Archive: November 2007
Slick Tracks Slowed Morning Metrorail
The trains are back up to their normal speed now, but for a few hours this morning, Metrorail dropped speeds in many areas because the tracks were unusually slippery. It was a combination of falling leaves and morning dew. On the last day of November, leaves are still coming down. Along many sections of the above-ground tracks, the combination of leaves and dew creates a slickness that makes it more difficult to start and stop the trains. (This contributes to another routine problem on train cars: the flattening of wheels because of irregular wear. Sometimes they have to be taken into the shop for rounding.) Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said in a statement that for safety, Metro slowed the trains from their normal operating speed of 55 mph down to 30 mph in the areas around 27 of the transit system's 86 stations. This widespread speed restriction was in effect...
By Robert Thomson | November 30, 2007; 9:40 AM ET | Comments (15)
The Weekend and Beyond
Army-Navy Traffic Watch out for heavy traffic on Interstate 95 in Baltimore on Saturday. About 71,000 people will be going to the annual Army-Navy football game at the Ravens stadium. Parking lots open at 7 a.m., and kickoff is at 12:20 p.m. The heaviest interstate traffic is likely to be on the approaches to Russell Street (Exit 52) and Interstate 395 (Exit 53) about three hours before game time. Also, watch out for the construction that has narrowed the lanes on the Baltimore Washington Parkway at Russell Street. If you're not going to the game, consider taking I-895 or I-695 east to get around downtown Baltimore and reconnect with I-95 either north or south of the city. For up to date traffic information on Saturday, look at traffic.md.gov. If you are going to the game, get there early. You can find information about Baltimore City street closings and parking restrictions...
By Robert Thomson | November 30, 2007; 5:13 AM ET | Comments (1)
HOV Restriction May Return
The Virginia Department of Transportation wants to restore the carpool restrictions on a three-mile stretch of I-395's southbound HOV lanes that have been open to everyone during the afternoon since 1982. If the Commonwealth Transportation Board approves the move at its Dec. 13 meeting, the restriction will be back in effect in mid-January. That southbound stretch was open to all traffic between 3:30 and 6 p.m. to ease congestion through the Springfield Interchange. But now that the interchange has been rebuilt, VDOT thinks traffic flow would be better served by restoring the HOV-3 restriction. In the current set up, vehicles that don't have three people on board are allowed to enter the HOV lanes at a ramp south of Duke Street and continue to the Old Keene Mill Road exit or to the flyover leading to the general traffic lanes. The rebuilt interchange has 11 lanes to handle local and...
By Robert Thomson | November 29, 2007; 5:01 AM ET | Comments (8)
Detour on Foxhall Today
After the morning rush today, Foxhall Road NW will be shut to northbound traffic between MacArthur Boulevard and Reservoir Road. The closure, scheduled to last from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., will allow the District Department of Transportation to pave the roadway between MacArthur and Greenwich Parkway. The northbound traffic on Foxhall will be sent to MacArthur and to Reservoir, then back to Foxhall. Southbound traffic will still be able to use Foxhall, DDOT said....
By Robert Thomson | November 29, 2007; 4:32 AM ET | Email a Comment
Gas Main Break Closes Route 1 in Va.
Route 1 is closed in both directions at Monroe Ave. in Alexandria due to a natural gas leak, causing signficant delays, according to washingtonpost.com's Traffic service....
By David Marino-Nachison | November 28, 2007; 4:19 PM ET | Comments (1)
Metro Cuts Weekend Service
Commenter "Jay" on the previous blog entry has rightly reminded me that I should call your attention to the story in today's Post by Lena Sun about the service cutback Metro initiated last weekend: Riders this winter will see more four-car trains and fewer six-car trains. Oddly, this was not something Metro chose to announce to riders. It just happened. Metro routinely announces bus detours for weekend events or plans to take an elevator out of service for repairs. But the only reason you know about the four-car trains is that Lena Sun went after the story. Weekend Metrorail service has always been among the top complaints among my readers. Might as well drive, they say, if the service is going to be that poor. The problem for riders has been the maintenance and rail car testing program that forces trains to share one track for travel in both directions....
By Robert Thomson | November 28, 2007; 3:49 PM ET | Comments (9)
D.C. Shows Off New Bus Shelters
At more than 40 spots across the District, bus passengers await their rides under new aluminum and glass shelters. More than 600 of them are on the way under a deal the city signed with Clear Channel Adshel. New shelter design. (Clear Channel) On Tuesday morning, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Transportation Director Emeka Moneme showed off one of the new ones outside a Popeye's near the intersection of Benning Road NE and East Capitol Street. The new style has great curb appeal. Moneme pointed to one of the old brown, glass-less shelters across Benning Road, and the contrast was immediately obvious. The new one has a modern, urban look. Plus, it has information. The big new bus map is another breakthrough in shelter design. And someday, we all hope, the panel that runs along the top of the shelter will display Next Bus information, giving riders a realistic idea of...
