How bad is the traffic really? (exaggeration?) (Virginia Beach, Norfolk: city hall, construction)

[Minier]

The issue of slow, congested traffic seems to come up often in the threads on this sub-forum.

My question is: Would someone that's experienced New York City/ Westchester traffic consider it bad in the Hampton Roads area? Or is it bad for, say, the guy coming the back roads of Montana? I've also experienced Los Angeles traffic, which I thought made New York City traffic seem like child's play . Is it like L.A. traffic? Experienced metro DC traffic briefly (during a 6 week work assignment) and that sucked big time as well (Gaithersburg into DC at rush hour each day). Is the traffic in Hampton Roads similar to DC metro traffic?

Put it in relative terms for me so I can understand how bad the traffic really is

[UHgrad]

Originally Posted by Minier

The issue of slow, congested traffic seems to come up often in the threads on this sub-forum.

My question is: Would someone that's experienced New York City/ Westchester traffic consider it bad in the Hampton Roads area? Or is it bad for, say, the guy coming the back roads of Montana? I've also experienced Los Angeles traffic, which I thought made New York City traffic seem like child's play . Is it like L.A. traffic? Experienced metro DC traffic briefly (during a 6 week work assignment) and that sucked big time as well (Gaithersburg into DC at rush hour each day). Is the traffic in Hampton Roads similar to DC metro traffic?

Put it in relative terms for me so I can understand how bad the traffic really is

It really depends on where you live and where you are going. I don't think it compares to DC or LA traffic, I can't comment on NYC... but it can suck if you drive at the wrong places during the wrong hours.

Our choke points are tunnels, bridges, and military installations. If you have to cross these things then you don't want to be going the wrong way at rush hour. Things are also spread apart here so folks tend to drive further than they might elsewhere.

There are people that study this stuff though, and although certain corridors in Hampton Roads may be bad (HRBT, Downtown Tunnel)... as a whole, you never see Hampton Roads in the top 10 for worst traffic while DC, NY, and LA are consistently there.

The worst traffic In America? It's not Los Angeles - Yahoo! Autos

this study, using GPS data from commuters, doesn't even have any HR cities in the top 30.

http://www.elliott.org/blog/30-worst...ic-in-america/

[gregir]

In HR the traffic as a whole is not comparable to cities where trip planning is a necessity. DC, ATL, NYC, LA, SF all require factoring time spent sitting in the car to insure on time arrivals. HR geenrally does not unless you are moving through one of the choke points that involve bridges or tunnels. At these it is usually not as bad as most posters potray but does seem worse sometimes. My theory is that in the major metros it is due primarily to volume. In HR the driving habits at the choke points makes them chokes points and makes the traffic worse. Every tunnel seems to impart the desire to drop your speed by 20 MPH and then it accordions from there. The fact that you slow down to a crawl for no apparent reason makes it seem longer and worse than really bad traffic like the DC beltway- there is no option there to slow down as you cannot ever really speed up.

[xGrendelx]

Like most people said, traffic is worst at the bridge-tunnels and other notorious spots. Big back-ups happen at these spots twice daily (morning rush and evening rush) and anytime there's construction and accidents, of course. At the HRBT, a back up of 8-10 miles is pretty common, and that's on both sides of the tunnel, everyday. The Downtown Tunnel is pretty bad too. I saw a report recently that listed the worst stretches of highway for traffic congestion, and both the HRBT and I-264W at City Hall Ave (a.k.a. Downtown Tunnel traffic) were in the top 20 for the country. So it's not as bad LA or DC (which are in the top 5), but it's worse than some realize. It's up there with Atlanta, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Miami, etc.

Listing I-264W as #18 for worst morning commutes:
America's 75 Worst Commutes - The Daily Beast

Listing the HRBT as #16 for worst rush hour:
50 Worst Commutes: America's Highways to Hell - The Daily Beast

In Hampton Roads, rush hour begins around 3PM when the shipyards and military bases start letting out. By 4:30, the highways are packed and it doesn't start to clear until after 6-6:30.

