Posted on 06/02/2008 6:21:21 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
They are the "6:01ers," commuters who have found their own trick to beating the Washington area's traffic gridlock.
They lie in wait in strip mall parking lots and park illegally on the side of the road near high-occupancy vehicle ramps, waiting for the clock to strike 6:01 p.m. -- when the carpool lanes on Interstate 95/395 open up to all vehicles, not just those with three or more occupants.
If drivers can hit the lanes as soon as they open to all traffic, their reward is a rocket ride from the Pentagon home -- without the need to pick up carpoolers or slugs -- while other hapless drivers sit in backups. The same phenomenon happens in the morning, just before the lanes open to all traffic at 9 a.m. The waiters can be spotted, often with coffee and cellphone in hand, parked several cars deep on the side of the Franconia-Springfield Parkway near the HOV ramp entrance.
And they can be found near the Pentagon and Columbia Pike in the afternoon, just before 6, when the southbound lanes open.
In the Washington region, which suffers from the second-worst traffic in the nation, it seems all commuters have a strategy to outfox fellow motorists. Some have shortcuts they won't share with even their closest friends; others wake up at the crack of dawn or wait until after rush hour; some are outright cheaters who take their chances driving in restricted lanes and are prepared to pay the price.
"It's that golden time frame where if you get in early enough, you can get a clean shot," said Virginia State Trooper Steven R. Mittendorff. Those first few minutes after the HOV restrictions expire provide as close to an open road as one can get in the area...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“2nd Worst” traffic in the nation?
What’s the worst? LA? New York?
....(please God, don’t let anyone say Atlanta...I’m moving there within the year...) ;-)
LA is the worst. NY, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago are all up there.
As far as I know, L.A. is #1. As I understand it, the Atlanta area is pretty bad in its own right. I drove through Atlanta one Saturday in 2006 and ran into some traffic caused by a breakdown on I-75/85.
Boston’s no picnic either, and especially if you’ve got to drive into Cambridge. Last Friday, it was 2 hour and 10 minute drive just to go about 9 miles, on I93 South from Rte. 128 (I95) into Boston. No accidents - just volume. Absolutely nuts.
I hear Boston is the pits but hasd improved since they finished the Big Dig. I have commuted personally in NY, Philly, Baltimore, DC, Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Tampa-St.Pete, Orlando, Miami, Indianapolis, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Phoenix, LA, SF, Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, and Nashville, among others. So I base my judgement on personal experience.
But traffic is so bad in the DC area I actually worked with a community activist commuter revolutionary committee to get Fairfax county cops to NOT harass commuters at morning pickup points as they formed HOV-3 cars to use the I95 HOV lanes.
This involved petitioning the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors AND the DC government ('cause ya' gotta' have pickup points in downtown for the return home).
It was delightful working with Jack Herrity in Fairfax, and fortunately I knew Joe Brawner, Mayor Marion Barry's chief negotiator for this sort of thing.
My able assistant in these actions had been a private in the German Army in WWII, and even a member of the Hitler Youth.
You just never know where you'll find an able assistant.
Definitely a transcultural experience.
That operation still exists and moves several thousand people to work every day.
I've only driven in LA traffic once but I can tell ya trying to get through the Holland or Lincoln Tunnel or over the George Washing Bridge during rush hour is something that must be experienced to be understood.
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