Parkway West WORST Congestion outside NY & LA (Washington, Carnegie: house, living in)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

What Western PA has needed since the 1960's is an alternate route between the airport area and the Monroeville area.

Why should this be such a high regional priority? The bulk of the peak flows are going into and out of the city, not between those two particular areas.

[ForYourLungsOnly]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

...it's already like this.

Hell, it was like that when I moved away last year.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by ForYourLungsOnly

Hell, it was like that when I moved away last year.

It was like that in 2006 when I worked in Robinson (and continues to this day). Ah the days of summer wearing "business casual" attire sweating in my hot car without AC on a backed up parkway 5 days a week on a $11/hr salary with no benefits. Nothing can crush a soul quite like that.

[WhoIsStanwix?]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Start a region-wide campaign to promote working from home full time (when applicable to the occupation). Offer incentives for employers to setup the configurations to do so.

But alas the nation is both too technophobic and too archaic in there puritan work ethic mindset to allow such things. Think how much better it would be on the environment and traffic situations. Hell, healthcare costs would even decrease over time as people's stress levels drop from circumventing the daily commute.

I work downtown. My department has "work from home Wednesdays" throughout the year, and it is looking more and more like many of us will take that up to three days a week over the course of the summer. It's quite nice to be able to take out from my neighborhood thai restaurant for lunch

[wyoh]

Originally Posted by dtrtrggr13

Also - did the people who performed this ever visit Chicago or DC? Wayyyyyy worse congestion than here.

The study is a little misleading imo, it just tags bad stretches of road.

"According to INRIX, it takes an average of 13 minutes -- nine more than it should -- to traverse that stretch."

That hardly matters if there isn't much traffic before or after that stretch. The problem with D.C., where I currently live, is that there is traffic *everywhere*. It's nearly perpetual, regardless of time or day of the week. Most commutes involve traffic the entire route, even if the drag on speed isn't always drastic. That's what really wears on you.

[youngabe]

Originally Posted by wyoh

The study is a little misleading imo, it just tags bad stretches of road.

"According to INRIX, it takes an average of 13 minutes -- nine more than it should -- to traverse that stretch."

That hardly matters if there isn't much traffic before or after that stretch. The problem with D.C., where I currently live, is that there is traffic *everywhere*. It's nearly perpetual, regardless of time or day of the week. Most commutes involve traffic the entire route, even if the drag on speed isn't always drastic. That's what really wears on you.

Where they got 13 minutes from is beyond me. Traffic.com usually has it at 30 minutes plus to get from Carnegie to the tunnel. That is a bit more realistic. Drive times seem to constantly be inaccurate. If it took 13 minutes to go from Carnegie to the tunnels on a regular basis, that would be a great drive. Even 30 minutes is being generous. 40+ is more the norm, if not worse.

The Parkway West (376) is usually jammed before (through Robinson toward 79) and if you continue on 376, you'll jam after the Fort Pitt Tunnels heading to the Squirrel Hill Tunnels.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by WhoIsStanwix?

I work downtown. My department has "work from home Wednesdays" throughout the year, and it is looking more and more like many of us will take that up to three days a week over the course of the summer. It's quite nice to be able to take out from my neighborhood thai restaurant for lunch

That's awesome! In my opinion having a large number of the workforce working from home would be the cheapest and most beneficial way of alleviating the problems with traffic (among other things). Plus it makes people happy and happy employees equal more productive employees.

[youngabe]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

That's awesome! In my opinion having a large number of the workforce working from home would be the cheapest and most beneficial way of alleviating the problems with traffic (among other things). Plus it makes people happy and happy employees equal more productive employees.

My company is very good about working from home. That's definitely a nice perk. I know one larger company out towards Moon that was allowing employees to work from home and then revoked the privilege. Very stupid move--just adds to congestion. Not to mention, rumors about US Steel have been rampid. If they were to move out in that direction too, that would not help the congestion at all.

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by youngabe

Where they got 13 minutes from is beyond me. Traffic.com usually has it at 30 minutes plus to get from Carnegie to the tunnel. That is a bit more realistic. Drive times seem to constantly be inaccurate. If it took 13 minutes to go from Carnegie to the tunnels on a regular basis, that would be a great drive. Even 30 minutes is being generous. 40+ is more the norm, if not worse.

The Parkway West (376) is usually jammed before (through Robinson toward 79) and if you continue on 376, you'll jam after the Fort Pitt Tunnels heading to the Squirrel Hill Tunnels.

I'm also curious how they came to an "average" of 13 minutes. They didn't specify time of day, or if it is the mean or median or what.

[wyoh]

Originally Posted by youngabe

Where they got 13 minutes from is beyond me. Traffic.com usually has it at 30 minutes plus to get from Carnegie to the tunnel. That is a bit more realistic. Drive times seem to constantly be inaccurate. If it took 13 minutes to go from Carnegie to the tunnels on a regular basis, that would be a great drive. Even 30 minutes is being generous. 40+ is more the norm, if not worse.

The distance they give is this:

"the section from Green Tree to the Fort Pitt Tunnels"

Which looks like just a couple of miles. Glad we're not moving to that side of town!