By Rebecca
‘Perfect Placement’
courtesy of ‘gadgetdude’
At around 4am last night, a truck loaded with bananas overturned on the Northbound portion of Interstate 270. Traffic was briefly closed between the Capital Beltway and Old Georgetown Road and was reopened in time for today’s rush hour. The southbound portion of 270 was unaffected.
If you’re driving by this section of 270, you’ll spot the truck on the shoulder, as the truck and it contents will be removed after rush hour.
By Ben H. Rome
‘Typical Beltway traffic’ courtesy of ‘brianmka’
Just like death and taxes, transportation woes never seem to go away around here.
The annual Texas Transportation Institute traffic study released today shows that while traffic is lighter in every other major metro area, it’s only increased our misery here. The DC area continues to rank second to LA in congestion, wasting about 62 hours a year as we crawl along our major routes. That’s an increase of 3 hours over the previous year, by the way.
Sitting in traffic around here has cost us nearly $2.8 billion and 90 million gallons of gas. The data is from 2007, by the way, so next year’s study may (hopefully) show a decline due to increased focus on transit options after soaring gas prices last year.
By Ben H. Rome
‘Stuck in Traffic.. 218 3rd St SE, Capitol Hill’ courtesy of ‘KrS-NrY’
In case you haven’t noticed, gas prices continue to rise. Which means commuting costs are going up again for those who choose (or have no choice) to drive to work each day.
Which of course, leads to Beltway congestion. And then the inevitable “who’s got the worst drivers” discussion, often yelled between cars with exclamatory sign language.
Who needs that?
Starting this fall, the Commuter Connections Work Program will begin paying people to carpool. That’s right. PAY YOU MONEY. Specifically, $2 a day.
By Ben H. Rome
Traffic, courtesy of Joe Shlabotnik
Yesterday was “Terrible Traffic Tuesday” – the dreaded day after Labor Day when everyone in the region hits the rush hour roads after the summer stretch of vacations.
However, some good news came out yesterday for commuters from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. While it may not be as beltway-shattering as new construction projects or Metro passenger records, it’s still pretty important.
Yesterday, the council unveiled their newly revamped Commuter Connections website. Continue reading
By Ben H. Rome
In Traffic, courtesy of magandafille
And so it begins.
The like-it-or-not High-Occupancy Toll lanes are now a step closer to reality – at least in Northern Virginia.
So what are these HOT lanes, exactly?
These are specialized lanes that will reside on the ‘inside’ of the Beltway (specifically, a stretch of I-495 in NoVA) where carpools can use them for free and individual drivers looking to ditch the rest of us pokies will have to cough up some money. But there’s no actual ‘tollbooth’ to deal with. Continue reading