Eric Weiss and Lena Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 8, 2008
11:00 AM
Do you think Metro has grown unreliable and become downright unpleasant? Or are you happy with your commutes on rail and bus? Does the thought of the intercounty connector (ICC) keep you up at night or does it seem like it's long overdue? And what of the moves by Maryland and Virginia to encourage the private sector to build road projects, such as widening the Capital Beltway?
Washington Post staff writers Eric Weiss and Lena Sun were online Monday, Sept. 8 at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions, feel your pain and share the drama of getting from Point A to Point B.
A transcript follows.
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Lena Sun: Good morning everyone. Hope you all survived the heavy rains. Let's get started with your questions. Eric is at a remote undisclosed location and is supposed to join us, so let's hope he gets his internet connection to work.
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Washington, D.C.: Eric and Lena,
Just wanted all your readers to know that the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments will be having a Public Forum for their Transportation Improvement Program on Thursday, Sept 11 from 6:00-8:00pm at the Council of Governments building. (777 North Capitol St. NE, ground floor). Citizens who are concerned about transportation issues in the region should come and speak their minds to state agency reps (DC, MD, VA). Public participation is what establishes priority projects! www.mwcog.org/tipforum for more information.
Lena Sun: Hi there. Thanks for that info and let's post it for those of you who are interested in attending.
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Sick Passenger: I was on the Green line train this morning that went out of commission at Gallery Place because of a sick passenger. Can you guys explain to me why an entire train is taken out of service during rush hour for a sick passenger? And why when the train is taken out, it just sits there so that trains have to single track? Can one human being really cause this much chaos?
Lena Sun: Yup. If the person cannot be moved because they are unconscious, Metro has to call for emergency rescue personnel to arrive. That gives them two choices for what to do with passengers: have you all sit on the train and wait for the emergency personnel to arrive or get you off that train and on to another one that is single-tracked.
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wdc: Re: Lena's article about Metrobus on-time rates. Is this info available online for all routes? I can't find it on Metro's Web site.
Lena Sun: Hi. No. This information is not available online, even though I agree with you that it would be extremely helpful. Metro bus chief Milo Victoria said he wanted some more months of data to look for patterns and analyze trouble spots but he didn't want to be pinned down on how long that would take.
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Forest Glen: I have parked next to the same car at Forest Glen metro for the past two plus weeks. I'm certain this car hasn't been moved in the two plus weeks and I've noticed this same car has done the same thing in the same spot on a couple of other occasions during the summer. I don't believe Forest Glen is a long term parking lot. This should be one of the main jobs of the attendant (besides sitting on his rump listening to the radio), to monitor cars being parked for long periods of time at such a limited parking lot. It just infuriates me because I know how difficult it is to get a spot there and that nothing has been done.
Also, just wondering, would this car be charged for only one day of parking or would he be charged the appropriate amount of two weeks? Hopefully, Metro's program is smart enough to take into account the numerous days in between entering and exiting the lot.
Lena Sun: Well, if you're sure the car hasn't been moved, you should alert the parking lot attendant to do a check. They can then call Metro transit police. Or you can call the folks at the parking office and hope to get a person and not a recording. Or send me an email and i will give you the number for someone. SUNL@washpost.com
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Re: sick passenger: I would like to wear an alert bracelet that says if I ever pass out on a Metro train, I would like to be dragged off the train onto the platform to await medical assistance so as not to hold up hundreds of people trying to get to work. It's not going to make any difference to me, but it will to everyone else.
Lena Sun: And will your bracelet also say that you promise not to sue the person who drags you off the train and injures you? :)
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Herntilly, Va.: I have been taking the Toll Road to work for about 5 months now and have come to some conclusions.
1. The staff that mans the booths on the Toll Road are just as quick, if not quicker than the quarter baskets. 2. There NEEDS to be an EZ-Pass Only lane in the mornings instead of exact change.
Why don't they have something like this? I've actually been able to cruise through the full service lane quicker than the large back-up in the Exact Change lane because someone can't find that last dime.
Will anyone consider this? It would encourage more people to get EZ Passes and thus get people through quicker (both on and off the road).
My third conclusion is people think that the right lane at the Spring Hill Road interchange is for when you want to get all the way over to the left. This morning, a fella decided to hold up traffic for 15 minutes while he cut me off, then attempted to get all the way over to the left. The problem was, nobody was letting him over and I'm stuck because of this jerk. Can't people use their heads any more?
Eric Weiss: Once (if)the Dulles Rail project is approved, the airports authority will take over the toll road from VDOT. They will likely be making changes and increasing tolls, which will pay for the rail extension. So it would be in their interest to make it as quick and easy to pay those higher tolls.
