Too Many Construction Projects at One Time!!!!!!

[tysonsengineer]

Originally Posted by elias9193

What's your solution? just let things get worse and worse, did I say construct a new I95, its too late for that anyways but how about some bypass's at highly congested areas up and down I95!

If you are ok with it being on your front lawn, being dangerous for your children, then I say here here.

Your "bypass" is someone elses quiet and safe to bike and walk neighborhood. Solutions are much more difficult and the fact remains people need to take on more PERSONAL accountability instead of requesting someone to pave them a new path to their job that is far away. In america everyone is free to live as they choose, be it urban, suburban, or exurban, but you dont get everything for nothing. Living farther means you concede other issues. I am sure your opinion on I95 would change if you lived closer than you currently do and would think its not a big deal and not worth the cost.

If Stafford or Mason Neck Virginia would like to pay for their own road system, then 1) they better make a damn fine case for concessions to those they impact closer in who gain no benefit and get all the detriment and 2) they better find their own funds like most of the Silver Line construction had to do (150 million max limit should be the new maximum for ALL projects for the state based on the states precedent).

[Alyzza]

The answer to all the traffic and I say it over and over and over, is to let those who can… to telecommute, to make it mandatory. We have computers and telephones. We can all go to meetings by sitting right there at home. There is no need to spend half your life in your car going to and from work. In the winter if the weather suddenly turns bad it would never take 6 hours to go home. For example, the job I was doing could have been done from California, or anywhere. Think about it, the traffic would ease, and the air wouldn't smell like car exhaust, and the sky might even become blue again. Morale would improve and stress levels would ease up on everyone. But the mindset of the employers is to make everyone get out at the same time and trudge to work and do the exact same thing there that you could do from home. It's also unhealthy sitting in unmoving traffic breathing exhaust. The time that would be saved could be spent exercising or with the family or with friends. Nothing is going to change until the attitude of the workplace changes. There will be more and more huge buildings going up and more and more traffic. The solution is to get the cars off the roads not build more roads for more cars.

[snowdenscold]

Originally Posted by Alyzza

The answer to all the traffic and I say it over and over and over, is to let those who can… to telecommute, to make it mandatory. We have computers and telephones. We can all go to meetings by sitting right there at home. There is no need to spend half your life in your car going to and from work. In the winter if the weather suddenly turns bad it would never take 6 hours to go home. For example, the job I was doing could have been done from California, or anywhere. Think about it, the traffic would ease, and the air wouldn't smell like car exhaust, and the sky might even become blue again. Morale would improve and stress levels would ease up on everyone. But the mindset of the employers is to make everyone get out at the same time and trudge to work and do the exact same thing there that you could do from home. It's also unhealthy sitting in unmoving traffic breathing exhaust. The time that would be saved could be spent exercising or with the family or with friends. Nothing is going to change until the attitude of the workplace changes. There will be more and more huge buildings going up and more and more traffic. The solution is to get the cars off the roads not build more roads for more cars.

I don't think it's quite as easy as you make it out to be, but I agree telecommuting should play a vital role in reducing traffic. But first we need an communications infrastructure in place that mimics a real workplace, and solely a computer + phone doesn't always do that. I think pervasive hi-definition 2-way video is a key component because non-verbal communication is a huge part of conversation. Good news is we're getting there, but it still is a few years out.

But still capturing that critical workplace interaction, we could at least do more to reduce hours spent in the office. Reducing them to 0 isn't always adequate for some work environments, but if you had the expectation that people only needed to be there, say, 4 hours each day for 2-3 days of the week and can spend the rest of the time working at home - that would be a good start. That way you can avoid more cars during rush hour, but not have people working crazy schedules like 11AM to 7 PM.

I work from home a lot now, and love it and wouldn't give it up for even a 30% raise, but one of the downsides is that sometimes trying to get a quick answer to a question becomes a lot more difficult and delayed. I can't just walk around and see some people and informally ask if they know, but rather have to send an email to an alias and wait for a response, or start playing phone tag, or start a bunch of IM chats hoping that people are actually at their computer and not idle, etc.

[Novadhd5150]

Originally Posted by Alyzza

The answer to all the traffic and I say it over and over and over, is to let those who can… to telecommute, to make it mandatory. We have computers and telephones. We can all go to meetings by sitting right there at home. There is no need to spend half your life in your car going to and from work. In the winter if the weather suddenly turns bad it would never take 6 hours to go home. For example, the job I was doing could have been done from California, or anywhere. Think about it, the traffic would ease, and the air wouldn't smell like car exhaust, and the sky might even become blue again. Morale would improve and stress levels would ease up on everyone. But the mindset of the employers is to make everyone get out at the same time and trudge to work and do the exact same thing there that you could do from home. It's also unhealthy sitting in unmoving traffic breathing exhaust. The time that would be saved could be spent exercising or with the family or with friends. Nothing is going to change until the attitude of the workplace changes. There will be more and more huge buildings going up and more and more traffic. The solution is to get the cars off the roads not build more roads for more cars.

Well that is easy for you to say that living in Longwood , FL. Things are different here and many have no choice in the matter. Your suggesetions are good in thoery though.

[terrence81]

Originally Posted by tgbwc

It seems like some of the roads aren't that old (like the FFX County Parkway) but start falling apart prematurely. Also, they've been paving neighborhood streets here in W. Springfield (around the Orange Hunt neighborhood) that I didn't think needed paving, but other roads like Hooes pretty much shake my car apart.

I'm not sure which streets are county vs. state maintained. Are they easy to find on transportation project plans?

Howdy neighbor. Yeah the construction projects are annoying at best. However, I realize that it's the price of progress. I just wish that they'd do a better job of letting people know ahead of time so alternative routes can be planned.

[tysonsengineer]

Originally Posted by terrence81

Howdy neighbor. Yeah the construction projects are annoying at best. However, I realize that it's the price of progress. I just wish that they'd do a better job of letting people know ahead of time so alternative routes can be planned.

Very few Fairfax roads are county maintained. If its got a state route number then its in the VDOT system

[Alyzza]

>Well that is easy for you to say that living in Longwood , FL.

Yes, I do live in Florida now, but before I came here I lived there and worked as a government contractor for 10 years on site. So it's not like I don't know. We are getting an awful lot of traffic here too. Most of my work could have been done from home and still could be done from home. We communicated mostly by email, so it didn't matter if you were there or anywhere. Nothing has changed.

[Hesky]

Honestly I'd be more concerned if I saw no construction projects at all.

Construction projects = jobs = demand for goods and services = great for the local economy