Posted on 09/19/2012 10:35:26 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
State transportation officials should study dedicated travel lanes for vans, carpools and buses on a congested seven-mile stretch of the Capital Beltway that includes the American Legion Bridge, Montgomery and Fairfax leaders urged Tuesday.
HOT lanes for toll payers and high-occupancy vehicles are planned for the Beltway in Virginia from the Springfield Interchange to just north of the Dulles Toll Road, and set to open later this year. But Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner and Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova pointed out a seven-mile gap in dedicated high-occupancy travel lanes between the northern terminus of the planned HOT lanes and the I-270 HOV lanes at the 270 spur in a Tuesday letter to Maryland and Virginia transportation officials.
Bulova and Berliner called the stretch “one of the most congested highways in the Washington Metropolitan area.”
“Lacking that connection will leave a seven-mile gap with no priority for buses, carpools, and vanpools,” the letter read. “In order to maximize the potential of the existing HOV lanes and imminent HOT lanes, we request that the two DOTs work together to provide a plan for connectivity for this seven-mile segment that would go into operation as soon as practical.”
The letter follows a July meeting between Montgomery and Fairfax leaders and transportation officials.
Though adding new capacity on the stretch would likely not be possible, the letter urged Maryland Department of Transportation Acting Secretary Darrell Mobley and Virginia Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Connaughton to consider “peak hour use of shoulders as exclusive bus lanes or opening the shoulder for general purpose traffic and establishing an HOV lane in the outside lane during peak periods.”
“We understand that this will be a difficult task in such a short period of time, but the urgency of implementing at least an interim solution is obvious to us,” the letter read.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
I am across that bridge twice daily. What I heard this AM on the radio was that they are considering opening up the shoulders as they do on I-66 in VA. Sounds good to me.
Better hope they don’t do the stupid HOV lanes.(HOV = High Occupancy Vehicle lane)
Dummest idea ever. It does not help reduce traffic.
You would think the smart guys in TXDOT would OBSERVE traffic and see what happens when their brilliant traffic theorys are applied. (and fail miserably)
What is needed is to aggressively build bridges across the Potomac linking VA and MD so as to lighten the load on the beltway that is about 40 years obsolete!
Instead, MD will fight NOT to do such things while VA would probably support the bridges. Meanwhile, the beltway burns!
HOV/HOT lanes are redistribution of wealth.
The variable toll idea is great — a return of class structure, which is always good. How cool that the people who are paying for the roads, get to use them efficiently?
A 30% cut in Federal discretionary spending would solve this problem nicely.
That's not just at rush hour, but over the whole 24 hour period.
Unfortunately our IGNANT governor and his logrolling buddies have this idea that turning over the HOV-3 operation to a toll opertion will make things better ~
What that's going to do to the non-HOV 3 parts of the highway ~ both during construction and later on ~ is unbearable to think about ~ they'll have a good 25% increase in traffic with no increase in capacity.
No Republican will support any new bridges over the Potomac anywhere in the Metro Area.
It would do what? The Beltway is paid for out of the interstate highway funds which are raised by gasoline sales. Traffic on the Beltway is sufficient to pay for 10 additional lanes but you’ll never see them.
Maybe he got the idea from my crazy Uncle, who wanted to build a bridge across the Mississippi.
(Lengthwise.)
Why? Did you think it rolls out of driveways or something, and just kinda' blunders onto America's busiest stretch of highway?
Many times we have gone through Atlanta or Nashville and tried to use their version of the “HOV” lane only to get behind someone who is not even doing the speed limit.. making the other lanes quicker to use..
They’re adding a third lane from Edsall Road to the Prince William Parkway.
How many of those cars belong to the hands that serve the Departments of Education, Labor, Transportation, HHS, Agriculture? How many of those trucks deliver goods to feed and care for those bureaucrats and their families?
Tumbleweeds blowin' down the HOV lanes. That would warm my heart.
Slow drivers are a common bane up here, too.
Interestingly enough the overwhelming majority of federal jobs are out around the country scattered in and amongst the various Congressional districts!
The DC area, however, is cluttered with companies which exist merely to feed at the federal trough. Data companies, accounting companies, endless "defense" contractors and "research" organizations...all these add to the traffic in our area. And of course, they drain the nation's economy.
Inevitably, one way or another, they're going to disappear. And the mid-Atlantic will make Detroit look like the Lost City of Gold.
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