Not so HOT lanes - Local commuters are about to be taken for a ride

Washington Times ^ | July 13, 2009

[La Lydia]

Virginia is trying to pull a fast one on motorists who live along the Interstate 95/395 corridor, and we all will be moving slower and paying more as a result...The latest plan effectively hands ownership of Interstate 95/395 to a foreign corporation for the next 80 years. Transurban Group, Melbourne, Australia, will lease the existing high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes for the 64-mile stretch between Spotsylvania, Va., and the Pentagon. Transurban will be responsible for building new access ramps and performing maintenance for the lanes. Drivers interested in a congestion-free ride can pay an expected $1 - or more - per mile to use the HOT lanes while the regular lanes are gridlocked...

The devil is in the details...The Beltway gets new lane construction where it is needed most; 95/395 does not. Instead, between Garrisonville Road and the Pentagon, three lanes will be squeezed into the existing two-lane space...

The commuter who undertakes the 64-mile journey from Spotsylvania would pay a shocking $33,280 each year to use the toll lanes...common commutes from a town such as Dumfries would cost drivers $8,840 each year...adjusting upward for inflation...

...Only those who register for and install a special car-pool tracking device will be allowed into HOT lanes...Because it is in Transurban's interest to minimize the number of nonpaying customers, VDOT agreed to contract language that will actively discourage ride sharing on the Beltway....

...According to the Beltway contract, Virginia taxpayers are on the hook once again if, between now and 2087, improvements are made to free, non-tolled roads in the vicinity of the toll lanes. These agreements ensure that the toll-road company will enjoy a monopoly at taxpayer expense...free roads will be neglected and not expanded to create congestion that will force motorists into the tolled lanes...

[Albion Wilde]

At this point, the only person who can stop this deal is VDOT Secretary Pierce R. Homer. Drivers interested in a speedier commute should let him know what they think at pierce.homer@governor.virginia.gov or 804/692-2581.

Ping.

[napscoordinator]

I don’t know...after spending five hours in traffic going up 95 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, this does not seem so bad. I know this sounds sarcastic, but damn that was an awful trip.

[muawiyah]

Look, I was born in and grew up in a state which was once part of Lee County, Virginia, my mother having elected to NOT have me born in a place that'd once been part of Maryland. Some of my family settled here in 1598. I also have some antique furniture that's been handed down for the last few centuries ~ from Virginia ~ and it matches the sort of things you find in nearby Gunston Hall (once owned by ancestors), etc.

You arrived only in 1956 and still know nothing!

[muawiyah]

The 10 eh?

You are lucky you weren't shot. That road cuts through some really rough and desperate commuter country.

[muawiyah]

Look, we have VDOT ~ we’ve seen truly incredible things from them ~ bunch of funny little foreign guys could not be worse.

[muawiyah]

The greater part of the gasoline taxes we pay here goes to build highways somewhere else. The total net cost of all interstate highway construction in Northern Virginia is probably less than 10% of the federal gasoline taxes paid here.

Some are givers; some are takers. We're the givers.

[muawiyah]

C&P error. As my vision fades (creeping towards eventual blindness I suppose) mistakes will be made. Eventually I'll have to use vocal translation software and that's going to introduce audio decoding errors.

In the meantime, get over it. Think about it, you could be Al Franken instead of a Freeper up against the occasional typo.

[muawiyah]

Public Roads are Socialistic.

[muawiyah]

You can make it between 9:30 and 10:30 AM in under an hour any day of the week. You wait after 9:30 you’re stuck for 40 minutes just getting to Woodbridge PLUS the State Police will be on the road by then.

[muawiyah]

Old Keene Mill Road/Franconia Road/I395/I95/I495/7100/Backlick ~ more or less.

[muawiyah]

The amount of bypass traffic on the Beltway in the DC area used to be estimated at 35%. Eventually they got around to doing some meaningful surveys and discovered it was about 2%.

I suspect that's the same problem in Atlanta.

BTW, I remember the big highway through downtown with all its neat exits and entrances, and there were no big buildings there. Actually drove 70 MPH through what is now the Atlanta central core and there was no traffic there (circa 10 AM).

Things have changed.

[GingisK]

We're the givers.

Ok then, are you proud and happy to give your highways to foreigners?

[muawiyah]

The next time you take that trip it will be much worse because the expresslanes are being taken from HOV service (which normally moves more than half the traffic at rush hour) and converted to a very high priced tollroad.

I can't imagine what went through the minds of the fellows who've looked at the traffic flow data in the I95 corridor. If your HOV lanes handle more than half the traffic, then you sure don't want to make them more difficult to use than they are now. At the same time if the traffic is not flowing at all in the regular lanes, then you certainly don't want to add all that HOV traffic to the regular lanes.

I see violence resulting from the proposed changes, and not the pretty kind of violence.

[muawiyah]

I could care less who owns the highways. We even let foreign countries own their own embassies in this area, and Queen Elizabeth personally holds title to vast tracts of housing.

The trick with highways, unlike gold and silver, is they can't just walk away with them. They put their money in and the highway stays right there.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

I have made it from Mechanicsville to Sterling in 1 1/2hours. I have to plan it with the DC traffic and use my trusted backroads. But it can be done.

[muawiyah]

Had to check on Mechanicsville ~ right time of day if you avoid the trucks on I81, then get off on some of those extrawide primaries the Byrd Machine put in all over the state (except in Northern Virginia) you can get to a lot of places fast.

For "outsiders" you may be unaware of the Fall Line in Virginia. This is an upheaval area created by a meteor millions of years ago ~ and it left rows of concentric ridges all through the Mid-Atlantic. You get beyond the meteor upheaval areas it's pretty flat all the way to the Piedmont, so there are some segments of Virginia that have flat, straight roads just like the Midwest.

This area ain't one of them!

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

LMAO!!! Laughing at myself. That would be Mechanicsville, VA not PA (which is near 81) You should have heard me...81? What is she talking about 81? I don't go through Charlottesville to get to Northern VA. Then I realized, there is more than 1 Mechanicsville in this country.

Talk about being a native Virginian!!

[stevie_d_64]

Wanna bet??? ;-)

Devil is in the details...

[GingisK]

They put their money in and the highway stays right there.

The roads might stay here, but the money goes offshore. That is the reason our economy is in its present condition.

[muawiyah]

There are FOUR places designated as Mechanicsville VA (using Mapquest.com).

The one you probably meant is a "census designated area" ~ not an incorporated city or town.

To Wit:

Mechanicsville, VA ~ Hanover County

Mechanicsville, VA ~ Rockingham County

Mechanicsville, VA ~ Loudoun County

Mechanicsville, VA ~ Rockbridge County

Pennsylvania has at least places named "Uniontown" (only one of which is a post office addfess).