changing Your Plans?
Here's a sampler of what pops up in a search of the phrase "rising gas prices" in The Post's archive: -- "In Washington, Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman acknowledged that rising gas prices have become a crisis. But he suggested that finding short-term fixes to soothe consumers angered by pump prices topping $3 per gallon might be difficult." May 1, 2006 -- "The election is on. How can we tell? Because at the Sept. 20 meeting of the D.C. Council, topic number one was voter anger over rising gas prices." Sept. 29, 2005 -- "In some ways, rising gas prices can be a good thing. They're a wake-up call to all of us to drive more slowly and conserve energy." June 24, 2004 -- "There is no relief just yet for area motorists being driven to distraction by rising gas prices." Feb. 28, 2003 You know we could go on....
By | May 23, 2007; 11:56 AM ET | Comments (18)
More From Maryland on Legion Bridge Project
The jam-up caused by the repainting project at the American Legion Bridge has been the hottest topic in the Dr. Gridlock mailbag for two weeks, so I wrote about it for a second week in a row on Sunday. Northbound Beltway traffic is heavy south of bridge. (Robert Thomson) You Beltway and George Washington Parkway commuters have definitely gotten the attention of the Maryland and Virginia highway departments. Plus, I got an e-mail from Rep. Chris Van Hollen's office indicating that the Maryland congressman also was hearing about this. (It's not a federal project. The work is being done by the Maryland State Highway Administration.) Because there wasn't enough space to do so in the newspaper column, I thought I'd share with you here the full communication I received on Friday from SHA spokesman Chuck Gischlar, addressing your continued concerns about what's going on: Hi Dr. Gridlock - I wanted...
By | May 14, 2007; 6:00 AM ET | Comments (74)
Bridge Crash Highlights Safety Problem
The fatal crash Thursday on the Bay Bridge highlights a problem we've created for ourselves. Two-way traffic on one span is an accommodation to increasingly heavy volume, but it leaves motorists with no protection from the oncoming traffic a lane over. (Here's a link to a WJLA TV video of the crash scene.) It's one more case in which the rapid growth of the Washington region has far outstripped the travel system designed in the mid-20th century to support that growth. (Here's a link to a Maryland state task force report on the future of the Bay Bridge.) Drivers observe that same flaw in our system where shoulder lanes that should be available for breakdowns are converted into travel lanes for cars or buses. In Virginia, the latest planning for highway expansion -- the creating of the high occupancy or toll (HOT) lanes on Interstate 95/395 -- has raised concerns...
By | May 11, 2007; 8:28 AM ET | Comments (0)
Congestion Continues at Legion Bridge
This morning, after listening to a transportation expert in Tysons describe a wonderful future in which commutes would be safer and smoother thanks to smart use of technology, I plowed back into an old-fashioned traffic jam on the Capital Beltway. Brake lights on at parkway/Beltway merge south of Legion Bridge. (Robert Thomson) It was that backup stemming from the painting project at the American Legion Bridge. There have been some improvements, as I said in my Sunday Dr. Gridlock column. But the Beltway traffic was backed up across four lanes from Tysons up to the bridge. And I hate to think what the drivers were experiencing on the northbound George Washington Parkway who must deal with a merge lane into the Beltway that was shortened up to create a staging area for the project's workers. Both the Maryland State Highway Administration, which is in charge of the painting project, and...
By | May 10, 2007; 10:16 AM ET | Comments (28)
Something to Like About a Commute?
We use this space to talk about the difficulties of traveling around our region and how to ease those problems. Today, I'd like to ask you to turn that world upside down and talk about the upside of your commute. Maybe it's one particular view that you enjoy each day, maybe it's a point marking the symbolic transition from work to living environment, maybe it's a point where you open a book or tune in a favorite radio show. I think the obvious one for many of us would be that split second when we get our first site of home after a long day. But maybe there's a point on a long journey at the end of the day that tells you you're almost there and it's time to start easing down from the tensions of the commute. Here's one such moment: As a Red Line train passes the...
By | May 9, 2007; 7:15 AM ET | Comments (85)
D.C. Prepares for Bridge Shutdown
There's a lot of anxiety among commuters over the planned shutdown this summer of the Douglass Bridge, which brings them into downtown Washington from points south and east. Now the District has launched a program to help them find and finance alternative ways to reach work. Traffic heads across Frederick Douglass Bridge. (Mark Gail -- The Washington Post) Modeled after a program used during the Woodrow Wilson Bridge construction, the District Department of Transportation's "Bridge Bucks" program will provide $50 per month toward transit fares and vanpool fees. By providing financial resources and personal advice on transit services, the program enables individual commuters to utilize alternative travel options that best work for their particular lifestyle - whether via rail, bus or vanpool. The launching of this program, designed to ease traffic congestion and travel times during the July and August shutdown of the South Capitol Street bridge over the Anacostia...
By | May 8, 2007; 6:34 AM ET | Comments (14)
Metro Deals With Brush Fire
During a Live Online discussion today, readers asked about a rail situation and a road situation, and we have some updates for you. One chatter told us this: "I was on the Blue Line train today that encountered the brush fire on the side of the tracks ... The operator was professional and stopped our train and tried to extinguish the fire. I'm glad we were going northbound because the fire was on the southbound tracks." Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel provided details about the incident: The incident started at 10:29 a.m. outside Van Dorn Street Station on the outbound Blue Line track. A Blue Line train operator on the inbound track reported the brush fire to the Operations Control Center, stopped the train and used a fire extinguisher to put it out. However, the brush was still smoldering. The control center told him to continue on with the train. Metro...
