Traffic Cure Worsens the Pain

"Every time I sit through three light cycles on my way to work, I think, 'How in the world do our buses ever get to where they are going?' " he said. "But it becomes a way of life. You try to do the best you can."

Cox Cable uses 30 more trucks in the Washington area than in similar-size markets elsewhere in the country, according to the company, which has 250 technicians on area roads every day.

But some argue that adding more vehicles to the roadways to combat congestion is precisely the wrong move.

Metro Board Chairman Christopher Zimmerman said the key to clearing the roads for commerce is encouraging people driving alone in cars to take buses or trains.

"The answer is decent public transit," said Zimmerman (D), who also is a member of the Arlington County Board.

Some businesses have gone to great lengths to deal with traffic gridlock without adding to the problem.

Giant Food, with 200 supermarkets in the region, is experimenting with combining perishable and nonperishable groceries in a single refrigerated truck rather than using two trucks.

Giant also crunches Global Positioning System data from its trucks to better design delivery routes and schedules to avoid congestion.

A truck and driver stuck in traffic costs $65 per hour, according to spokesman Barry Scher.

Guernsey Office Supply was in danger of no longer being able to keep its promise of next-day delivery to its Maryland and District customers. So the company built a $5 million cross-dock facility in Beltsville, where, in the middle of the night, tractor-trailers arrive from Chantilly with all of the Maryland and District orders to be delivered the next day.

Maryland-based ABF Freight came to the same conclusion. The Baltimore company built a facility in Manassas to avoid Potomac crossings.

UPS uses a computerized route system that avoids left turns and is constantly reconfiguring its routes, said Dan McMackin, a UPS spokesman. Each left turn uses two minutes.

Roland Howard Jr., a UPS driver for 20 years, said he has seen the traffic explode around him over the years. He used to zip down Interstate 95 to begin his route in downtown Silver Spring. Now he wends his brown truck along Route 29 and other local roads.

Cox Communications found that just adding trucks wasn't enough. So the company also allows technicians to start their day from home instead of going into the office first. Paperwork is done in trucks with laptop computers. To stagger service, in part to avoid traffic, the company will expand flexible work options, including compressed workdays, alternate hours, flexible scheduling and telecommuting, according to Gwen Sparks, a Cox spokeswoman.

Others use the time-tested method of just setting the alarm clock earlier and earlier in an attempt to beat the rush.

John Leary, of M. Slavin & Sons Fish, said the company also works around traffic, ensuring that orders are filled and delivered as early as possible.

"We work around the congestion," he said. "Traffic is horrible here.''