By Robert Thomson | November 28, 2007; 5:49 AM ET | Comments (16)
Where to Live?
Letters from people planning a move to Washington offer a chance to think about our transportation assets and liabilities. Here's one I'm hoping you can help me answer. Dr. Gridlock: I am only now discovering your column after years of reading the Washington Post, and that's because I'm moving to DC next month! I'll be working in Arlington, and living there for a month until I find a place. I was most intrigued by what I read about VA vs. MD commuting. It was from January and I was wondering if there's any updates on this debate and where I might find more information to help us decide. Just because I'll be working in Arlington, I'm not yet convinced that I should move my family there. My wife used to live in DC more than a decade ago and favors Maryland. I only know that I do not want to...
By Robert Thomson | November 27, 2007; 5:32 AM ET | Comments (33)
Easier Return After Thanksgiving
Post reporters Bill Brubaker and Ian Shapira talked to travelers and travel experts on Sunday who described the return traffic from Thanksgiving as surprisingly light for what is often the worst day of the year for long distance riders. My own experience with the Wednesday before and the Sunday after Thanksgiving, plus advice from readers and transportation experts, has led me avoid the roads on those days. We've certainly seen people spread out their departure days and times over the past few years. But the return trips still were squeezed into a much narrower window, as most people still lingered with family and friends until Sunday. This year, I left Washington for Cape Cod on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and returned the Saturday after. On the return trip, we encountered 11 miles of heavy traffic getting through New Haven, Conn., and I thought it would remain so for the next...
By Robert Thomson | November 26, 2007; 7:44 AM ET | Comments (8)
Metro Adding Holiday Service
The transit authority plans to add service to and from the region's three main airports during Thanksgiving week. The final details still were being worked out, so check Metro's Web site for updates, but here's the basic idea. For the peak of the holiday rush on Wednesday and the weekend, buses will be added to the B30 line between Greenbelt and BWI Airport. As you walk out of the Greenbelt Metro station, turn left and look for the shelter with the B30 marking. The fare is $3. For travelers heading to and from Dulles Airport, there will be extra service during the peak period on the 5A line, which originates at L'Enfant Plaza Station. The fare also is $3 for the express service. For Reagan National Airport travelers: Metro plans to add two more trains on the Yellow Line on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. to make the...
By Robert Thomson | November 19, 2007; 5:52 AM ET | Comments (10)
Advice For The Weekend and Beyond
Have a safe Thanksgiving week. Our Post commuter page on Sunday, Nov. 18, will have some suggestions about holiday routes. Remember this good advice from many other travelers: Have alternative routes in mind for when you encounter heavy congestion, but realize that there are no undiscovered shortcuts in our region. Timing your departure for off hours is your best shot at a good trip. Walkathon Saturday Metrorail will open at 6 a.m., an hour early, on Saturday, Nov. 17, for people attending the 20th Annual Help the Homeless Walkathon, which begins at 9 a.m. and goes from 7th to 14th Street NW along the mall. Metro Weekend Work The track maintenance and rail car testing on the Red, Orange and Green lines this weekend, Nov. 17 and 18, menas there will be delays as trains share a single open track. Here's a link to the full details on Metro's Web...
By Robert Thomson | November 16, 2007; 3:45 PM ET | Comments (15)
Commuters Blast Fare Hikes
Long distance commuters who will bear the brunt of Metro's fare and fee increases told transit authority board members Wednesday night that the plan is unfair. The hearing in Rockville, attended by about 70 people with 26 testifying, was the confrontation I had expected to see on Tuesday night in Reston, at Metro's first hearing on the proposals. Last night's session drew battle lines between city and suburban interests. Many commuters noted that the impact of the increases would fall most heavily on those who drive to the Metrorail stations at the ends of the lines and take the trains to downtown Washington. Their traveling costs will go up much more sharply than those of people who travel by bus or take shorter rail trips. "The proposal assumes that commuters who ride longer distances should be punished financially because they ride farther," Laraine Balk Hope of Rockville said in her...
By Robert Thomson | November 15, 2007; 9:06 AM ET | Comments (58)
Happy About Fare Increases?
