Is Woodrow Wilson Bridge project Successful? (Silver Spring, Potomac: college, rail, design)

[Sampg1]

Can we say Woodrow Wilson Bridge project is successful? I see a lot of traffic congestion in rush hour, I know its much much better than what it used to be before but i'm thinking may be in 5-10 years we will be back again to the same nightmare.
What do you think?

[armory]

From what I remember about the old bridge....people are seemingly afraid to drive over bridges. Watch them all hit their brakes when driving near one. I don't care if it is a the Bay Bridge, Wilson bridge, American Legion bridge or the 301 bridge. The same goes for tunnels. They both go straight, have no turns and the speed limits are the same as the normal highway. The trouble is with human nature.

[Sampg1]

Originally Posted by armory

From what I remember about the old bridge....people are seemingly afraid to drive over bridges. Watch them all hit their brakes when driving near one. I don't care if it is a the Bay Bridge, Wilson bridge, American Legion bridge or the 301 bridge. The same goes for tunnels. They both go straight, have no turns and the speed limits are the same as the normal highway. The trouble is with human nature.

That can be one additional factor but there are multiple ramps merging to 495 right before the bridge, I believe this is the main issue here at WWB.
As the surrounding get developed this will be a real challenge for WWB users.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by armory

From what I remember about the old bridge....people are seemingly afraid to drive over bridges. Watch them all hit their brakes when driving near one. I don't care if it is a the Bay Bridge, Wilson bridge, American Legion bridge or the 301 bridge. The same goes for tunnels. They both go straight, have no turns and the speed limits are the same as the normal highway. The trouble is with human nature.

So true. Same with tunnels. You have to design a bridge twice as wide as the roads leading to it in order to maintain speeds. In most cases, lanes narrow over bridges, so it's very rare for traffic to maintain speed across bridges even though the number of lanes remains the same. When the traffic slows as it approaches and cross the bridge, it will eventually trigger a backup into the main lanes of the freeway.

From what I have heard, the traffic on that part of the beltway it still much better than it was prior to the new bridges. I just wish they would do something with the stretch of beltway between College Park and Silver Spring. The Purple line can't come fast enough!

[PurpleHaze1100]

Eventually there going to need to create an outer ring beltway.

[gomason]

The bridge is a bit of an incline too. People don't realize but small things like small hills can have a big ripple effect on traffic.

I would say that it's successful because it's free flowing both directions the vast majority of the time. And during rush hour, it's only bad going into VA in the mornings and out to MD in the evenings. It's unreasonable to expect that there never be traffic on a major freeway in a city of 5 million. We need to better manage the capacity we already have. Maybe convert an existing lane into an HOV/HOT lane.

[Sampg1]

Originally Posted by gomason

We need to better manage the capacity we already have. Maybe convert an existing lane into an HOV/HOT lane.

[Baghead]

Thank God it's there. Of course, should have also incorporated a rail crossing...

[the resident09]

Without question, I haven't seen a true back up on or near the bridge since the project was completed. I actually thought this was a rhetorical question from the OP.

[PurpleHaze1100]

WMATA should look into extending the metro across the Potomac underneath the Woodrow Wilson to provide access to National Harbor. I'm sure it would see tons more development if created.