Super NoVa Study to Address Traffic Issues

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by Katie Pyzyk February 9, 2012 at 1:55 pm 2,981 60 Comments

Traffic headaches consistently top the list of complaints by local residents. The state recognizes the trouble and is gathering public input in an effort to come up with viable transit solutions.

The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation has launched a study, called the Super NoVA Transit/Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Vision Plan, examining transit in Northern Virginia. It evaluates issues such as commuting patterns and projected travel demand for what is considered one of the most congested areas in the entire state.

The study will look at possible enhancements for transit and provide a vision for improving mobility throughout the region without increasing the number of vehicles occupied by only one person. When completed in the fall, the study will lay out short-term strategies along with long-term solutions through 2040.

Meetings are being held throughout Northern Virginia to explain the study and collect public input. DRPT will hold an open house on Tuesday at the Crystal City Shops from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., in front of the Rite Aid Pharmacy (1671 Crystal Square Arcade).

An online survey is also available until March 1 for those who cannot attend the open house but would like to give feedback.

Johnny Utah

well for starters raise the maximum speed limit in the area to at least 65mph
- drax
  
  How does raising the speed limit help you get through bumper-to-bumper traffic faster, exactly?
  - nunya
    
    Death Car 3000. Points.
    
    I. NEED.POINTS!
- thecharlesriver
  
  That won’t do much around NoVA since most drivers already drive UNDER the speed limit.
Brownflipflops

“…one of the most congested areas in the entire state.”

Try one of the most congested areas in the entire country!
- Bluemontsince1961
  
  That’s the truth!
- Mickey
  
  Congested? ha ha it was like that in 1959 BEFORE I66!! Arlington has stiffed other areas on I66 due to their snobbery. WIDEN I66 NOW!
  - drax
    
    Go play on I-66, son.
- b0rk
  
  Exactly what I came here to say. LA and NYC are honestly not that much worse, if at all.
Richard Cranium

Mandatory use of Razr Scooters for commuting. There. BOOM.
Tax Payer and Citizen

No worries. The Columbia Pike Street Car will solve all our problems, at least by 2040 when it’s finally built at a cost of a zillion dollars.

Seriously though, I have no idea to to relive congestion any more. Three lanes both ways from Glebe Road to the Beltway on I-66 (no point going any further east, I-66 is a road to nowhere). But what else can really address this? I’m curious. Ideas?
- drax
  
  It’s not the ideas, it’s the will.
  
  We have to build more transit and use what we have better, and concentrate development around the stations. Like Arlington is already doing. It’s as much a land-use thing as a transportation thing. The state needs to give local governments more power to do that.
  - CW
    
    Metro needs to find some money and upgrade its electrical system so that it can run all 8-car trains. That would be a good start, and really useful once trains start running to dulles.
  - JohnB
    
    +1 More jobs and people in the same place.
    - Burger
      
      If it was only that easy. Sure, many people like to live where they work but it doesn’t always work out that way.
      
      – what happens if you are part of a couple where someone working in MD and another in VA – or MD/DC or DC/VA
      – what happens if originally started work at a place near where you lived but found a better job farther away?
      – what happens if you live in Northern Virginia along the Orange line to get to your work at FBI headquarters and FBI HQ moves to Prince George’s County or Springfield like the rumors are flying around.
      – why should someone that works long hours be forced to ride the bus that takes 1.5 hrs to get home?
      
      I don’t find it very easy to condemn someone to an 1-1.5 hrs on the Metro to get to work if it can take them only 1 hr to drive.
      
      It is very easy to say “jobs and people in the same place” but that doesn’t really happen. Take a look at Manhattan on the weekend. Yes, there are lots of places where there is cross-over between jobs and homes but there are also lots of places that are ghost towns on the weekends in Manhattan – see Wall St.
      - drax
        
        This is the same old false dilemma we hear every time.
        
        Nobody is suggesting that every single commuter live close to work or take transit.
        
        But if more people did, it would ease traffic for the rest of us.
      - b0rk
        
        “Do as I say, not as I do.”
  - Southeast Jerome
    
    But until the NIMBYs stop being hypocritical and saying they dont want more lanes AND they dont want more density, things will just get worse…… You people know who you are.
  - Burger
    
    If it was only that easy. Mass transit is part of the solution but so is building more roads — i know seems awful to say but it is the truth.
    
    Until both sides of the argument realize that compromising is not a bad word (and that goes for almost all arguments in this country) all each side is really doing is screaming past each other.
    - drax
      
      I have never met a single person who thinks we should build zero roads. I have met a few people who think we shouldn’t build any more transit projects.
      - thecharlesriver
        
        Now that is a statistically significant result if I ever heard one.
      - drax
        
        No, it isn’t. I didn’t say it was either.
        
        But I bet you can’t find a single leader – not some schlub on the internet, but a leader of some smart growth group of whatever – who thinks we should not build ANY roads. You probably could find such a leader on the other side who opposes building any new transit though.
        
