Metro Transportation

Study on Washington-Area Congestion, Commuter Routes

Highway congestion has grown so severe that virtually all of the Washington region's main commuter routes are chronically clogged and unable to move motorists efficiently, according to a regional study released Wednesday. ( Read More .)

Ronald F. Kirby, transportation planning director for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, was online Thursday, Feb. 16, at 3 p.m. ET to field questions and comments about the regional study.

The transcript follows.

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Ronald F. Kirby: Welcome to the discussion on freeway congestion in the Washington region. Given all the bad news about worsening congestion, does anyone have any improvements to report? I look forward to receiving your questions and comments.

Ron Kirby

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Springfield, Va.: Regarding the "express toll lanes": Why is the government's solution to traffic always to build more roads? What about improving public transport, giving more incentives for people to carpool and giving incentives to businesses to allow people to work from home more often? People drive because there is little infrastructure to support NOT driving. If we spent money on building that infrastructure rather than on roads, then we could reduce the amount of cars on the road without covering all of Northern Virginia with asphalt.

Ronald F. Kirby: We certainly need to improve public transport and promote ridesharing and telecommuting, and substantial public funding and effort are currently being devoted to those non-highway strategies. New highway capacity is also needed, however, and "express toll lanes" provide an opportunity to pay for new capacity and manage it to ensure that it does not become congested. As traffic grows, the tolls will increase to ensure that a high level of service is maintained.

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Bowie, Md.: Congestion is increasing in all areas around the beltway, except for one, in PG County. You'll notice if you drive around this county that most of PG's residents are actually leaving the county to work in other counties. Everyone on my street either works in DC or Howard County.

Check out rt. 50 and you'll see that most of the traffic in the morning is westbound from Anne Arundel County through PG to DC. There's hardly any eastbound traffic in the morning, and vice versa in the evenings. The lack of a strong in-county tax base is the reason why there's little high end or medium end retail. Have your studies shown that not only is traffic the lightest in this county, but that there's still plenty of room to build?

Ronald F. Kirby: Our studies confirm all of the points you have made. If we could get more development on the eastern side of the region, and in Prince George's County in particular, we could balance use of the highway system so that both directions were used more efficiently.

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Woodbridge, Va.: Hello Ronald,

During all of the discussions of extending metro to Dulles I have not heard of any improvements to the Rosslyn Tunnel which is already at capacity. Having a third line traveling through the tunnel will cause major bottlenecks, so the question I have for you is: Are there plans in work for a second Rosslyn tunnel (possibly toward Georgetown)? Thanks! OJ

Ronald F. Kirby: This issue is being examined as part of the Dulles rail study. It is an expensive proposition, however, and may not be affordable in the foreseeable future.

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Washington, D.C. Traffic: How funny that Tysons Corner was not really mentioned or pinpointed as a major congestion spot - I thought local government was hailing that area as "the worst planning job/worst traffic" ever?

Ronald F. Kirby: Actually Tysons Corner was one of the good news stories this year. Widening of the ramp from the Beltway west to the Dulles Toll road relieved a backup from Tysons to I-270 on the Beltway. Other approaches to Tysons are congested, however. They just didn't make the top ten list this year.

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Gaithersburg to Reston: Dear Mr. Kirby,

Does the COG support building another bridge from Montgomery County to Fairfax/Loudoun? The more these jurisdictions encourage development, the greater the need builds. Do they really expect that people will just keep moving to live close to jobs? As if jobs are that stationary here and people would want to pull their kids into and out of schools. Seems unrealistic to me. Plus, with my commute, I waste untold gallons of gas driving a big U every day.

Ronald F. Kirby: This bridge proposal is not currently under serious study, though the idea has been discussed for many years. You have pinpointed a good issue for the region to address.

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Herndon, Va.: On my commute every day, I sit at traffic lights along major arteries like Fairfax County Parkway, US 50 and US 29. Once I get through one light, invariably the next light is red. I know Fairfax County/VDOT is capable of timing lights as has been done on Reston Parkway.

We keep hearing about "new technology" that is supposed to resolve this problem (see the Post story on the camera-based timing fiasco on Rt 7!). What ever happened to sending a traffic engineer out occasionally to actually look at the problem? Do the people responsible for timing the lights not have to drive the major roads during rush hour? I feel as if, given a few days and access to the traffic light timing system, I could clear up half of the problems along these major routes.

Ronald F. Kirby: Traffic signal optimization is a priority strategy for the region, for just the reasons you suggest. Please let VDOT and Fairfax County staff know of your concerns.

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Columbia, Md.: Will smart growth solve the congestion problem?

Ronald F. Kirby: Over the longer run, smart growth strategies can reduce the demand for vehicle travel, particularly those which help focus more housing in regional activity centers close to transit. More road and transit capacity is needed as well, however.

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Woodbridge, Va.: Will the HOT/HOV lane conversion result in the construction of the last stage (HOV ramps to and from the beltway) of the Springfield interchange? If so, what phase will they be constructed? Before the extension to Fredericksburg, 2 to 3 lane expansion, or after these?

Ronald F. Kirby: The HOV ramps to and from the Beltway are the final phase of the Springfield Interchange project, and are currently scheduled for around 2010, well before the widening of the I-95/I-395 HOV facility from 2 to 3 lanes.

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Waldorf, Md.: One issue not mentioned in the articles is the potential impact all this traffic will have on the population. My wife and I moved from Northern Virginia primarily because we were fed up with sitting in completely non-moving congestion all day every day (it was even worse on the weekends than during rush hour). The quality of life was so diminished and we were so stressed that we knew we had to make the tough decision to move away from it. We did....to Southern Maryland. Granted, there are plenty of terrible traffic tie-ups here and on the commute into DC, but at least the flow moves a bit better than it ever did in Virginia. An important side effect of this congestion will be that people will become disgusted with the high levels of traffic, poor quality of life, and inaction of our elected leaders to do anything about it. Only when we start to LOSE population will anyone wake up and try to solve this worsening problem.

