Roads and Rails

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, October 6 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.

Discussion Archive

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Eric Weiss: Good morning commuters!

Upset about the number of delivery trucks on the road, passionate about the type of straphanger Metro is choosing?

Hit us with your questions and concerns...

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Bowie, Md.: Lost in the news about the bailout bill last week, was the Senate passing a bill authorizing $13 billion to Amtrak for investments in rail safety and rail improvements. The House has already passed this (or a similar) bill. How likely is it that -- and when will -- Bush sign this into law?

Lena Sun: Hi Bowie. Actually, I mentioned it in passing last week in a story that ran on the front page last Thursday. A provision of the Amtrak/rail safety bill was to authorize dedicated funding for Metro. Supporters of the bill are hopeful Bush will sign it because of the strong support for rail safety measures after the commuter train accident in California.

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Chevy Chase, Md.: Update on the New York State speeding ticket situation from two weeks ago:

Points are assessed based on the state where one holds a license, not where the violation takes place. It is unclear as to whether or not Maryland will assess the points for this type of violation. I am actually in the area where I received the ticket for about 8 months of the year, so going to court wouldn't be a problem if the court schedule weren't so limited, I'm currently bargaining with the local DA by mail.

Moral of the story: If you want to violate traffic laws, do it in a jurisdiction where traffic court doesn't only meet once a week, and if you can't make it then, your only option is to go to another type of hearing that only takes place once a week where you will be tried with a judge, prosecutor, and attorney.

Eric Weiss: Good for you. It seems having an out-of-state plate is like a juicy rib steak for state troopers.

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washingtonpost.com: Senate Approves $1.5 Billion Plan For Metro Funding (The Washington Post, Oct. 2, 2008)

Lena Sun: Bowie, here is that story.

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Don't move my cones!: Yesterday, my car broke down immediately after going through the last toll in Delaware on I-95 south. Literally right after I rolled through the EZPass lane, my car quit. I was in the far left lane, so I was able to coast about 50 yards and came to rest right behind some orange cones. These cones weren't doing anything special or noteworthy -- they were just lined up along the yellow left-hand lane border, assumably to encourage drivers to stay in the southboud lanes and not to go into northbound traffic, though they certainly weren't necessary.

I called for a tow, and when the tow truck driver called and said he'd be there in 2 minutes, I started moving the cones directly in front of my car, since the tow would not have been able to load my car onto the truck with these cones in the way. What happens? A guy with a yellow vest, presumably a Delaware toll booth operator, comes over and starts screaming "Don't move my cones!" I tried to explain that my tow truck was coming any second, but he wouldn't even acknowledge me and kept saying "You don't need to move my cones." He then proceeded to start putting the cones back.

Sure enough, 60 seconds later my tow arrives, and guess what? The driver moves the cones so that he can hook up my car, and agrees that this toll booth operator is nuts. I was only trying to expedite the towing process so that we could move out of the road more quickly, but apparently this was lost on him. I just don't move cones for the heck of it, you know.

Eric Weiss: People with a little bit of authority often tend to abuse it. Been to the DMV lately?

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Centreville, Va.: Adding vehicles to commercial fleets only makes the congestion worse, increasing parking issues further clogging the streets. The only thing that will help is decrease the number of vehicles in the city. What Washington DC needs to do is have cordon area congestion pricing (like London, Singapore, Stockholm). Statistics show a shift toward public transit, improved traffic flow, less parking problems and significant savings for businesses. Do you think COG and the powers that be could institute a one year trial period? The USDOT has a Value Pricing Pilot Program which funds such trials.

Eric Weiss: The Washington Area Council of Governments has also been looking at various scenarios for pricing the entire region's highways, although the politicians on the COG quickly distanced themselves from the study.

This is likely the wave of the future. In London and Stockholm there was strong initial opposition. Then, once it was started, it was embraced by the public. I imagine it would be the same here.

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Alexandria, Va.: Next weekend, I have to drive to BWI around 3 p.m. to pick up visiting relatives. Okay, not a big deal, but the Redskins have a 1 p.m. game at FedEx field. Any advice from folks who know more about game related delays than I do? Stick to 295? Leave at 9 a.m.? Thanks for any advice.

