United in Misery
In important ways, complaints about traffic unite suburban Washington, while D.C. residents are less bothered by their commutes.
About half of all suburban Maryland and Virginia residents but less than a third of city residents spend more than a half-hour commuting each way, the survey found.
Residents of fast-growing Northern Virginia are particularly sour about traffic in their area: More than half -- 53 percent -- say it has gotten "much worse" in the past five years, compared with 46 percent in Maryland and 24 percent in the District.
Virginia residents are also more likely to get snarled in traffic jams on their way to work, with fully one-third saying major ones are a daily occurrence, compared with 1 in 4 Maryland and District motorists.
Bettie McLeod of Cheverly suffers on all ends. She drives to the Deanwood Metro stop on the Orange Line, transfers to the Red Line at Metro Center, then grabs a bus at the Grosvenor Station for the final 15-minute trip to work.
She's experienced it all: hour-long traffic jams, interminable delays on Metrorail and buses that don't come on schedule; once, her bus caught fire while she was riding to work. "We were wondering where the smell of smoke was coming from," she said, laughing.
She would love to join a carpool but has had no luck finding one. "People are pretty much wedded to their cars," she said.
But she directs her sharpest criticism at Metro and its crowded cars and frequent breakdowns. "It is clearly run by people who do not use it."
Local residents such as McLeod may be startled to learn that 6 in 10 commuters in the rest of the country actually like their commutes. The same percentage in the Washington area said they dislike theirs.
Anxious Drivers
Even short distances between work and home do not necessarily translate into stress-free commutes.
"Sometimes it's just plain scary," said Danitza Valdivia, 31, a project assistant who lives in Northwest Washington and works near MCI Center -- a four-mile commute as the crow flies that takes her a half-hour to negotiate. "I get to work and have to take a coffee break before I start my workday. All of the cars, everybody cutting you off, all those people intent on getting there before you. . . . It's almost a surprise to get to work or get home safely."
Throughout the region, driving is increasingly dangerous, as speeders and trigger-tempered commuters make the daily drive a motorized run through the gantlet.
Nearly 9 in 10 said they often see other drivers traveling well over the speed limit, and 7 in 10 said they frequently encounter other motorists behaving too aggressively. Nearly half said they often see others running red lights or stop signs. Almost 4 in 10 said they "often" witness other drivers making angry or impolite gestures at other motorists.
Widespread bad behavior has inspired its own brand of gallows humor.
