Dr. Gridlock

Robert Thomson is The Washington Post's Dr. Gridlock. He was online Monday, March 23 at 1 p.m. ET to diagnose all your traffic and transit issues.

The transcript follows.

Dr. Gridlock column receives hundreds of letters each month from motorists and transit riders throughout the Washington region. They ask questions and make complaints about getting around a region plagued with some of the worst traffic in the nation. The doctor diagnoses problems and tries to bring relief.

Dr. Gridlock appears in The Post's Metro section on Sunday and in the Extra section on Thursday. His comments also appear on the Web site's Get There blog. You can send e-mails for the newspaper column to drgridlock@washpost.com or write to Dr. Gridlock at 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.

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Robert Thomson: Hello, travelers, and welcome to our discussion of all issues in local transportation. This morning, I was trying to help a reader from the western side of Arlington reach a new job near the junction of Route 50 and the Beltway in Prince George's and respond to others who saw my feature on Sunday's Commuter page in The Post about the spot improvements planned for I-66 inside the Beltway. What's your beef with our transportation system?

Let's get started with a few of your comments here in the mailbag.

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Arlington, Va.: Hi,

Dulles Airport's Web page says the AeroTrain system is scheduled to open later this year. Do you have more precise info?

Thanks!

Robert Thomson: Not an exact date, only late this year. This is a light rail system, electric rail cars running on concrete rails, to replace the mobile lounges, those things that look like something the Empire used in Star Wars. The light rail should get people to and from the planes faster.

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Navy yard: I'm having a hard time finding out anything beyond real bare-bones information about the switch from the N22 line to Circulator. Circulator has nothing on their site regarding the switch to take place on March 29. Fellow riders have also said they think the route will be extended to the ballpark, but again, I can't find anything about this. Am I just not looking in the right places? And do you have any more information?

Robert Thomson: There's nothing out there yet. I was asking the District Department of Transportation late last week. My understanding is that the new Circulator will match the route of Metrobus N22, which goes out of service at the end of the month.

People who were using the N22 as a link between Union Station, Eastern Market and M Street SE, near Nationals Park, will find the Circulator an easy replacement.

The N22 was subsidized by the District, as is the Circulator. All the Circulator routes are designed to operate buses every 10 minutes. This is one of two new Circulator routes coming up in April. The other will link Adams Morgan and the U Street corridor.

I'll be following up on this on the Get There blog and probably on The Post's Commuter page as well on an upcoming Sunday.

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Odenton, Md.: Is Maryland the only state that does not require a yearly vehicle inspection? I've lived in a lot of statse and always had to get my car inspected (for more than just emissions). I see so many Maryland cars driving around with headlights out of alignment, busted tail lights and mufflers that don't muffle anything. Why is there no yearly safety inspection?

Robert Thomson: Maryland requires an inspection only when the vehicle changes hands. In other words, it's inspected when it's sold new, then gets another one if it's sold as a used car and so on. I believe it's the only state that doesn't require an inspection every year or two.

I'm not aware of any movement in the state legislature to change that, even as Maryland clamps down on other driving concerns, such as texting while driving.

Are you folks concerned about this lack of inspections? Do you agree with Odenton that the current policy results in more busted up vehicles on the road?

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Fairfax, Va.: I support the idea of the I-66 improvements, but I question how useful the project to link the Fairfax Drive acceleration lane to the Sycamore Street deceleration lane will be. From my observations, comparatively few people exit at Sycamore, so it seems to me that what you'll have is people who race down to the exit and then try to cut left across the gore point (striped area where the off-ramp leaves the main road), which means then you'll have backups as some suckers slow down to let those people in while others tailgate to keep them out.

Robert Thomson: It's hard to engineer human behavior. But if I can channel the thoughts of the project proponents for a moment -- just long enough not to become a human pin cushion on this controversial topic -- I think what they envision is that the extended lane will be safer because drivers won't feel compelled to do the quick weaving in and out that you get with shorter acceleration and deceleration lanes along westbound I-66.

I don't see any of the three spot improvements as an ideal solution, but then, neither does VDOT. The transportation agency basically says, Here's something we can do with the money that we've got. It will relieve congestion at three really bad spots, but it won't solve the overall congestion problem on I-66.

Here's a link to a VDOT picture of the Sycamore-Fairfax spot improvement:

http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/resources/NorthernVirginia/Section_1_c_-_Fairfax_Drive_to_Sycamore_Street.pdf

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Convention Center, DC: It looks like there is a single rail runnning down 9th Street next to the DC Convetion Center. Is this for a street car system?

Robert Thomson: That's not for a new streetcar. I think I can picture what you're talking about. (After leaving The Post newsroom, I like to walk around downtown and watch the traffic and pedestrian flow, and I often wind up taking the Green Line at Mount Vernon Square.) I thought that might be either an old streetcar rail, from back in the 1960s, or some sort of expansion joint in the road surface.

The first of the new streetcars are likely to appear in Anacostia, but that project has yet to get underway. The streetcars were bought long ago and have been sitting in the Czech Republic. Then we may see one along Benning Road and H Street NE.