As for your final point, I agree, people should use their heads more.
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Alexandria, Va.: I live at the end of the Yellow line in Virginia. Will I ever be able to use Metro on the weekends again?
Lena Sun: Dear Alexandria. More bad news for you: they are doing the annual inspection of the Yellow Line bridge this weekend.
Here are the details:
Metro will shut down the Yellow Line rail bridge over the
Potomac River this weekend to do track maintenance and conduct an annual bridge inspection. Customers traveling south of the Pentagon Metrorail station on the Yellow Line this weekend should add 20 minutes for their trips, or they should take the Blue Line if possible.
The Yellow Line will operate only between the Huntington and Arlington Cemetery Metrorail Stations starting Friday, September 12, at 10 p.m., and concluding Sunday, September 14, at midnight, so that Metro can perform track maintenance and conduct a regular annual inspection of
the Yellow Line rail bridge over the Potomac River.
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Rockville, Md.: Now with higher gas costs, has there been any renewed discussion of a second Potomac river crossing? Seems that local and state governments should be interested in cutting down commute distances between major job centers such as the Dulles Corridor in VA and the Rockville/Gaithersburg area in Maryland.
Eric Weiss: You mean a crossing, at Point of Rocks, I presume.
First, there is no money anywhere. And if there was, there would be so much opposition among anti-sprawl and environomental groups that it would not be likely to be approved.
If anything, higher gas prices has resulted in fewer miles being driven, meaning less of a need for another Potomac crossing.
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Alexandria, VA: Is there a reason that WMATA doesn't have huge signs up at the Pentagon Bus terminal and on the buses that go to the Pentagon that service will be re-routed on Thursday, Sept. 11th?
Lena Sun: They're supposed to be up. I just put in a call to ask why they weren't.
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Washington, D.C.: You know, if I'm ever sick/injured/unconscious enough on a Metro train to warrant emergency care, I really hope they're willing to disrupt rush hour to get it to me. And anyone. Getting everyone to work on time is important, but not as important as survival.
Lena Sun: I'm with you on this one.
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Columbia, MD: I'm starting a new job, and will be commuting from Columbia, MD to Chinatown DC. Any commuting ideas? I was thinking of taking the MARC train from Dorsey to Union station, and then switching to metro to Chinatown. Is driving an option at all? How much do parking garages cost in DC? (monthly rate)
Eric Weiss: The train idea sounds best, since Union Station and Gallery Place/Chinatown are on the Red Line.
I wouldn't advise anyone else to add to the mess on New York Avenue, and with thousands of additional jobs being moved to Fort Meade, the Baltimore/Washington Parkway will be increasingly congested.
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Western Alexandria: Will the HOT Lanes project eliminate EXIT 49C, the left exit from I-495 North to I-66 West? A good deal of the slowdowns there can be attributed to drivers from Gallows and US 50 ignoring the "USE RIGHT EXIT" signs and lane diving to the left exit.
Eric Weiss: I have not seen the final configuration, but the Beltway/I-66 interchange is something that HOT lane planners are paying plenty of attention to.
I can see the difficulty of maintaining that left exit without a flyover ramp, since the HOT lanes will be the left-most two lanes in each direction on the Beltway when they are completed.
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Alexandria, Virginia: Do you have any knowledge of when the new bike and pedestrian walkway over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge will be open? I am a cyclist and live 300 feet from the bridge and can see where access to the walkway would be but it is still boarded up at the moment and I am eager to know when I will be able to bike to the Maryland side!
Eric Weiss: Unfortunately, the bike/walk lane will be the very last component of the bridge to open, since they plan to use that part of the bridge as a staging area for the painting of the bridge.
But when that opens it will be quite an amenity, and I believe it is wider than the one on the Key Bridge, which is often congested.
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Bowie: I visited a couple of large cities in the Great Lakes area this summer, and they both used "one car per green" lights on the highway ramps to regulate flow. How come we don't do that here?
Eric Weiss: We have/we do/sometimes, if that answers your question.
The next generation of highway technology will increasingly use what highway planners call rapm metering, which is the art of getting as many new cars onto the highway while making sure the mainline highway doesn't come to a stop when cars hit it from a popular entrance ramp. Sensors will be able to tell when it is a good time to add more cars and send a green light to the ramp.
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Washington, DC: What gives with the escalators at Dupont Circle? One has been out of service for several months now. There is no sign posted in the station about this. Though I'm grateful I'm in good enough shape to walk up the escalators, I'm sick of the backups every morning of people that think they can walk up but don't make it. It's added, sometimes, up to 10 extra minutes to my already long commute. I'm mostly just sick of the lack of communication about this. I mean, isn't metro supposed to post signs within the stations indicating the length of time and expected date of when the escalator work will be complete? How come no signs?