        I don’t know for sure, but I’ll bet that’s the case.
      - thecharlesriver
        
        No part of this diatribe really matters to anything, regardless of how sure you are that you can determine the views of hundreds, if not thousands, of “leaders” across the country—which you can’t.
brendan

pave first, questions later.
Fly

Flying cars! Ready, Set, Invent!
- Josh S
  
  Please see annual stories in Popular Mechanics going back at least five decades…..
- North A-Town Snob
  
  Oh god help us! As bad as most people are driving with 2 or 4 wheels on the ground, I could only imagine the horror of the idiots texting/web surfing/talking on their phones, while putting on make-up, and eating, all this while piloting their flying car. The carnage falling from the skies onto the people on the ground and our houses would be unimaginable.
  - b0rk
    
    They’d have to be 100% automated. People are just too stupid to have it any other way.
Arlwhenver

Easy solution, stop building more high rises.
- Josh S
  
  Actually, this would be 100% the opposite of how to deal with traffic…..
  - Overgrown Bush
    
    Tell that to the folks who drive around Seminary Road Mark Center area.
Juanita de Talmas

Seems to me that this issue has been “studied” to death.

How about some action?
- drax
  
  Action without thought is what got us into this mess in the first place.
  - thecharlesriver
    
    Similar theory applies to most of your posts.
    - mr t
      
      ooohhh burrrnnnnnn
    - drax
      
      Glad you’re on board with thought before action now.
      - thecharlesriver
        
        Always have been. When do you start?
CW

Dude, like, why don’t some of those cars just use the other side of that road? DUHHHHHH….

😛
dcbrewer

I just ride my bike almost everywhere and smile at the traffic as I pass it by.
cars suck

Yet again, embrace the car free diet, ditch your earth killing oil suckers, and the traffic issues will be solved. And riding a bike every now and then might also help out with all the obesity problems as well. Lower health care costs are a big perk there.
- thecharlesriver
  
  Yes, just cluster all development within biking distance of the people who live in each area. And never try to get a job outside that area which would be a reasonable bike commute. That will work. Very pragmatic.
  - drax
    
    If only 10 percent of people biked, that would be huge relief for the roads, so yeah, the principle is sound.
    - thecharlesriver
      
      The principle is sound…. FOR SOME PEOPLE.
      - drax
        
        Um, didn’t I just say that?
        
        SOME PEOPLE can get off the roads, thereby making it easy for them and for the rest of the people still on the roads.
        
        Get it now?
      - Overgrown Bush
        
        cars suck actually stated “cluster ALL development within biking distance”. Not 10%….
        
        The solution is apparent, but nobody wants to address it. Birth limits. Immigration limits. Population control. There are just too many people and the population growth is unsustainable.
      - Virginia
        
        As a currently hungry person, I think the excess people should be ground up into food.
      - thecharlesriver
        
        Thank you for sparing me having to explain this tidbit. Some people just don’t get it.
      - thecharlesriver
        
        See Overgrown Bush comment below.
    - Virginia
      
      Actually, if 10% of people rode bikes during commuting hours, traffic would be absolutely horrendous. These people aren’t biking in the reserved flying car lane.
      - thecharlesriver
        
        You obviously don’t live in the Utopian world required to swallow all this BS lock, stock, and barrel.
bemused bystander

So the rail and transit department is studying congestion while the highway department is separately studying … congestion? Do they ever talk to each other?
- Southeast Jerome
  
  No- they need to stay busy to keep their jobs. Its the govvy remember?
Ivy

This is so stupid. The traffic here has been studied a zillion times. This is just another stall tactic by Richmond to avoid shelling out money to do what needs to be done.
ArlingtonCountyTaxpayer

we do not NEED another study by people invested in paving NoVA.
Let’s start thinking outside the box.
the money we spent on HOT Lanes could have made a great monorail.
let’s do good things not the usual things.
thecharlesriver

Try teaching a lot of these driver’s HOW TO DRIVE. That will go a long way to resolving the traffic issues. And start ticketing people who fail to yield the right of way on highways.
- Bluemontsince1961
  
  Bingo!
- Josh S
  
  If everyone drove like Chuck, life would be beeeyuuuuuutiful.
ShirliMan

Peanut: I hate the traffic reports; they’re a waste of time.
Jeff Dunham: Right.
Peanut: Let me do the traffic reports. I’ll save everyone a lot of time and money.
Jeff Dunham: All right.
Peanut: “Hey Peanut, it’s eight o’clock in the morning. There’s a lot of traffic out there. What’s going on?”
[Peanut holds his hand up to his mouth]
Peanut: “It’s eight o’clock in the morning!”
Peanut: “Everyone left their house at the same damn time!”
Peanut: “Back to you! Call me back at five thirty; I’ll tell you the same thing. Only guess what? They’re going the other way!”
George

I took their survey. It was ridiculously generic, a waste of my time. Didn’t even bother to ask me if there were specific things that I thought were being done wrong or specific areas that needed changes in traffic flow. The closest they get is “11. Is there any other information you think is important for the study team to have as they develop the Super NoVa Transit/TDM Vision Plan?” Failing to care about the opinions of people who don’t have the time or inclination to go to “town hall” type of nonsense is probably why this area is so gummed up all the time. So much for crowdsourcing.
- thecharlesriver
  
  Somehow I think if they had a “happy hour” with discounted drinks, they would get an overwhelming sample of people.

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