Eric Weiss: Advice: Place silly Redskins flags on your SUV and drive recklessly around the region...

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Arlington, Va.: Good morning! I regularly travel from Rosslyn to American University. The easiest way for me to go is to take the Key Bridge and then head up on Foxhall Rd to the school. The problem is the traffic light at the end of the bridge.

I have literally spent 25 minutes waiting on the bridge to turn left. The problem, as I have figured out, is that the left turn light is incredibly short (seriously 10 seconds) and it is cut even shorter by people turning left onto the Key Bridge from Georgetown who turn on the red light.

I cannot recall the last time I saw the cars actually stop when the light turned red. So people like myself get an even shorter green light because we have to wait out cars illegally turning on our light. What can be done about this? Is there someone I can call? The police? Traffic personnel? Because I am sick of having a 10 minute drive take me over 30 (and this is not just during rush hour) because the light is way too short and cars are making illegal turns. Any thoughts?

Eric Weiss: You can try complaining to DDOT, but the lights in that area play a crucial role because traffic is very heavy coming from every direction, including M Street, the Whitehurst Highway and Key Bridge. All that traffic has to squeeze onto one or two lane roads.

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Chantilly, Va.: On Friday, October 3 at about 8:10 a.m., I was driving behind a Metro bus heading north on Lees Corner Road for the short trip till it turns right onto Route 50. This must have been a 20X bus, but I didn't notice the markings. What caught my eye was that the bus did not pick up the two potential passengers at the bus stop on Lees Corner Road just prior to 50. On 50, I drove alongside the bus, and it skipped the passengers at the bus stop on 50 just beyond Stringfellow Road. At a red traffic light in front of Greenbriar, I looked back at the front of the bus and saw it had a "not in service" banner on. This bus moved along in my direction at the speed traffic would allow both of us, about 40 MPH, and I saw it pass a third bus stop where people were waiting. I eventually lost track of the bus.

The end of the line for this bus is Vienna metro. No matter where it was headed eastbound, it would have to pass there. Why didn't it pick up these waiting people and go out of service after reaching Vienna? Don't tell me it was disabled, because it was moving along fine. And don't accept that this was training a new driver, because I've ridden that line and watched the everyday riders point out every stop on the route to unfamiliar drivers. What gives?

Lena Sun: When the buses are not in service, they don't pick up any passengers. This is a policy not just for Metrobus, but the other regional bus fleets as well.

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Tenleytown Station: I am about to stop taking Metro and start driving for one reason: The Wilson High students that use the Tenleytown Station.

They are loud and obnoxious, they cuss you out when you are coming down the escalator and they are standing in front of it blocking your way and there is never a Metro person (station manager, police) on the platform.

I might just drive to work during the school year and take the Metro during the summer.

Lena Sun: Metro transit police know that is a problem station and there are police officers assigned to that area to deal with after-school rowdiness. If you message me directly at SUNL@washpost.com, I'm happy to give you some police phone numbers.

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Va.: Can the Post print all notices of all marches and protest? The Walk for the Cure seemed to slow traffic all over Northern Virginia.

Lena Sun: The Post tries to do as many maps and notices as possible, but if the paper did every single one, there would be no room for anything else. The graphics people in coordination with local editors try to publish notices for the biggest marches and protests, such as Sunday's Army 10-miler.

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DMV/MVD: I hate the different names. Maybe it's me, but in Virginia, I've never had an issue with going to the DMV. I renewed my license over the summer and it took me -- start to finish -- 20 minutes. I used to live in Connecticut and it was fine there as well.

Eric Weiss: I agree, even the District's DMV has improved--not that it could have gotten any worse. When I moved here in 1990, they made you surrender your old our-of-state license in an old shoebox and all signs were handmade and misspelled. Huge, dusty fans circulated stuffy air all around. It was like the Moscow DMV in the old Soviet Union.

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Skins advice: Between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. the Skins fans will be yelling in their seats. I would take 295 up and back, but avoid the Wilson Bridge on the way home.

Eric Weiss: I would also avoid the Southeast/Southwest expressway after gametime. A terrible jam.