Ronald F. Kirby: More development of housing and employment on the eastern side of the region would help balance out the use of the highway system, so you are helping out by moving to Waldorf.

If more people follow your lead, however, you will see more traffic down your way. We haven't yet seen any sign that the worsening traffic is causing significant numbers of people to leave the region.

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Stuck in Tysons: "Actually Tysons Corner was one of the good news stories this year."

I think you should try and drive to different spots in Tysons during rush hour and you will think differently. The 123 exit from 495 south is ridiculous and like a NASCAR race every morning. It takes 10 minutes to go 1/2 mile through Tysons. And we won't even bring up during busy mall seasons.

Tysons is a total disaster and metro cannot fix it - especially when they propose adding 100,000 workers and only capacity for 17,000 riders on metro. What do you think?

Ronald F. Kirby: As I said in my first reply, many of the approaches to Tysons are very congested, and I agree with your assessment that traffic will be a continuing challenge, even with Metro.

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Takoma Park, Md.: Does this study also look at ways to get drivers off the roads altogether? Increasing and improving bus and Metro service? Commuter van services?

Ronald F. Kirby: This study looked only at conditions on the freeway system, but suggested that one of the most important approaches to tackling the congestion is to improve transit and promote other alternatives to driving alone like ridesharing and telecommuting.

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Losing population (Washington, D.C.): Mr. Kirby, I have to disagree. My husband and I have decided to move away from the region because we can't find affordable housing that doesn't require a terrible, congested commute. He has relocated already, and I will follow in a couple of months when I finish a project at work.

What I want to know is, why isn't anybody addressing the role of land use in our transportation problems? We have so much close-in land locked in (by zoning laws and NIMBYism) to suburban housing densities, which have a hard time supporting public transit. As long as nobody is willing to change that, we can pave over all of Montgomery and Fairfax Counties, and we'll still be stuck crawling down congested highways every morning and evening. Is anybody thinking about this side of the issue? I haven't heard a thing about it.

Ronald F. Kirby: The region's planning directors are looking at the issues you raised concerning the potential for redeveloping some inner area at higher densities for just the reasons you mentioned. Our recent "Regional Mobility and Accessibility Study" examined future land use and transportation scenarios that focused more dense development around under- developed Metro stations and more development on the eastern side of the region. Both strategies reduced travel on the region's road system.

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Washington, D.C.: A few observations and a question. It shouldn't take a costly, multifaceted study to tell you what everyone who commutes already knows--a bad problem is getting worse, and government is simply nibbling around the edges. Until there's a serious discussion about expanding public transportation, widening roads, building new roads, and incentivizing (yes, incentivizing) employers to promote telecommuting, the problems we are experiencing now will pale in comparison to what we see in 3, 5, 10 years. Secondly, where is the true leadership on this issue? All we hear is more lip service, like "We need to do something." Ok. Do something. Congratulations--you opened an HOV lane on 50 west. Next?

What is it going to take to really alleviate this problem? Seems hopeless to me.

Ronald F. Kirby: The situation is certainly bad and deteriorating, as you point out. Hopefully our study will generate more public support for funding both the road and transit improvements that are needed.

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Washington, D.C.: Why has there been a joined effort from business leaders to allow people to work from home and/or stagnate travel to work from various areas??? With cells and blackberries it's an obvious solution if business people and politicians lead the effort. The results may lead to enormous gas, time, health cost & infrastruture savings. Begin with people working one day a from home - Come ON!!!!! GET ON IT!!!!!

Ronald F. Kirby: Both the public and private sectors have been promoting telecommuting for a number of years, and our surveys show that an increasing number of employers and employees are taking advantage of these opportunities. New technology makes telecommuting much easier, as you point out, and we expect continued growth and benefits in this area.

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Gaithersburg, Md.: You've said something like this more than once already: "More development of housing and employment on the eastern side of the region would help balance out the use of the highway system, so you are helping out by moving to Waldorf."

But I don't know if I buy that. I don't think building more on that side will easy anything to the West - It just means more people, you know, as in population growth. It's not as though people are going to move from super-congested areas to less congested areas WITHOUT someone buying their old place. I don't see your logic. Can you explain more?

Ronald F. Kirby: I'm referring to more of the future growth locating on the eastern side of the region to even out the current imbalance, not reducing the current levels of activity on the western side.

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Fairfax, Va.: I am surprised nobody has picked up on this: housing is way overpriced. More and more people move out to the sticks because they think they will beat the game, but I don't see how you win with a longer commute which just adds to the congestion. Why not legislate that for every overpriced housing community being built, a rent controlled apartment building has to be put up as well (or something along those lines) most of us do not make 200,000 a year.

Ronald F. Kirby: You have hit on a key issue, which our local governments are trying to address. Some require a certain number of affordable units in new developments, but everyone is looking for more ways to address this issue.

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Rockville, Md.: You are to be congratulated for your patience with many of us who are frustrated by the traffic problem and the lack of political leadership centered on this problem.

How long do you think it will be before a critical mass forces a political solution to this problem? 1 year? 3 Years?

Ronald F. Kirby: We are trying hard to make some significant progress. The issues seem to be receiving more attention from our political leadership, so perhaps we'll see some solutions in the next year or two.

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Ronald F. Kirby: Thank you for all your comments and suggestions. I'm sorry that the time and my typing speed did not permit more responses.

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