By | May 7, 2007; 2:29 PM ET | Comments (7)
Dulles Toll Cameras Questioned
Some drivers are raising concerns about the enforcement cameras on the Dulles Toll Road. The commonwealth started using them this year to snag motorists who went through the toll plazas without paying. Drivers who don't have E-ZPasses make two complaints: The cameras just don't work properly, photographing the vehicles' license plates for a violation notice when they've just paid; or they record them going through a lane that was supposed to have been staffed but wasn't, so they couldn't pay the toll and couldn't wait because other cars were right behind them. Who else has had this experience? Dear Dr. Gridlock: What does a driver do when a VDOT camera-enabled open toll lane malfunctions on Route 267? I use the Route 267 toll booths 40 times a month on my way to work in Reston. Sometimes a toll-booth's lane alarm is constantly ringing and the red-light continuously on even though...
By | May 7, 2007; 7:32 AM ET | Comments (53)
D.C. Moves For Street Safety
At a forum last night on pedestrian safety, D.C. Council member Jim Graham talked about the transportation bill now before the council that expand and empower the District's force of traffic control officers. Their numbers would grow from 43 to 63 and they would have the authority to stop and ticket vehicles and pedestrians who violated traffic laws. Traffic control officer directs drivers and pedestrians. (Robert Thomson) Both the traffic control officers and the school crossing guards would become part of the District Department of Transportation. The officers now work for the Department of Public Works and the crossing guards are part of the D.C. police department. All of them would get raises. These are all good moves, suggesting that the District is committed to addressing concerns expressed by commuters and D.C. residents alike about traffic safety. Nothing, though, was as effective at getting the attention of the audience at...
By | May 4, 2007; 7:55 AM ET | Comments (45)
District Floats Toll Ideas
Motorists already know that Maryland and Virginia are planning to impose congestion pricing on new highway lanes. Those programs on the intercounty connector, Capital Beltway and Interstate 95 have been welcomed by some commuters, who look forward to using a less congested lane, even if they have to pay a variable toll to keep traffic moving. And they've been opposed by others, like the I-95 sluggers, who think such plans will increase congestion and diminish safety. But all the plans so far use the toll money to finance the new lanes we couldn't afford to build with tax money. Congestion pricing is a traffic-control technique added onto the highway financing plan. What if tolling for traffic control became a standalone concept? Transportation experts across a broad spectrum are getting pretty fond of that idea, but it's a threshold that political leaders have been very reluctant to cross. These experts are...
By | May 3, 2007; 7:40 AM ET | Comments (55)
Speed Camera Fines Begin Today
No more Mr. Nice Guy: As of today, Montgomery County will be fining motorists who drive more than 10 mph above the speed limit where the speed cameras are in place. The grace period during which only warnings were issued has ended. The City of Rockville also began its crackdown this week. Sticker on back of van announces speed camera operation. (Robert Thomson) Del. Bill Bronrott of Bethesda, who sponsored the legislation that allowed Montgomery County and several municipalities to begin the program, joined some of the police chiefs involved in it and road safety advocates today at Meadow Hall Elementary School on Rockville's Twinbrook Parkway. The parkway is one of the places where you'll find the cameras, loaded aboard vans marked with a red, white and blue "Safe Speed" logo. While the name "parkway" might call up visions of a wide commuter route, Twinbook at this point is a...
By | May 2, 2007; 2:01 PM ET | Comments (25)
Shortened Merge Jams GW Parkway
The worst traffic backup I've seen lately occurs on the northbound George Washington Parkway on the approach to the Beltway's inner loop. That's where the merge lane recently shrank to create a staging area for the Legion Bridge painting project. My little traffic patrol started Tuesday morning after I got a letter from an Arlington commuter who was startled and confused by how bad the parkway traffic had become on her morning trip toward the Beltway and Maryland. The Maryland State Highway Administration is painting the bridge, and the staging area has been created on the southeast side. The ramp from the parkway has been shortened and the inner loop's shoulder across the bridge is blocked off. I wanted to see for myself what effect that was having, but any trip of more than a couple of miles around here passes through several issue zones, and so the drive over...
By | May 2, 2007; 6:00 AM ET | Comments (18)
Driving Around and Driving Away
Need your help with a couple of sets of directions, with very different goals. The first letter comes from a commuter looking for a bailout route when a major highway is jammed. Every commuting motorist needs at least one bailout route. I've learned that some of you stick to your ways while some of you experiment frequently, looking to shave minutes, or to be ready with plans C, D and E, just in case you need them. Here's that commuter's letter. Dr. Gridlock: The "sink hole" repair near the Wilson Bridge on the Virginia side (South 95) created a 2 1/2 hour drive home on the inner loop of the Beltway for me. The radio suggested a "bail out" on Exit 4 to take the Sousa Bridge to get to Virginia but did not give enough details. I tried to figure out this route on the map but have not...
By | May 1, 2007; 6:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