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Fairfax, Va.: I agree that some form of cordon pricing in D.C. would make sense, but keep in mind that Stockholm and London didn't have the same multi-jurisdiction issues that we would have here. It would be viewed as a back door way of implementing the commuter tax that D.C. has long pined for, but which is strenuously opposed by Maryland and Virginia. Of course, the fact that you could avoid the "tax" by using public transit always gets lost here, but it would still be a problem. Also, the Feds are on record as viewing such schemes as a tax, rather than a user fee (the U.S. Embassy in London refuses to have their employees pay the fee for this reason).

Eric Weiss: U.S. DOT Secretary Mary Peters is actually very supportive of user fees and tolls as a way to mitigate congestion.

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Waldorf, Md.: Is there any chance that the WMATA Board might force them to back away from the proposal to eliminate paper transfers in January? It sounds like they have to, since they aren't printing any more of them, but the board also seems to have concerns about it. While I appreciate their concerns, it's also obvious that there is widespread fraud and abuse associated with them right now (call me suspicious, but I seriously doubt that all those folks using a crumpled up transfer to board my bus in front of their housing development at 7:30 a.m. have just transferred from another line). If they still have concerns, they would be better off flooding poorer neighborhoods with SmarTrip cards than continuing the current system.

I do agree, however, that rail pass users will get hosed in the deal, due to the delay in implementing passes on SmarTrip.

Lena Sun: Hi Waldorf. My guess is that the board will authorize the agency to go ahead with the elimination of paper transfers. Yes, they asked plenty of questions about the plan last week, but this is also something they approved about a year ago and everyone supports the basic idea. And yes, there is a lot of fraud. It's hard for them to quantify. But the day they were discussing the switchover, Metro transit police arrested someone for trying to sell paper transfers. He had nearly 400 of them.

And for those of you with rail passes who transfer to the bus, you will no longer receive that discount if you pay for the subway with your rail pass.

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Arlington, Va.: Please tell me the Orange Line escalator repairs are still on track for an on-time completion!

Lena Sun: Hello Arlington. If you go to the Metro website, the first Metro committee of every month includes a presentation for the escalator/elevator folks about the worst performing escalators/elevators in the system. If you take a look at those, you get a pretty good idea of which escalators/elevators are taking the longest to get fixed. I seem to recall that one of the Dupont Circle escalators was among the worst.

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Army 10 Miler: If the organizers paid Metro to not only open at 6 a.m. yesterday, but to run Blue Line trains more frequently, they should ask for a partial refund. When I boarded a Blue Line train at 6:45 a.m., the next Blue Line wasn't due for another 15 minutes (and the train was standing room only).

The Pentagon Metro station after the race was a mess of crowds who couldn't even get through the turnstiles. And once more, when we boarded the Blue Line train, the next one wasn't due for at least 10 minutes. The Yellow Line seemed to be running as frequently as the Blue... in other words, the regular Sunday schedule?

Lena Sun: Metro tells me the organizers paid for extra Blue Line trains, but not any extra Yellow Line trains. Not sure where you were boarding your Blue Line train. Based on the schedule they put together for Sunday morning, they were running trains out of Franconia-Springfield every six to nine minutes starting at 6 a.m. But from Largo, they were running them every 15 minutes. I think organizers wanted the extra trains on the Virginia side.

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Clifton, Va.: A two big Bravo Zulus to Virginia. First, I renewed my tags over the internet at the DMV site and they said 14 days. Instead, they arrived in 5 days.

And VDOT allowing the green arrow lane westbound on I-66 to start earlier has cut my commute home from Ballston at 2:30 p.m. by 10 minutes and increased my gas mileage!

There seems to be less traffic on I-66.

Eric Weiss: It is interesting to see that the shoulder lane's extended hours is working out. One suggestion by Chris Zimmerman, the chairman of Metro, is to have buses run on the shoulder, like they do in Minneapolis, to keep the buses out of traffic.

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Upper NW D.C.: Tell the Rosslyn-to-AU person to go up the GW Pkwy to the Chain Bridge, turn right on Canal and then go up Arizona to Loughboro. It's a geographically longer route but the car will be moving the whole time.

Eric Weiss: Thanks for the input.

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Dealing with rowdies: Metro should use the system that the Redskins are using to deal with rowdies: put up visible signs with numbers that you can text message a problem to -- not the police -- and have a security guard come over and talk to them.

