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Old 03-28-2012, 06:36 AM
 
Location: New-Dentist Colony
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Have tour buses always been allowed on the GW Parkway? I don't recall seeing them last year. I thought the Park Service had always banned commercial vehicles from the Parkway.

This year, going north in the afternoons, they like to get in the left lane (miles before they need to do so, in order to make it under a particular overpass) and sit there at 45 mph. (Yes, that's the speed limit, but everyone goes at least 55--and much faster in the left lanes.)
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Old 03-28-2012, 06:41 AM
 
Location: Fairfax County
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I recall a traffic accident back sometime in May 2008 where two tour buses crashed on the GW Parkway and tied traffic up for hours. Not sure if it was a new thing to allow commercial vehicles on the Parkway then, but I distinctly remember that accident.
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Old 03-28-2012, 06:45 AM
 
Location: Brambleton, VA
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Short answer- yes. Long answer- there is some background info here in this accident report from the NTSB. This was a bus-bridge collision in 2004. The report says that, according to FHWA, 0.1% of vehicles traveling the Parkway are tour buses; Mount Vernon says that 200 tour buses a day use the Parkway to reach the estate during peak period (April-June). There was a two-tour-bus collision a few years ago as well. (FYI - not morbidly obsessed with accidents - I worked at NTSB).
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Old 03-28-2012, 06:50 AM
 
Location: New-Dentist Colony
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Ah! Thanks for the replies. Have they always been allowed on GWMP? I get it that lots of old people want to see Mt. Vernon, but the buses are hugely irritating, blocking the left lane.
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Old 03-28-2012, 07:10 AM
 
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As far as I know they always have been, they don't qualify as commercial vehicles for some reason. I remember seeing them and school buses all the time while walking along the parkway as a kid. They are probably exempt due to Mt. Vernon being at the southern end.
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Old 03-28-2012, 07:12 AM
 
Location: New-Dentist Colony
5,759 posts, read 10,723,135 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by roninsedge View Post
As far as I know they always have been, they don't qualify as commercial vehicles for some reason. I remember seeing them and school buses all the time while walking along the parkway as a kid. They are probably exempt due to Mt. Vernon being at the southern end.
Yeah--the thing is, they seem to take GW all the way up to DC.
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Old 03-28-2012, 08:05 AM
 
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I agree, they received the exception for Mt. Vernon and use it to travel the length of the Parkway for which they have the exception.
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