Posted on 07/20/2019 12:55:15 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The traffic jams over the Occoquan are so much worse than on any other part of Interstate 95 in Virginia that they throw off the scale of a review of potential traffic improvements for I-95 from North Carolina to the Potomac River.
Initial analysis ahead of public meetings this week to identify the Virginia trouble spots shows people spend more than 1.2 million hours a year in delays in just the 1-mile southbound stretch over the Occoquan River. The miles leading up to that are only slightly better, regularly slowed to around 30 mph.
Overall, at least 70% of delays are consistent and recurring, state data show, rather than due to crashes. Weekends are frequently as bad as weekdays, with little assurance of how long a trip might take.
In the big picture, southbound travel is generally significantly worse than northbound, but changes like the military’s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) plan have added to “reverse commute” issues near places such as Fort Belvoir.
The I-95 Corridor Improvement Plan meetings offering an opportunity to highlight other problems that need to be addressed are scheduled Thursday night at South County Middle School in Lorton and next Tuesday at James Monroe High School in Fredericksburg. The meetings are scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. There is also an online survey.
While the meetings are preliminary, state transportation officials have identified the locations with the most consistent delays, most frequent crashes, and most frequent lane closures due to crashes or other incidents.
“There are many, many more problems on the 95 corridor than there are resources to try to address them, even when we’re focusing on just the top 25% of areas,” Virginia Deputy Transportation Secretary Nick Donohue said.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtop.com ...
Miami had 7am backups on I-95 when I rode the Greyhound bus years ago.
I’ll be going from Philadelphia to Norfolk next week, via Delaware.
US 301 I believe allows the Washington Beltway and the I-95 congestion described in the article to be bypassed on the way from Richmond to Baltimore.
Anybody who has to travel that route has experienced it getting worse and worse and worse. A trip to points south that used to take me 6 hours now takes 7 to 9 hours. And I’m not getting any younger.
Good luck with that.
301 is not made for that much traffic, especially through Waldorf and La Plata. The 301 bridge is not made for much traffic and also gets very congested.
Why does anyone live in a big city in the first place? Many people live there because that’s where their jobs are.
They may not particularly like the place they live, but if that’s a place to earn a living, that’s where they live.
Many people live where they do, because they were born and raised in a certain place.
A good friend of mine ended up in Chicago because he married a girl from there.
Traffic and congestion is a definite downside to living in some cities, but, there are many other reasons why people live where they live.
Not to be so vain as to answer my own post, but, this would be an interesting topic, as I know there are Freepers all over the country and in some other countries too.
It’s interesting to think about, why people live where they live, and why they live there. Were they born and raised there; do they have a unique job such as in the entertainment business so they live in LA; do they live somewhere due to family ties, job transfer, went to school there and stayed in their college locale? We all have stories I’m sure.
That might be the Grapevine, I-5 up by Castaic.
I-5, that was it! The entire shoulder of the right lane going up the grade heading south was covered in smashed watermelons and tomatoes.
Amen to that. I’m out of it.
I-95 is trick or treat up here in So. CT. (And too often trick, of course.)
That I-5 stretch is way steeper than Sepulveda IIRC.
Crazifornians are waiting for Elon Musk’s Boring Company to drill some new routes through all of the choke points leading out of SoCal.
I lived in Bridgeport (1974-82). It stunk even back then
A vehicle goes by on average once every 21 seconds on the freeway near me (out west). We call it congested when it gets down to one every 15 seconds at rush hour.
Avoid 95 from Boston to DC...I do...
I avoid Myrtle Beach and the general Florence area whenever.
Yes but it has lights and small towns that cause issues that offer an awful trek and traffic jams.
Did that drive many times from Dhalgren to points north.
The old US 301 bridge across the Potomac River will be replaced by a new, four-lane bridge soon.
The last time I went through Atlanta was also the last time I will go through Atlanta.
Virginia is for blackface governors and women raping Lt Governors and the Ameritrash that elects them
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.