From the NO KIDDING File: Washington Traffic is REALLY BADFebruary 16th, 2006 by Adamu |
 |
This report on how retardedly bad Washington traffic is reminds me of how hard it is to believe that Washington Post writers actually work or live in Washington:
Highway congestion has grown so severe that virtually all of the Washington region’s main commuter routes are chronically clogged and unable to move motorists efficiently, according to a regional study released yesterday.Drivers on some highways designed for mile-a-minute travel are lucky to make five miles in an hour. Freeways that were manageable three years ago, such as the Dulles Toll Road, are now bumper-to-bumper at peak times. Congestion on some highways has doubled in three years, when the last study was released.
At the worst hour, between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. weekdays, a quarter of all freeway lanes in the Washington region are completely congested.
...
“It’s even worse than what we would have expected,” said John Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “This is a template to know where the problems are. For political leaders to have this report and do nothing is akin to doing nothing while Rome burns.”
That picture isn’t even as bad as it gets!
Admittedly, I haven’t been reading the Post every day for about 6 months, but considering the power the WaPo can have over some issues, with traffic this bad in the area they should be running exposes every day. It shouldn’t take an official report to get them to talk about this more often (though one editorial remains dear to my heart).
Let me give you an example: I-66 going into the city from Virginia (where I live) is only two lanes for most of the way. The new governor of Virginia supports expanding it, but as it is now the road is constantly facing volume slowdowns. I get backed up coming home at 10pm on a Wednesday. Even the Beltway, which is 4 lanes most of the way, is more or less constantly backed up. Mrs. Adamu can back me up on this.
Maybe they just never leave the office or take cabs with tinted windows from press conference to press conference, wondering why it takes so long to drive 4 blocks to the White House.