Couldn't blame Metro board members if they thought so, based on the turnout at last night's hearing in Reston on the fare and fee increases that could take effect in January. The hearing was in Reston. (See Lena Sun's story in today's Post.) I had expected to hear many questions about service on suburban bus routes and the Orange Line, along with complaints about the combined impact of increasing parking fees and train fares for long-distance riders. In fact, there was articulate, reasonable and specific testimony on those topics. The problem was that only a handful of people were there to voice it. The burden of speaking for hundreds of thousands of transit riders fell to Cali Ence of Vienna, Peg Owens of Upton, Ray Rowley of Lorton and a couple of other local residents who commute by train and bus. The session started at 7 p.m. with a brief...
By Robert Thomson | November 14, 2007; 7:01 AM ET | Comments (21)
Should Holiday Rules Change?
After Veterans Day, I got several letters suggesting that on certain holidays, local governments maintain their regular weekday traffic patterns. Normally, governments ease the rules on lane use and parking, and they keep traffic signals set at off-peak timings. Is that out of date? Please share your experiences. See if they match what the letter writer here had to say. Dear Dr. Gridlock: Can anything be done to maintain normal rush hour traffic patterns on some federal holidays? Many businesses in the District work on some federal holidays, and having traffic flow stay on weekend patterns creates havoc with already difficult commutes. For instance, the Clara Barton Parkway and Canal Road go one way in and out during morning and afternoon rush. On holidays they remain on two way traffic. Monday was Veteran's Day, but many businesses were open as normal. Traffic backed up on the Clara Barton from the...
By Robert Thomson | November 14, 2007; 5:00 AM ET | Comments (7)
Metro Hearings Start Tonight
If I printed all the letters coming in about the Metro fare increase proposals, the Dr. Gridlock column would be nothing but that till the end of the year. Most oppose the plan, but some say fare hikes are needed. Just about everyone has questions or comments comparing the increases with the current level of service. Metro trains pass at L'Enfant Plaza Station. (Michael Williamson) Metro management says the cost of the service is increasing. Customers are not focused on Metro's internal issues. They relate the cost of the service to the quality of the product. Here are extracts from some of the letters. (You can write to me at drgridlock@washpost.com.) These aren't weighted to reflect majority sentiments in the mailbag. Rather, I wanted you to sample the range of ideas people have about what should be done, since the Metro fare increase hearings start tonight. Dear Dr. Gridlock. Just...
By Robert Thomson | November 13, 2007; 7:43 AM ET | Comments (7)
Lessons From Out of Town
An out-of-town television news crew interviewed me last week about our traffic problems. The two reporters explained to me that their city now finds itself overwhelmed with congestion. Turning to other places for ideas, they were fascinated by the notion that getting around Washington is so difficult that the local newspaper has a columnist who writes about nothing but transportation issues. The TV crew was from Belgrade. The Serbian capital has too many cars for its roads and bridges. When more and more people can drive, fewer and fewer want to wait for a bus to come along. It was all starting to sound very familiar. Are there lessons we can learn from the experiences of other cities, both positive and negative. One letter-writer things we can. Here's what he suggested: "I was wondering if you could start a series about suggestions from other cities that could work here in...
By Robert Thomson | November 12, 2007; 8:04 AM ET | Comments (15)
This Weekend and Beyond
D.C. Parade on Saturday Drivers will want to avoid the area around the national mall where the Veteran's Day parade will be held on Saturday. Paraders assemble on the mall at 7th Street between Constitution and Independence avenues, and at 11 a.m., they march toward 17th Street NW. (There's a map of the route on page B3 of Friday's Metro section.) Here's a link to the District Department Transportation's announcement about the street closings between 6 a.m. and as late as 5 p.m. Some Metrobuses will detour around the parade area. Metro lists the routes on this page. Veterans Day Transit Metro's Web site has a page that describes the Monday transit schedules for rail and bus services all around the region. Here's a link. The three-day weekend is a big one for Metro's track work. The Huntington and Eisenhower Avenue stations will be closed from 9 o'clock tonight through...
By Robert Thomson | November 9, 2007; 8:38 AM ET | Comments (11)
Commuters Can Go Lean
Chris Hamilton, commuter services chief for Arlington County, and his colleagues want to help daily travelers be healthy and thrifty, so they've launched a campaign called Arlington's Car-Free Diet. You can learn to lose, Web site says. (carfreediet.com) As is evident from the name, they're encouraging people to switch their commutes to transit, walking, biking, or staying home and working from there. You can lose 2,000 pounds in a day, they say, by leaving the car in the driveway. And like all the truly great diet-creators, they don't want you to sacrifice to get results. The commuting habits of a lifetime need not be thrown out completely: One or two days a week on the program can show results, the sponsors say. The only thing that gets fatter is your wallet: The money savings on parking fees, car insurance, maintenance and gas. (That part I can identify with: When I...
