Solutions to NoVA's Transportation Crisis? (Leesburg, Vienna: transferring to, buses, moving)

[blu_monk]

Solution: Don't drive during peak hours and listen to better music in your car.

[dlumpen]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

Leighland is absolutely correct, and that has always baffled me. The Orange Line is VERY congested, and yet Northern Virginia STILL has the nation's second-worst traffic gridlock. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that yes, NoVA, DOES need the Silver Line to help ease Orange Line congestion.

It may help traffic congestion, but will bring transit congestion beyond capacity. The tunnel under the Potomac is at capacity now. There have been no solutions offered, with the exception being to make some folks take that long way around into DC. (Send some lines down to Alexandria and then up to DC.) Not sure if who is going to take the long way has been determined yet. Also DC mayor Fenty is too busy giving out exclusive contracts to cronies, and the district isn't even paying it's share of the Metro this year. The idea of a Silver Line seems insane at this point in history.

The Dulles Corridor has always been about making money. It's like Dick Jones from Robcop said, "We stand to make millions. Who cares if it works!"

Just the same, the Silver Line is a long-range plan that the region does need. It's great that they have kept moving despite the mess the Metro is in right now.

[leighland]

Originally Posted by dlumpen

It may help traffic congestion, but will bring transit congestion beyond capacity. The tunnel under the Potomac is at capacity now. There have been no solutions offered, with the exception being to make some folks take that long way around into DC. (Send some lines down to Alexandria and then up to DC.) Not sure if who is going to take the long way has been determined yet. Also DC mayor Fenty is too busy giving out exclusive contracts to cronies, and the district isn't even paying it's share of the Metro this year. The idea of a Silver Line seems insane at this point in history. .

The Silver Line will cause more problems, not less.
Unlike mature systems in NYC, Chicago, etc. Metro was dug without a third set of rails.. What does this mean?

Imagine the Orange line, for example, is the 66, except it is only one lane (no shoulder, no median, etc) and on either side of the lane is a 20' high concrete wall. Now remember that most of the car/tracks in the Metro fleet is original to the 70's. What happens when an old car or a track breaks down in that single lane?

First all the traffic behind that train will slow and eventually stop. In order to fix the broken train, the first train behind the broken train must stop, unload all of its passengers, then continue towards the broken train to push it to the next train stop (yes thats how Metro moves broken trains right now), when the passengers on the broken train will offload and wait for the next train (which has the previous trains passengers plus its own) to load up with the passengers from the broken down train. Try to guesstimate the amount of time (and frustration) that has added to your commute.

Now imagine that system with added trains from the Silver line.

There is no way Metro can or will widen the existing tunnels to add those emergency third set of rails.

Big mess!

[lchoro]

The process of "Phase I" to Wiehle Avenue in Reston has already started, albeit slowly. If/when it goes forward to Dulles and beyond would also depend on the state of the economy after Phase I opens for business.

There's currently a study to expand Wiehle Avenue to Church Road in Sterling so that commuters can take a direct route to the Metro station and the Toll Road.

[anonymous703]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

I wish I could. The buses seem to orient themselves around an 8-hour workday schedule. I don't get paid half-hour lunches, hence why I actually work 8.5 hours per day and end up midway "between" the two buses.

Which begs the next question... can you work a "flex" schedule where you work a little longer during each weekday so that your work day coincides with the bus schedules, and then maybe you work a shorter work-day on Friday to maintain your 40-hour weeks? (As to what you should do on Friday... I'd say you could drive because you're part of the solution 4 days each week.)

[anonymous703]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

(Raises hand!) The primary reason I moved to Reston instead of a place where I'd be happier was because I wanted a convenient commute to my office building in Herndon. Two weeks into the job I was transferred to Tyson's Corner. Now it sounds like that in about a month I'll be working out of a third building near Dulles Airport a few times per week. I've been with the agency less than five months and will be in three different locations in three different parts of the area. It's so difficult to figure out where to live here where you can enjoy where you live AND not have a horrid commute.

Where near Dulles Airport? My office is off of 606 on the west side of 28, and I can get there in 10 minutes. I enjoy where I live partly because I *don't* have a horrid commute. And I took this job because I knew I could leave here and not have a horrid commute (My other possibility was in Tyson's...)

[DistrictDirt]

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

How about making it more cost-efficient to take metro vs. driving when you work AND live inside the beltway?

Good example my commute from Landmark to Ballston.

Option 1: Drive to Van Dorn Metro and park (if I can even find a space) $4.50, ride the blue and orange line to Ballston $3.30, come back which is another $3.30. Cost per day: $11.10. Cost for 20 days of commuting per month: $222, take out $50 for employer offered metro benefits to $170 a month.

Option 2: Drive to Ballston and pay for monthly parking at Ballston Commons about $4 a day. Use not even a gallon of gas for $2. Cost per day: $6 Cost per month: $120.

Do not even get me started on how much time I save by driving.

You're forgetting two huge pieces of the equation.

1) Other costs of driving: insurance, car payment, maintenance. I commute from DC to Reston every day, and pay about $175 a month for Metro/bus. If I drove, of course my monthly costs in gas and tolls would be less, but if you factor in insurance, car payment, and maintenance, it would be much higher. I don't even own a car, so I don't pay a penny for these.

2) Stress. I read/sleep/watch videos every day on the Orange line and 505 bus. I don't stress about traffic, crappy drivers, etc.

[DistrictDirt]

Originally Posted by leighland

You can't do those things on Metro at least. My DH takes it every day, rush hour in the AM, all diff. hours in the PM.
In the PM, he gets on at Metro Center and there are times he can't get on the next TRAIN because its packed like sardines. When he does get on a train, he does not get a seat and is usually packed in the middle of the train. There is no room to take out a laptop. The Orange line is standing room only until after Dunn Loring offloads. Also, the train, at least 2x a week, breaks down and offloads then reloads on a new train (thus another rush for seats or a comfortable place to stand).
In the AM, he usually does not get a seat.

BS. I hop on at Foggy Bottom (After Metro Center) and always get a seat. Probably 75% of the train gets off at Ballston, and then there's plenty of room to whip out a laptop. I usually don't however, as I get off at WFC. But I can say with 100% certainty that the train clears out long before Dunn Loring.

[leighland]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

BS. I hop on at Foggy Bottom (After Metro Center) and always get a seat. Probably 75% of the train gets off at Ballston, and then there's plenty of room to whip out a laptop. I usually don't however, as I get off at WFC. But I can say with 100% certainty that the train clears out long before Dunn Loring.

Not true. Period. How long have you lived here?

What times are you using the train? That makes quite a difference.

[FindingZen]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

BS. I hop on at Foggy Bottom (After Metro Center) and always get a seat. Probably 75% of the train gets off at Ballston, and then there's plenty of room to whip out a laptop. I usually don't however, as I get off at WFC. But I can say with 100% certainty that the train clears out long before Dunn Loring.

I believe you have a "reverse" commute out to Reston while leighland's husband commutes into DC. I've been on the Orange Line in both directions during the same rush hour. Your reverse commute will indeed be easier.