Lena Sun: Will publish your suggestion. I know transit police are considering a system to allow riders to text or email reports of serious crime as a back-up to calling police or telling an employee. But that, at the moment, is only an idea while they figure out whether they have the software to make the system feasible.

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Silver Spring, Md.: I've never taken a Metrobus before, but would like to begin taking it to work into D.C. and perhaps around D.C. when not working. As a result, could you tell me if you are supposed to pull on the cord to instruct the driver to stop at the next stop or will the driver stop regardless of how many people are on the bus or if anyone is waiting at the next stop? I am just looking to clear up the confusion I have with how this process is technically supposed to work.

Eric Weiss: The driver will stop at a marked bus stop if someone is waiting or someone on the bus pulls the cord. Otherwise he will pass the stop by.

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For travel from Rosslyn to American University: I did that for several years so I know what you are talking about.

Now I'm further out on Washington Blvd and I use Chain Bridge to cross over the river. Yeah, it gets slow during rush hours getting to Arizona, but then I take Arizona all the way to the T and turn right to get to Foxhall and AU. At least Chain Bridge is not as bad as Key Bridge. I don't know the street names that you would take to get to Chain Bridge, You'd need to look it up.

Eric Weiss: More advice...

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Alexandria, Va.: Would you please ask Metro officials and employees to put up bigger signs about not allowing eating and drinking on Metro buses and Metrorail, especially Metrorail? Also, it would be great, if someone passes by a Metro employee inside a station, to ask that employee would do something about it. I asked a passenger not to eat his California Tortilla Burrito and his huge drink on the Metro and was met with laughter that I would even suggest such a thing not only from him but by other passengers.

Also, bigger signs and more announcements about not trying to push your way onto a train when the doors are already closing/almost closed would be wonderful too. In the past week, I have had two different instances were someone was prying open or trying to push open the doors after they were clearly nearly closed so they could cram themselves on the train. I mentioned to these people that this breaks these doors, I get a "so what" or smirks. Why are my tax dollars paying for these people's selfishness instead of for more trains and more stations?

Lena Sun: Gladly oblige. Also, Alexandria, if you have a second today, could you email me directly at SUNL@washpost.com? I wanted to ask you a question about that California Tortilla burrito rider. thanks.

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Arlington, Va.: Kudos to VDOT for getting the signs up on Eastbound 66 late Friday afternoon noting that I-66 eastbound was entirely blocked at exit 66. I was able to bail to the Beltway and to 50. I just recall that driving in California 10 years ago, such signs didn't exist (and even today, up in the Bay Area, they still don't have as many as we do here). It made a ride home with two tired kids after a day at Cox Farms much more bearable.

Eric Weiss: Interesting. Since I've been on the beat I only seem to get complaints about non-working signs or irrelevant messages. Good to see that it helped your out.

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Washington, D.C.: Eliminating paper transfers is discrimination against the poor! I know it's hard for us to understand, but it really is.

Lena Sun: If the person buys a SmarTrip card, they receive all the bus transfers they currently get on the paper. Yes, there is an upfront one-time only fee of $5 to get the card. But Metro has given 50,000 smart cards to social service agencies in the region, to distribute -- at no charge -- to their customers. And they are extending the time for transfers from two hours to three hours.

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Washington, D.C.: Eric, how come every morning between 6:30 a.m. and 7:15 a.m. there are about nine FedEx trucks illegally parked (the signs clearly state "No Parking") in front of the Verizon Center, using the traffic lane to transfer packages among the trucks?

Why is that permitted? Again, the signs state simply: "No Parking." Yet every weekday morning the FedEx trucks are parked and they are doing their for-profit commercial transfer of packages in a lane that is supposed to be for traffic.

This is absurd. It's a free transfer station for them courtesy of Washington, D.C.

Eric Weiss: You might want to check out my story in the paper today about the profusion of delivery trucks in the Washington region.

The short answer is that they have to make their deliveries and paying tickets is part of doing business.

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Clifton, Va.: Centerville, Va. - Congestion pricing in D.C.? Please. Congress will never allow it. Lobbyist and law firms would scream. And come on, it's D.C. They don't have, nor deserve, voting representation.

