Commute with least hassle from NOVA (western)

[Carolina65]

I've also been looking at South Riding...but Route 50 in that direction has become an absolute bear - rivalling 66??

[Middlin]

The Route 50 widening won't be finished for at least another year, but they keep building houses....so no, that commute either by bus from Stone Ridge or driving isn't going to be "better"

[Carolina65]

I am wondering if one those Loudoun busses from Ashburn have a clearer shot - presumably they are on the toll road heading into DC in the AM and return in the PM - can't recall if the toll road has HOV lanes during rush hour.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by Carolina65

I am wondering if one those Loudoun busses from Ashburn have a clearer shot - presumably they are on the toll road heading into DC in the AM and return in the PM - can't recall if the toll road has HOV lanes during rush hour.

The toll road does indeed have HOV lanes during rush hour. Most buses seem to switch to the airport road whenever I see then on it. There are ramps for them to enter the airport access road.

[South Jersey Styx]

Originally Posted by dkf747

The toll road does indeed have HOV lanes during rush hour. Most buses seem to switch to the airport road whenever I see then on it. There are ramps for them to enter the airport access road.

This is correct. The Loudoun Commuter Buses that enter from the Greenway utilize the access road, not the Toll road. So they do not sit in backed - up traffic on the Toll road. Traffic for these buses gets hairy on 66E inside the beltway and, of course, at Rosslyn as they enter D.C.

[terribletraffic]

Originally Posted by Carolina65

I've also been looking at South Riding...but Route 50 in that direction has become an absolute bear - rivalling 66??

You should see the traffic in south riding residential streets to "short cut" the traffic on 50. People used to say south riding was like a cult because people would move there and you would never see them again. Well that's because it takes you 30 minutes to get 5 miles and it doesn't have to be rush hour.

Rout 50 widening is short sighted, 4 lanes to 6? LOL, they missed the opportunity to put in 8 lanes and built it to what was needed in 2005 not 2015+. By the time that severely behind schedule project is finished, the traffic levels will have overtaken the design. Too many homes, not enough builders proffers for road improvements, and poor county planning by the BOS who mostly live west of Leesburg and don't understand or care about the issues. They just want to take the taxes. Also Fairfax really doesn't care about improving the roads west into Loudoun, which is why Braddock Road remains a death trap and Fairfax residents fight to keep it that way.

The other issue is people from Gainesville trying to escape 66 and get to the toll road, and they just finished the 66 lane widening to Gainesville a few years ago. Anyway, I lived in the area my whole life and though the rural farms have turned into highly populated subdivisions, the roads are largely exactly the same.

Route 50 is plaugged by a mix of industrial traffic and residential commuters. You get the luckstone quarry and dubrooke concrete plant spitting their trucks out into all lanes of traffic and every 6 months another light goes in for another subdivision. The trucks tear up the roads and throw stones all over your car. Route 50 from chantilly to south riding is a dump truck drag strip. It's like they go out of their way to be in both lanes at a stop light and see who can start the slowest. If it's not the dump trucks, it's the landscape trucks.

So the transportation short sightedness is an epidemic. I would love to blame VDOT, but it's really the county's fault for not planning the growth better with eachother and leaving VDOT behind the curve.

66 is only 4 lanes inside the beltway, and that is Arlington counties fault. I herd their mayor speak at a transportation meeting, and he said we don't have any transportation problems getting into DC... well no you don't but anyone trying to get through Arlington into DC does! 66 was supposed to be 8 lanes inside the beltway in 1970's and it's only 8 lanes outside the beltway now! Arlington county fights to only have 2 lanes into and 2 lanes out of the nation's capital for the last 35 years, but they need more bike paths and pedestrian bridges.

People go north and south trying to get east and west and as long as Loudoun and Fairfax has the mayor of Arlington's counties mentality of it's not my problem, nothing will get better.

I digress. Dulles South Traffic and quality of life is very poor and it won't get better until about 2020 when the 606 widening is complete, but who knows how many new lights and subdivisions will be installed by that time.