The I-66 Jolt for Hybrid Owners (Va. news)

It's the car pool lane to reduce traffic congestion...not the "I'm special" lane.

 

Having lived in Oakton, what NOVA needs is more mass transit. Get more cars off the roads. Traffic was the prime reason I moved away as soon as I could. My commute from Oakton to Tysons had grown from 9 minutes to close to 45 minutes over 25 years. My wife got up at 4:15 to get to work just over the 14th Street bridge and that was with carpooling.

 

Metro is good to get you downtown if you are on the route. But lots of the traffic is suburbs to satellite cities. Say Vienna to Rockville. Limited number of bridges have always been a bottleneck. Little in the way of interstate level roads and bridges for I95 interstate traffic to bypass the beltway. People from NC going north schedule their trips to avoid about 12 hours of awful traffic. An outer beltway has long been needed. Traffic all funnels into the same few choke points, even if they are hybrids. People from NC going north schedule their trips to avoid about 12 hours of awful traffic.

 

When I drive down to visit my brother in South Hill, Va., I always make it a point to get through the DC area on I95 before the going home rush hour starts. It sucks!

 

I have a love/hate relationship with solo HOV access here in CA. While I fully take advantage of it and enjoy its privileges, I detest it with a passion as I do HOT lanes. It basically says, those of you who can afford an expensive plug in vehicle or can pay the toll, come on in and clog the system. Because you have money, you get access even though everyone pays taxes to support our transportation system. Well, BEV owners pays less road tax but that's another discussion. I'm undecided on HOV access for carpoolers but at least I can see how taking two or more cars out of traffic and replacing with one could improve traffic and decrease pollution.

 

IIRC, NOVA or at least VA sold the HOT lane building rights and wouldn't come up with the taxes to pay for additional lanes. So only right that those who use those lanes pay for them...someone has to. I have no problem with HOV benefits but asking for HOV-3 means, in practical terms, the carpool has to have 4 people. My wife was the 4th in her car pool and only got the slot because one of the other three was off work or working from home enough that the car was often only a 2 occupants vehicle. The parking spot downtown was also because there were 4 listed occupants.

These benefits are both to reduce pollution and vehicle traffic on the other lanes.

 

How far is it going to extend down the I95 corridor?

 

i'll be hitting it at 5:30pm feb.17th., and as always, get to fredericksburg around 8pm.

 

There's always 301.

 

really? will that get us to fred's earlier?

what do i do, take 97 out of baltimore?

 

I've used it a couple of times when I95 was stopped dead heading North. The truckers use it. You'll have to look at a map to see if it's to your liking.

 

I remember my days too living in Northern VA. I started out in Mclean, then moved to Fairfax and finally to Centreville. The 1st morning in Centreville at 7 a.m. there was a line of vehicles down the road waiting to get on 66. I thought to myself what have I done?

My commute to McLean, Va should have taken 15 mins. I never knew on route 66 if it would take 15 minutes to 1 hour depending upon the traffic/accidents. This was in the 1980's!

In and around DC/VA/MD one has to plan their day very carefully if driving. Around 3:30 in the afternoon traffic starts building and does not let up until possibly 8:00 pm. The only way around this if coming from the north or south would be to go on 81. If you hit rush hour at the wrong time you are in for a long wait (I just had some friends who went south over the holidays and 95 south of DC was a virtual parking lot all the way to Fredericksburg, VA).

Glad to hear they have extended Hov on 66 past Tysons Corner. Do not miss the driving in and around the Washington D.C. area. You are very correct about the "choke" points being a problem.