Lena Sun: Hmmm. Checking Metro website and there don't seem to be any scheduled maintenance or rehab of escalators at Dupont Circle. There do seem to be some unscheduled outages listed that are supposed to be fixed by later this week.
http://www.wmata.com/riding/eles_status.cfm?nocache
Every month, Metro lists the escalators and elevators that have the most outages. Go toward the end of this document for the elevator/escalator part.
http://www.wmata.com/board_gm/board_docs/091108_3Opsperf.pdf
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Arlington, VA: Just received the following alert relative to Thursday morning's dedication of the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon:
The Arlington County Police Department will close numerous intersections on Thursday, Sept. 11 for the 9/11 Memorial Dedication held at the Pentagon.
The following roads will be closed from 3 a.m. to 2 p.m. ¿ Washington Boulevard eastbound closed at I-395 and Columbia Pike ¿ Washington Boulevard westbound from Memorial Bridge ¿ Washington Boulevard westbound from I-395 ¿ Washington Boulevard westbound from Hayes Street ¿ I-395 northbound HOV-no access to Washington Boulevard ¿ I-395 southbound to Pentagon South Parking ¿ Columbia Pike closed from Joyce Street to Pentagon South Parking
The following roads will be closed at 3 a.m. and will reopen when possible. ¿ South Fern Street from Army Navy Drive to the Pentagon ¿ South Eads Street from Army Navy Drive to the Pentagon ¿ Rotary Road closed throughout Pentagon South Parking ¿ North/South Connector Road at Pentagon ¿ I-395 Northbound HOV - access to Eads Street, must exit to Army Navy Drive
This road-closure alert was originally sent by Arlington County OEM through Arlington Alert.
So how do you think this will play out for the morning commute?
Eric Weiss: Uh, not good. We'll have a story on the road closings later in the week.
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Woodbridge, Va.: I normally slug from Woodbridge to Rosslyn or the Pentagon. Seeing as both those options are out for Thursday, what do you think is the best alternative? I'm thinking of slugging to Crystal City just to get on the Metro there. Is traffic going to be as big a nightmare as I fear?
Eric Weiss: Yes.
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Pentagon City: Have you seen the information on the road closures around the Pentagon on Thursday for the 9/11 Memorial dedication? It looks like this is going to be a fine commuting disaster.
Lena Sun: Our esteemed colleague Dr. Gridlock will be blogging about ways to get around these road closures between now and Thursday. If you have any great ideas, pls send them to drgridlock@washpost.com.
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Rockville, Md.: Anti-sprawl?
Why the opposition. Sprawl is bad only if people have to travel to work or shop. If it is a self contained community, it is easier on our environment. The revolution in solar and wind energy will make it possible to live off grid anywhere in the use - even on the top of a mountain if you recycle or collect water to use. This is the future.
Anti-sprawl is a reaction to bedroom communities and the past problems we will not have in the future.
Eric Weiss: I think needing to cross the Potomac counts as "traveling to work or shop."
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Baltimore: Columbia/Chinatown commuter: I would say the MARC would be far preferable to driving. I go to Union Station every day and it would be only two stops on the Metro to Chinatown. But while the Dorsey station is nice and has plenty of parking, it is on the Camden line, which has far fewer trains than the Penn Line. Columbia might consider driving to Halethorpe or BWI and taking the Penn. And if you have a monthly pass, parking in the garage at BWI is free.
Eric Weiss: Thanks, Baltimore.
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Alexandria VA: Just wanted to give a shout out to the Fairfax Connector bus driver who found my wallet last week and called me to let me know the system was holding it for me. I've had a lot of (admittedly minor) problems with the FFX Con over the past few years, but I've also seen their drivers do a lot of good things for their customers. This time, it was personal!
Thanks 5pm driver of the 152!
Eric Weiss: A shoutout to the 152 driver! Bravo!
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DC to Alexandria: Since at least last week, Yellow Line trains have been crawling between Braddock Road and National Airport. Do you know why and how much longer this will be going on? Thanks.
Lena Sun: Metro put in a ton of new track, new rail and new ballast (those little stones) in that stretch over the Labor Day weekend. All that stuff has to settle into the ground, so trains typically move slower whenever that kind of major work is done. Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said things should be returning to normal speed towards the end of the week.
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Re potomac crossing: As someone who used to commute from silver spring to fairfax, I agree that a metro link between those two places that crosses the potomac near legion bridge, isntead of going into downtown DC and back out, is long overdue. Of course it won't happen in my lifetime.