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Del Ray: Speaking of helping people get from point A to point B, do you know of a good forum to pose questions like, "Is 66 East a viable route going from Tysons to Arlington during afternoon rush?"

Robert Thomson: Well, this is one, Del Ray. Also, I post travel questions like that from time to time on my Get There blog. Readers tend to be very helpful.

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Rockville, Md.: Dr Gridlock, you asked how a mileage-based tax would make sense, well, it would if your goal was for people to drive less. Every morning, I pass cars and minivans where parents have driven their kids to the school bus stop, wait at the stop idling, and some of them even drive back home. And this is in a small development where these kids would only need to walk a couple hundred feet at most. So maybe with a mileage tax, these kids/parents would walk to the bus stop.

Robert Thomson: Rockville is recalling a topic I raised with readers in last week's chat. I said I have yet to buy into the notion that we should replace the gas tax with a tax on vehicle miles traveled.

Rockville offers a good idea on how the VMT would discourage driving -- or at least inefficient driving. But isn't the gas tax just about the same thing? Don't you think when you're watching the numbers add up on the gas pump about how you could really cutback on that expense by driving less?

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Czech Streetcars?!: You're kidding me? It's bad enough Metro has bought the last two purchases of rail cars from Spain and Italy, but now in the midst of economic recession we're purchasing streetcars from the Czech Republic? Please tell me Metro will be buying American streetcars for the Purple Line? American taxdollars should be supporting American taxpayers.

Robert Thomson: This was a District government expense, although I think the purchase was done through Metro. (That's not uncommon. Metro serves as the administrator for some purchases of transit equipment.) The cars themselves are fine. I believe they're the same kind used in the much-praised Portland, Oregon, light rail system.

The desire to Buy American tends to break down when we talk about transit equipment. (Much like the equipment itself?) There just aren't that many US manufacturers to deal with.

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Glenmont: Do you have any info on when they will finish "fixing" the Metro parking deck at Glenmont. It seems to be taking them much longer than it took to build it in the first place.

Robert Thomson: Thanks to Steven Taubenkibel at Metro for his quick assist on this: The garage rehab will be done in 2010. The garage rehabs always annoy my readers. They knock out scores -- sometimes hundreds of spaces -- at once as the workers move from section to section. It's one thing to watch a garage get built and another to have to work around blocked off areas in an existing garage.

They could probably get these jobs done a lot faster by completely closing the garages, but we'd all howl about that, wouldn't we?

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Re: convention center: That's an expansion joint. 9th street sits over the underground truck access for the Convention Center.

Robert Thomson: Thanks for the response to the question on whether that was a streetcar project.

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Key Bridge: Dr. G- hoping you can answer a question to ease my 10 seconds of road rage I have every morning at bad drivers. If you're on 66 coming from DC (or 110) headed west, and take the exit for the Key Bridge- there is a right turn lane, a right or straight lane, and a straight lane. Every morning, I see cars turn right from the middle lane on red (this morning was a giant dump truck), I've been doing this commute for almost a year and count on two hands the number of times I have NOT witnessed this). I know out in the burbs- there are signs that say "No right on red from Center lane). So, my question -- is this turn on red from the center lane legal?

Robert Thomson: I'm answering this one based on experience with similar situations: Traffic laws generally say that a right on red, after stopping, is to be made from the right-most lane. The idea is to minimize the risk that a right-turning car will pull out into oncoming traffic.

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Washington DC: Re Czech, Italian and Spanish traincars: Why do we have to buy from those countries? Because they have robust public transport systems, so they have an incentive to manufacture equipment. We don't, so there's no incentive.

Robert Thomson: If we spend more money on transit, and do it consistently, we might revive the train and bus manufacturing in the US. Might be a way to help a lot of unemployed auto workers, too.

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Arlington, Va.: Another HOT question if you please. I am a real skeptic that this thing will work. Everyone touts the electronic toll collection. But how does the system know if you don't have a transponder in your car? Won't it be very easy to cheat the system by simply driving on the lanes without the toll collecting device?

Robert Thomson: I can tell you that the people involved in this project are highly confident that they can monitor this to distinguish between carpoolers who can travel for free and other drivers who need to pay the toll. But I haven't see a clear enough explanation of exactly how this will work on the Virginia Interstates. The private consortium, of course, has absolutely no interest in allowing cheaters to cost them money. They're likely to be quite vigilant about that.

(HOT lanes are new for us, but they've worked elsewhere.)

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American StreetCars: Are there even any American-made cars ? Does Bombardier count?

Robert Thomson: Bombardier not still based in Montreal?

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Pensacola, Fla.: In response to Odenton, Florida requires no inspections whatsoever. Apparently in the '80s or so the state did require them. The governor at the time asked his aide to take his brand new car to get the required inspection sticker. The unscrupulous mechanic told him he needed nearly a thousand dollars worth of repairs to have his car considered safe. Many people had complained it was a scam and once if personally affected the governor, the law was repealed and no inspections exist. I now live in Virginia (home for vacation) and hate the inspection regime. Last summer I had to pay nearly $900 to pass the emissions inspection. It is simply another way for the state to steal our money.