If folks don't like it, they need to move!

Eric Weiss: Clifton, traffic is worse on Route 28, I-66 and elsewhere in the burbs than it is in D.C. Congestion pricing would help folks like you, who are car-dependent for everything, get around the region quicker.

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Yellow Line, Md.: When WMATA extended the Yellow Line service to Ft. Totten during non-rush hour, they said it would be a trial period for about a year or so. Since that was last January, are there plans to discontinue the service? Hope not, it's a great place to connect with the Red Line.

Lena Sun: Hi Yellow Line. Metro has made permanent this extension of Yellow Line to Fort Totten during the off-peak. They approved it as part of the budget for this year.

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Gallery Place: Would you please send out a PSA that if you are talking on your cell phone on a Metro bus, you are broadcasting your business for everyone to hear? Over the last two weeks I have heard one woman talking about some employee that she probably needs to fire, another talking about some guy that she keeps calling and emailing but isn't contacting her back and why, oh, why can't he just call her, and another woman basically yelling at her kid on the phone. Honestly I don't care if I hear this or not, sometimes it is even amusing, but seriously, do you want to be spreading your personal business around that way?

Lena Sun: I am so with you on this one, as are, I imagine, tons of other riders. Could you please do me a favor and drop me an email, sunL@washpost.com?

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Alexandria, Va.: Is the scheduled opening of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge express lanes going to be at the end of December?

Eric Weiss: According to the bridge folks, it looks like the inner loop express lanes will be open by the end of the year and then they will work on the outer loop lanes to be open early next year.

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Alexandria, Va.: Don't run buses on the shoulder, designate certain lanes as "bus only", and run the buses like a train of unchained streetcars. It's coming!

Eric Weiss: That's called Bus Rapid Transit, and it's sort of like a subway on wheels. But that would be in addition to having buses running on shoulders, which could be accomplished very quickly and cheaply.

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Downtown: Not sure if you guys know anything about this but here goes:

My wife and I just moved to a new home in Silver Spring. Before that she used to live in Arlington. We are now in the process of making her former VA DMV records into MD MVA. The problem is the cost. We expected about $200-300 in new license and registration cost. However, we just discovered an "exise" tax if you're new to MD that is 3% the assessed value of the car (in our case, this comes to about $600).

Is there anything we can do about this exise tax? I find something quite wrong and disingenous with having to pay more than $800 to simply reregister my wife's car and driving records. Is this sort of money-grabbing practice normal in most states?

Eric Weiss: It varies by state. Some states have big initial registration fees while others tax vehicles like property, like in Virginia and Connecticut.

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Adams Morgan: I was on a Yellow Line train Friday night, traveling from the Pentagon to L'Enfant Plaza. As the train approached L'Enfant, it stopped because the Green Line train directly in front of us was experiencing mechanical difficulties. After several minutes, the train began again and traveled up the Green and Yellow Line without further delay.

What happened to that Green Line train that was in front of my train? Where did it go? I didn't think there were any additional tracks along the line except for the pocket track at Mt. Vernon Square.

Lena Sun: I checked with Metro and there was a Green Line train having brake problems about 6:47 p.m. Friday night. They took the train out of service at L'Enfant but were able to keep it running all the way up to Greenbelt. That's why your train was able to continue without delay.

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Fort Washington, Md.: Metro Vehicles. Who has them and why? Every time I see someone who works for Metro driving Metro vehicles it steams me. It seems like another frivolous waste of Metro money.

Eric Weiss: Before you get all steamed up, Fort Washington, remember that Metro also runs a large bus fleet and MetroAccess. Maybe they are managers making sure things are going okay.

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Seattle: "What Washington, D.C. needs to do is have cordon-area congestion pricing (like London, Singapore, Stockholm)."

You all should consider yourselves lucky! Here in Seattle they're talking up congestion pricing, yet we have no subway, no elevated, limited bus service, extremely limited commuter rail, virtually no taxi service, and freeways clogged to a standstill for hours at a time.

What good is congestion pricing if there are no alternatives?

Eric Weiss: Well, you do have that monorail that runs a half mile, no?