By Robert Thomson | November 8, 2007; 8:09 AM ET | Comments (15)
Traffic and Transit Alerts
Connecticut Avenue Watch out this evening around the Uptown Theater, where there's a special event that will restrict driving and parking on the southbound side, heading toward downtown Washington. The restriction will be between Macomb Street and Ordway Street from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Veterans Day Monday is the federal and local holiday, and Metrorail is back to treating it that way too, after experimenting last year with weekday service on a few Monday holidays. The transit authority found that there was not enough demand to justify the cost of providing full weekday train service. Track Work Closing Stations Metro will use the long holiday weekend to perform some extensive track work, which will close the Huntington and Eisenhower Avenue stations for the weekend. They will be shut from 9 p.m. Friday to midnight Monday, Virginia Transportation Planning The Commonwealth Transportation Board, the statewide policy-making panel, has scheduled its...
By Robert Thomson | November 7, 2007; 3:18 PM ET | Comments (5)
Drive vs. Drive
Transportation editor Steven Ginsberg and I got many responses to our test drive on Sunday's commuter page in The Post. We compared drives on parallel commuter routes from Columbia to Silver Spring. Steven took I-95 and I took the parallel course on Route 29. New interchange at Briggs Chaney helps ease congestion. (Robert Thomson) Here's one letter. Dear Dr. Gridlock: I was fascinated by the article "Which Way" in the Sunday, Nov. 4, Washington Post, Page C2. What would have been useful to know was how long each route was. Another thought is to add odometer readings along with the time and comments for the two different routes. Note, I live in Charlottesville, Va., and work from home. Distance commute: 30 feet (from bed to office); Duration of Commute: 1 minute, unless there is a two-kid pile-up on the stairs. Tim Roesch Charlottesville I can't give you a link to...
By Robert Thomson | November 6, 2007; 8:42 AM ET | Comments (17)
Planning Holiday Travel
Maybe it's the warmth of this autumn that makes Thanksgiving seem so remote. But it's less than three weeks away, and now is a good time to plan for the most difficult holiday traveling of the year. I'm again looking for your advice on holiday getaway routes and travel times. What did you learn from last year's experiences? The key things I learned from surveying readers is that travelers should be aware of alternative routes and have a plan to use them, but there are no undiscovered shortcuts to the places most people are heading. Good timing on the departure counts more than anything else. Here's a letter that many readers said they found helpful last fall. Dear Dr. Gridock: The I-95/New Jersey Turnpike/Garden State Parkway route to northern New Jersey or north of there now has round-trip tolls of over $27. Toll increases have been brutal and punishing. On...
By Robert Thomson | November 5, 2007; 8:26 AM ET | Comments (34)
Weekend Advisories
Third Street Tunnel The District plans some routine maintenance in the Third Street Tunnel starting tonight after 7:30. One lane on the northbound side in the tunnel will be closed. The work will be done before 5 a.m. Monday, the District Department of Transportation said. Darker Drives Because the clocks drop back an hour to Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, you'll find the weekday commutes a bit darker starting Monday evening. It's a good time to make sure all your vehicle lights are working, including the turn signals. Late Service on Metrorail If you're out late Saturday night into Sunday morning and trying to catch a train, you won't have to worry about the time change. Metro will turn its clocks back when the rest of us do early Sunday morning and operate on its normal weekend schedule ending service at 3 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday. You should...
By Robert Thomson | November 2, 2007; 4:59 AM ET | Comments (4)
Beltway Work This Weekend
A big phase of the Wilson Bridge construction project is scheduled for this weekend, and it will make the Capital Beltway in that area a good place to avoid. The Beltway's lanes must be put into a new alignment so they'll wind up where the bridge is once its in its final configuration as a two-span structure. The first span opened last year and the second one will open in 2008. All lanes on the Beltway's inner loop in Virginia and on the outer loop in Maryland are scheduled to be shifted into the new alignment this weekend in the area near the bridge. So if all goes as planned, drivers on those routes will be following a new course by Monday. But you won't want to be stuck watching as it happens. Lane closures are scheduled on both sides of the Potomac, but project managers think the inner loop...
By Robert Thomson | November 1, 2007; 5:26 AM ET | Comments (2)
