Contingencies

After witnessing last Friday's traffic jams, one wonders if maybe the I-66 corridor needs more contingency plans. Friday's gridlock was like the entire region returning to work as if public transportation didn't exist. The government's delayed opening meant rush hour started around the time HOV restrictions were lifted. We all had no option but to drive.

The Orange Line's aerial track between Vienna and Ballston was impassable, and commuter buses that run on I-66 and the Dulles Toll Road couldn't feed into Vienna and West Falls Church stations. But Metrobuses running on major roadways like routes 7, 29, and 50 ran when road conditions improved. It seemed as if VDOT did a better job clearing major roadways than WMATA did with railways.

What if the commuter buses weren't completely reliant on the Orange Line? Had they run Friday, could they have attracted enough ridership to reduce the gridlock or would the buses from Centreville and Reston simply have gotten stuck in the two-hour traffic jams and produce busloads of irate passengers vowing never to ride a bus again? Would they just create chaotic overcrowding at snow terminal stations like Ballston, which were already overloaded and running at reduced capacity?

Blizzards aren't frequent, but Metrorail disruptions seem to happen almost every week. A derailing happened near Farragut North on Friday. The deadly crash on the Red Line last year disrupted service for months.

If something happened to the Orange Line, would we be reduced to daily crippling gridlock like Friday's?

Even if the regional priority bus network doesn't get TIGER funding this week but especially if it does, we need to think about a more resilient and flexible transportation system.

Photo credit: Paulo Ordoveza

Post-Snowpocalyptic Roundup

Seems like it's mostly over.

The I-66 corridor was paralyzed pretty much all week.

To sum it up:

• A major snow storm hit Friday and Saturday (starting on Feb. 5) and another on Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb. 9).
• Conditions even on the highways were reportedly quite bad at least for the first 24 hours after each storm hit. White out conditions were reported in the metropolitan region on Feb. 10. Total accumulation after the second storm was over three feet.
• Orange Line trains from East Falls Church to Vienna weren't running most of the week and most Fairfax Connector west county bus service was suspended. West county buses and western Orange Line trains ran limited service Tuesday and limited service in the afternoon Friday.
• The rest of the Metrorail and Metrobus network was running with limited service. Underground trains ran packed like sardines and with headways as long as 30 minutes. Buses provided limited service on only the most cleared roads.
• The government was closed from Friday afternoon (Feb. 5) to a delayed opening Friday (Feb. 12).

Anything I missed? Let me know in the comments.

The worst I-66 traffic jam in recent memory happened Friday morning (Feb. 12), the day the government decided to reopen, but before the aerial Orange Line or the west county bus service had been restored. The result was a huge traffic jam stretching from Route 50 in Fair Lakes to Constitution Avenue. (I traveled from Centreville to Falls Church, and the leg eastbound from Vienna to Route 7 took me nearly an hour.)

Snow is expensive. Besides costing taxpayers heaps in lost government productivity in Washington, Virginia has gone way over its snow budget and is eating into maintenance funds. Talk about having trouble with the snowbanks.

General Assembly is in session, and a number of transportation items were in committee, including:

• Defeated in House vote: a bill to lift Virginia's ban on radar detectors.
• Failed in committee: a bill to require environmental impact study on the high-occupancy/toll project on I-395.
• Failed in committee: a bill to create a Western Bypass corridor (often described as part of an outer Beltway).
• Going to House floor: a bill to increase the required passing clearance between bicyclists and cars to three feet.

Redevelopment plans for a Metro-fied Tysons Corner is nearing the finals. Anyone who lives, works, or shops in Tysons or who may live, work, shop, or visit friends and family there in the future (i.e. everyone in Northern Virginia and the metropolitan area) should take note on what could become Fairfax County's "downtown."

The storm has upset some of the public meetings, so there's still time to participate and voice support for Arlington-style smart growth, transit-oriented development, traffic calming, and urban density designed not to bring traffic but to bypass it with first-class transit, bike, and pedestrian transportation choices.

And in case you were getting disoriented with all the clear skies lately, the weather service is forecasting more snow by Monday night.

Photo credit: Dave Elmore

Meeting Cancellation

As expected, the public forum on I-66 traffic this Saturday has been cancelled. We'll have to save our transportation ideas for another day.

A message from Rep. Frank Wolf says:

Since the announcement of this forum, many of you have e-mailed or called me to share your thoughts and suggestions for improving traffic flow on I-66. I appreciate your taking the time to provide your comments. Citizen involvement is critical in finding ways to improve traffic congestion in the northern Virginia area. Please continue to submit your thoughts on this or any other issues of concern to you, by e-mailing me through my Web site -- wolf.house.gov.

And if you get tired of shoveling this weekend and collapsed trees haven't knocked out your internet connection, you might want to review the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation's most recent study on the I-66 corridor.

Photo credit: Robbie Sproule

Town Hall Meeting on I-66 Traffic

Local politicians including Rep. Frank Wolf and county supervisors Mike Frey and Pat Herrity (all representing the Centreville area and western Fairfax County) are hosting a town hall meeting about traffic on Interstate 66 with a panel of experts.

Wolf has long been a proponent of bus rapid transit, but BRT is a nebulous term so here's his chance to explain exactly what he means and discuss options. Are we talking an Orange Line extension via BRT with Metrorail-like service? Are we talking priority buses that can avoid congestion and bottlenecks? Are we talking something marginally better than the west county Connector buses we have now?

Wolf's press release also mentions:

increasing the use of shoulder lanes, opening the Monument and Stringfellow interchanges by non-HOV vehicles outside of normal HOV hours, and improvements to the interchange at I-66 and the Beltway.

And how about revising high-occupancy vehicle restrictions on the highway, huh? Considering (1) how slow HOV "express" lanes can get and (2) how bad I-66 can be get as soon as HOV restrictions lift, and (3) how long it's been since the last HOV update, we should be at least thinking about better HOV rules.

The public meeting is scheduled for this Saturday (Feb. 3) at 10 am in Chantilly High School. Weather forecasts at present are implying the event is likely to be postponed. But please attend this meeting whenever it is held. Stay tuned for details. The meeting has been cancelled.