Seriously, congestion pricing would encourage people to not use highways during rush hours, carpool or investigate what transit there is.

It would allow a more efficient use of a limited resource, our highways.

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"If the person buys a SmarTrip card, they receive all the bus transfers they currently get on the paper": do the SmarTrip cards also give us the low bus fare when we transfer from rail without a rail transfer?

Lena Sun: Yes, but you have to ride the subway with your SmarTrip card, so the card "knows" you rode the rail and then will give you your 35 cent discounted rail-to-bus transfer.

But if you ride the subway using a rail pass, and want to transfer to a bus, then you will be out of luck. Metro says if you are a regular bus rider, it might be more economical to buy a bus pass.

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State College, Pa.: Do Metro trains still have a human being driving the train or is it all done by computer now?

Lena Sun: Yes. There are rail operators in every train. But the movement of all the trains is done by computer, as it were, by the operations control center at Metro headquarters.

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Alexandria, Va.: What ever happen to the Blue Line split? This would be really good for me as I travel to Gallery Place. Right now I take Huntington Metro which is six miles from my house and Franconia/Springfield is one mile away. I just cannot stand the Blue Line zigzag to DC; what a waste of time. Also, I have noticed that in the even when I leave from Gallery Place that Metro displays a sign of times of trains leaving. For the Yellow Line it shows when the train will be leaving for Mount Vernon which is one stop. Who cares? It makes more sense to display the Huntington direction.

Lena Sun: Metro is still researching this. As you know, anything that involves a major shift of a line is a highly political issue. At the direction of some board members, the staff has been doing more outreach in Northern Virginia to get community input. As you can imagine, the people who don't like it have been the most vocal.

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Re Rosslyn to AU: I used to make that commute. Don't bother calling the police. They don't "do" traffic enforcement at the Key Bridge from Arlington.

Another issue cramping the left turn is the liquor store right at the intersection. Can't tell you how often a delivery truck is parked in front during rush hour, further bottlenecking the turn.

Eric Weiss: It is infuriating that delivery trucks choose rush hour to take up a lane. There should be more enforcement.

As for your second point about the police, since there is no commuter tax, why should D.C. residents pay their police to make Virginia commuters lives easier? Shouldn't their emphasis be on making Georgetown residents and businesses lives easier?

Just asking.

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Alexandria, Va.: It cracks me up every time you/Metro use the excuse that it will take awhile to get the software in place to make an idea feasible. How's this? Get one phone/pager that Metro security hands off at the end of their shift to the next guy. Then publish that number for people to text to if there is an issue.

How freaking hard is that?

Lena Sun: Publishing without comment.

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Arlington, Va.: Re: Metro vehicles: Oh please. Metro employees have to run errands too as part of running the business. Not to mention the whole fleet of engineers and service technicians that have to keep the system running and need a means of getting from place to place besides the subway and bus system.

Eric Weiss: Now if they can just separate the S2 and S4 buses so they actually arrive not six in a row...

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Texting: While I like the idea of texting the police instead of calling, how is that supposed to work when we're under ground? Most cell plans don't work in Metro.

Lena Sun: That would appear to be a major stumbling block. That's why transit police say they still want people to call police, or if you're on a train, go to the next rail car and hit the intercom and let the operator know.

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Clifton, Va.: Please Eric, you need to get off the Kool-Aid. With my work schedule, I can get to Ballston and in my parking garage by 5:55am and I leave the house at 5:32am.

Congestion pricing is part of socialistic plot to give us one world government and we need to fight the power!

Eric Weiss: Drats! Exposed again! My socialistic New World Order plans have been dealt a setback!

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Army 10 Miler follow: I boarded at Metro Center. And left the Pentagon toward D.C., or Largo. Plenty of people got on at Rosslyn.

And your second remark, Metro could have told those of us who lived in the city that. I would have taken my chances on the Yellow Line going to the race.

We boarded the Blue Line from Pentagon because with the crowds we were afraid we wouldn't be able to get on the next train.

Lena Sun: Let me quickly post this as a suggestion so Metro can think about including that kind of extra information in their press releases they put up on the website.

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Lena Sun: Folks, thanks for your questions and comments. We have run out of time and will get to some of the questions we could not answer next time. Have a good week.

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