Dear Dr. Gridlock:
I travel on Bull Run Post Office Road toward Loudoun County quite often because my daughter and her family live there.
I am so intimidated by the many trucks that travel that road. It is a country road with no shoulders. The road has many blind curves, so it is very scary to meet a truck that is three feet over the middle line on one of those curves. I know there is a lot of development going on farther up the road. The road is being destroyed by the weight of those trucks. Recently there were some repairs by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Is there any way those trucks can travel a different route? I know the developers couldn't care less about the dangers to the people who live on that road and travel that road, but I do not want to be an "accident" with my two grandchildren in my car.
Betty Duke
Manassas
Rather than campaign for the trucks to take a different route, why don't you take one? Head east on Route 29 past Bull Run Post Office Road to the next traffic light, and turn left onto parallel Pleasant Valley Road. That road prohibits trucks. It runs about two miles to Braddock Road and 1.5 miles to Route 50.
Samaritan Restores Faith
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
I drive to Arlington from Manassas at least three days a week for graduate classes at Marymount University. Interstate 66 eastbound is always horrible, especially inside the Beltway. Tonight my car overheated, and I had to pull over to the side of the road. I was very close to the East Falls Church Metro station, where traffic gets really backed up and there are hundreds of cars everywhere.
I'm a 23-year-old woman, so sitting on the side of the road waiting for my car to cool down is a little intimidating. After I'd sat there for about 15 minutes, a red minivan pulled over on the same side of the road and began backing up. I was confused, wondering what he was doing. It wasn't until he got out of the car that I realized he was seeing if I needed help. He offered his cell phone and wanted to make sure I had help coming.
I told him the problem, and he proceeded to dig around in his car for a bottle of water to put into the system to make the car cool down, or at least get it to the dealership in Arlington.
He explained what would happen and exactly what he was doing when he did it, and why.
All too often I see people whizzing past someone who is on the side of the road (I admit that I do, too), but this gentleman stopped and helped me out. It restored my faith in people in Northern Virginia a little bit.
Liz Button