Robert Thomson: Thanks, Pensacola, didn't realize that FLA was an execption on the inspections.

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20850: In re Maryland inspections - broken taillights are a ticketable item, so a safety inspection per se isn't needed for that. I've actually gotten pulled over and given an ERO (equipment repair order) for a taillight I didn't know was out.

Robert Thomson: I understand the point, but couldn't it be argued that it gives the police too much to do, when the job could be handled by local service stations?

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Springfield, Va.: Do you know of a place in Fairfax County you can call (or visit online) to report an illegally parked car? This knucklehead in my neighborhood keeps parking his SUV too close to an intersection (yes, there is a no-parking sign) and it makes it hard to see around the corner when you pull out, especially with people going 45 in a 25 zone. I was very happy to see that he got a ticket yesterday, but in the meantime he had been doing this for three weeks, so I'm wondering if you could tell me of a place to report these things to expedite in the future.

(No, I don't know whose it is, so I can't ring his doorbell and ask him to quit it.)

Robert Thomson: That's just a flat-out ticket, right? Nothing fancy, like a code violation. Sounds like you could simply contact the Fairfax County Police Department, which does have an online form for such purposes. Check out this page on the department's Web site:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/crs/

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Washington, D.C.: Dr. Gridlock, do you know who I can write to to complain about all of these new ultra bright headlamps on vehicles? I think they are a hazard. The other night I was driving home and going up a hill which also was a curve. I was blinded by the brightness of these lights. And I do mean blinded!

Robert Thomson: My predecessor as Dr. Gridlock, Ron Shaffer, used to get a lot of complaints about the bright headlamps, but it seemed the novelty had worn off these in recent years. I think it's a US DOT thing.

I completely agree that they are annoying. Best practical advice I see from driving experts is just to make sure you don't stare into the headlights. Focus toward the right side of your lane. (Of course, many will respond that the headlights of cars coming up from behind can be blinding, when the light hits the mirrors.)

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"Is 66 East a viable route going from Tysons to Arlington during afternoon rush?": Assuming the reader would like an answer to this question, I'd say "No."

Robert Thomson: It's mighty tough to get through Tysons at rush hour on any road. Going to get more interesting, too, as work picks up on the HOT lanes and the new Metrorail line.

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Arlington, VA: Dr. Gridlock,

Has the Metro Board thought about how to ensure that those of us living in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor will be able to get onto an inbound train after the Dulles Metrorail extension opens? Morning rush is already so bad that oftentimes we have to wait for 2 or 3 jam-packed trains to go by.

Are they giving any consideration to converting the Rosslyn-to-Pentagon stretch to a shuttle (running every 2-3 minutes during rush, or every 5 minutes during non-rush) similar to the Times Square to Grand Central Station one in NYC? Then, they can have either the Blue or Yellow line branch after King Street to Franconia-Springfield or Huntington, just like the T's Red Line does at the JFK Library.

I'll gladly tack on another 5 minutes for a shuttle if it alleviates the inevitable bottleneck that would occur when the Silver Line starts running all the way from Dulles to Stadium-Armory.

Robert Thomson: We had a discussion about the shuttle idea recently in Dr. Gridlock. A reader suggested that. Another wrote in to say that a Rosslyn-Pentagon shuttle would be unworkable, because it would slow down the through trains at either end. (I don't believe it would be like Times Square-Grand Central, where that track is used for nothing but the shuttle.)

Meanwhile: Metro plans to buy more than 100 new rail cars for the Dulles line. But it will take some intense traffic management to avoid an even worse jam than now at the Rosslyn tunnel.

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Bombardier: My point was Bombardier is American. "North" American, that is.

Robert Thomson: I lived in Quebec for five years. This was around the time that the US was taking over the National Hockey League. My neighbors there would not have appreciated any further unification with the United States.

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Friendship Heights: As Lena Sun revealed in her piece yesterday WMATA is still wasting a lot of money on things ($5,000 laptops?!) while asking its customers to pay more while seeing reduced service.

My question is has WMATA ever managed to hire adequate numbers of bus drivers in order to preclude the need to waste tens of millions of dollars annually on unnecessary overtime?

With the struggling economy and the District with an unemployment rate that is approaching 10 percent I really hope the answer is that WMATA has gotten its act together by now on this important personnel matter and we are not continuing to subsidize their incompetence.

washingtonpost.com: Metro Reports Cite Accounting and Security Gaps (Post, March 22)

Robert Thomson: Besides that very good story by Lena in today's Post, look at this recent one by her and Paul Duggan about Metro tightening up on hiring rules for bus drivers:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/16/AR2009031603131.html

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Robert Thomson: Travelers, thanks once again for a great conversation. If you'd like to follow up on any of our topics, drop me an e-mail at drgridlock@washpost.com. (That's the mailbag from which I pull the letters I use in my newspaper column, so if you're submitting something for publication, please include the name of your home community for the letter's sign off and a phone number at which I can contact you.)

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