Help! Once we're on I-295 coming south, how do we get back onto I-395 to return to Fairfax County? Is that highway not accessible when you're coming from the east? Or is this another problem with poor signage on some of the D.C. area's freeways?
Marilyn Lynch
Chantilly
What you encountered was a combination of incomplete interchanges and bad signs. There is no exit from D.C. 295 south to Pennsylvania Avenue west. So you can keep going south on 295 to one of the worst-marked exits in the city. That exit, marked "Howard Road -- Downtown," will take you over the South Capitol Street Bridge and onto I-395, although neither of those is mentioned on the exit sign.
At the base of the exit ramp, turn right onto Howard Road and go one block through a seedy area, then turn right at the next light and thread your way onto the South Capitol Street Bridge. The entrance to I-395 is dead ahead.
The way you took, by the way, from I-295 south to the Beltway, avoids all that maneuvering but does run the risk of construction delays.
Unyielding Motorists
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
Why is it that a populace as educated as this area's does not understand the word yield when it is emblazoned on a triangular sign?
Yield does not mean accelerate and cut off other motorists; it does not mean proceed at normal speed as if there were no sign at all; and it does not mean you have the right of way.
On Interstate 66, going west, evening traffic will roll down from Nutley Street and pay zero heed to the yield sign, which affects those trying to exit onto Nutley Street from the I-66 access road.
And God help the motorist who actually does slow down or stop to accommodate traffic when there is a yield sign present; the next maniac along will roar up on your bumper and lean on the horn, completely stunned that someone would actually be yielding.
Part of the problem is the general absence of engineering in the planning and construction of on- and off-ramps -- lanes cross, exiting and entering traffic must contend for road space and the volume only worsens -- a situation apparently devised by the design firm of Moe, Larry and Curley.
But there also seems to be no clear understanding of yielding the right of way. Might you explain yield signs and the do's and don'ts of same?
Larry Weisman
Fairfax
Yield means a motorist should slow or stop until it is safe to proceed. Some motorists apparently pay no heed. That's why we all need to drive defensively.