On surface streets, I think Virginia Beach and Chesapeake have the worst traffic. Norfolk is usually pretty good unless there's something out of the ordinary, like an event downtown or something.

[Coconut1]

Not as bad as big city traffic, but not good. The worst is by far the HRBT.

Traffic wouldn't be a problem in most other places if it weren't for dumb drivers. Just today I saw a real biotch coming out of the Midtown Tunnel (driving a white Mercedes Benz SUV around 11:20 AM) clogging the entire tube. She was moving about 20 MPH, if that, going from Norfolk to Portsmouth.

The real issue is most drivers are terrible, inexperienced and scared of enclosed spaces. They brake constantly when going through the tunnels and in turn that clogs it up majorly. If everyone would just get over their fear and DRIVE traffic really wouldn't be such a big deal.

[gregir]

Sometimes when I get scared driving through the HRBT I just close my eyes.

[Randomdude]

I cant put it in relative terms.

However, I routinely sat on 64, between the Providence Road overpass, and the 264 Va Beach exit (about 2 miles), for over an hour before I just started going down military and getting on there. There are similiar common back ups around the bridges and tunnels.

I think much of our problem is that the roads were built without expectation of the traffic that would be on them.

Now we have 2 lane roads where we clearly need 10 lane highways. Thats actually most of the reason why 64-264 towards Va Beach is backed up, because right around Newton on 64, there are only two effective lanes until you merge with the thru traffic from downtown Norfolk, which is clearly not enough lanes to handle the traffic there, especially considering the fact that cars coming on from 64 have to jump over almost immediatley or be forced to get off on Newtown.

[xGrendelx]

Originally Posted by Randomdude

Now we have 2 lane roads where we clearly need 10 lane highways.

We also don't have great public transportion, so there's not much of an option outside of the private automobile. If you're in Norfolk and staying in Norfolk, HRT is decent enough but not much beyond that. I forsee this improving over the coming years though, especially as developable land decreases and the area becomes denser.

[Skrilla757]

Originally Posted by xGrendelx

Like most people said, traffic is worst at the bridge-tunnels and other notorious spots. Big back-ups happen at these spots twice daily (morning rush and evening rush) and anytime there's construction and accidents, of course. At the HRBT, a back up of 8-10 miles is pretty common, and that's on both sides of the tunnel, everyday. The Downtown Tunnel is pretty bad too. I saw a report recently that listed the worst stretches of highway for traffic congestion, and both the HRBT and I-264W at City Hall Ave (a.k.a. Downtown Tunnel traffic) were in the top 20 for the country. So it's not as bad LA or DC (which are in the top 5), but it's worse than some realize. It's up there with Atlanta, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Miami, etc.

Listing I-264W as #18 for worst morning commutes:
America's 75 Worst Commutes - The Daily Beast

Listing the HRBT as #16 for worst rush hour:
50 Worst Commutes: America's Highways to Hell - The Daily Beast

In Hampton Roads, rush hour begins around 3PM when the shipyards and military bases start letting out. By 4:30, the highways are packed and it doesn't start to clear until after 6-6:30.

On surface streets, I think Virginia Beach and Chesapeake have the worst traffic. Norfolk is usually pretty good unless there's something out of the ordinary, like an event downtown or something.

Summed it up perfectly

[LilyLady]

Originally Posted by xGrendelx

We also don't have great public transportion, so there's not much of an option outside of the private automobile. If you're in Norfolk and staying in Norfolk, HRT is decent enough but not much beyond that. I forsee this improving over the coming years though, especially as developable land decreases and the area becomes denser.

I think this was my biggest disappointment when I moved here. I was surprised to learn that a city as spread out as VB didn't have bus routes all over the city. Each time I've lived somewhere new, I've used city buses to learn the different areas. Not here. And the few routes that do exist have very inconvenient times.