My question is why fewer miles driven = less of a need for another potomac crossing. Wouldn't a potomac crossing by itself hugely decrease miles driven? I would have LOVED to take metro instead of the beltway to work! (I eventually moved from Silver Spring to Arlington because I couldn't take the commute.) Isn't the point to enable people to take as many trips as possible without a car? It sounds like you're suggesting letting them sit at home with no options to go anywhere, if gas prices remain high.
Eric Weiss: A new Potomac Crossing at Point of Rocks would likely be centered around car commuting, not Metro, as part of a outer Beltway system.
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Not Point of Rocks: I don't believe the previous poster was talking about the Point of Rocks bridge, but rather a new bridge somewhere between Point of Rocks and the Beltway. The sprawl argument is an odd one since the areas around Dulles and Gaithersburg are already quite developed, so what's the big concern about connecting say, Route 28 in Gaithersburg to Route 28 at Dulles. Seems like you could cut down what is a 35 mile horeshoe commute by atleast 50%. It probably would also make Maryland quite enticing to companies to locate to the numerous office parks already along Route 28 and Shady Grove Rd.
Eric Weiss: And the money would come from where? Did you read my story Saturday about the Federal highway trust fund being empty? Have you been reading about the enthusiasm of Virginia officials to raise taxes to pay for new roads?
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Washington, D.C.: The Columbia to Chinatown commuter could also just drive to Greenbelt and take the Green line.
Lena Sun: That's a thought but I've heard it's really tough to get parking on the Green Line stations. Also, I think there is a MARC ticket you can buy that includes the Metro fare, and from Union Station, you could also take the Circulator bus. Or walk. MARC trains, as commuters know, often run into major delays because of track issues, so that is something to keep in mind.
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Washington, DC: Hi. 10th Street, NW (between Pennsylvania and Constitution) has been closed for construction for over a year now. Any idea when it will reopen? If not, who should I contact to find out?
Thanks!
Eric Weiss: I have a call into the District Department of Transportation to find out what is taking so long.
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Arlington, Va.: Good morning. My morning commute is from Spout Run to the 14th Street Bridge. Are this Thursdays road closings around the Pentagon going to screw up my commute? Post summer traffic is already bad (as expected).
Lena Sun: Yes.
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Alexandria VA: "One car per green" signs are used at most northbound entrances on I-395 in Alexandria/Arlington. They operate during the morning rush and are generally effective.
Eric Weiss: There have also been similar signs on ramps on I-66, but I can't remember the last time they were working (unless they do so only during the p.m. rush).
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Lena Sun: Folks, there have been so many questions about Thursday so here is some more info about buses going to the Pentagon that day:
Metrobuses will be temporarily relocated to Pentagon City due to the opening of the Pentagon Memorial.
For security reasons, all Metrobuses that normally service the Pentagon Transit Center will be relocated to the Pentagon City Metrorail station on Thursday, September 11, from 2 a.m. to 1 p.m., as the Pentagon hosts the dedication ceremony of the new Pentagon Memorial.
Metrorail service will not be affected as both station entrances will be open throughout the day. Invited guests attending the grand opening of the Memorial are encouraged to ride Metrorail and connect to the Pentagon Metrorail station on the Blue and Yellow lines. Pentagon officials will be outside the station directing guests to the event.
Thursday's dedication ceremony is a ticket-only event. The Memorial will open to the public later that evening at 7 p.m.
Metrorail train operators will make announcements on board advising riders who transfer to buses at the Pentagon to instead go to Pentagon City to catch their buses. The passenger information display signs on Metrorail station platforms also will notify bus riders about the service disruption and signs will be posted inside the Pentagon Metrorail station alerting riders to the service change.
The Pentagon Transit Center has 24 bus bays, the largest bus transfer station in the Metrobus system.
This weekend, (Sept. 13 and 14) Metro will shut down the Yellow Line rail bridge over the Potomac River to conduct track maintenance and an annual bridge inspection. People planning to visit the Pentagon Memorial on Sept. 13 and 14, should get there via the Blue Line, which may take up to 20 additional minutes of travel time, depending on where someone enters the rail system. Metrobus service into the Pentagon Transit Center will not be affected on Sept. 13 and 14.
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9/11 Memorial: TELECOMMUTE that day!! Agencies should be encouraging it!
Lena Sun: Exactly.
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Lena Sun: Thanks folks. Hope many of you can telecommute on Thursday. Chat with you next time.
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Eric Weiss: Thanks a lot, folks, for your wisdom and queries. Let's get together again soon, no?
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