Washington rated the worst for traffic congestion — again

[cpzilliacus]

Washington Post:  Washington rated the worst for traffic congestion – again

WTOP Radio: Commuters' wasted time in traffic costs $121B

[StogieGuy7]

My personal (anectdotal, non-scientific) experience with Washington metro area traffic is that, yes, it's the worst in the US.  Super congested freeways on all sides of the metro, and major traffic tie-ups at odd times that even LA doesn't routinely experience (such as 11 am Saturday on I-66 or 1:30 pm on a weekday on I-495 in Maryland).   

Chicago's traffic is pretty bad, but that's because the expressways leading downtown are horrible at rush hour and in both directions.  Especially the Stevenson (I-55), the Eisenhower (I-290), the Dan Ryan (I-94), and the Kennedy (I-90/I-94).  However, the other tollways/expressways in the area are normally not as bad. 

[cpzilliacus]

My personal (anectdotal, non-scientific) experience with Washington metro area traffic is that, yes, it's the worst in the US.  Super congested freeways on all sides of the metro, and major traffic tie-ups at odd times that even LA doesn't routinely experience (such as 11 am Saturday on I-66 or 1:30 pm on a weekday on I-495 in Maryland).

The Washington, D.C. area has done more things bad than good. 

The worst being the cherished belief among more than a few elected officials that transit (and especially transit running on steel wheels on steel rails) can somehow replace freeways and other high-capacity roads.

Perhaps the second-worst belief is that transit running on steel wheels on steel rails has capacity that is limitless.  But transit has capacity constraints, just like highways do.

Thanks (in part) to funding limitations, a few things have been done right, starting with the replacement of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, though thanks in part to those funding constraints, the project has taken over 13 years to complete.

The I-495 HOV/toll lanes in Fairfax County, Virginia are a step in the right direction, as is Maryland's Route 200 (ICC) toll road.

[cpzilliacus]

D.C. Examiner: Is Capital Beltway traffic the worst? Other studies say no

Despite what morning drivers might think as they pound their steering wheels in frustration on the Capital Beltway, there may be worse cities for commuting.

A new study from the Texas Transportation Institute ranked the Washington metro area as the worst in the U.S. for traffic congestion, with the average commuter losing 67 hours in delays a year. This is the fourth year in a row in which Washington sits atop the study's ranking.

Other reports, however, have put Washington lower in their rankings. Traffic data company Inrix released a study in May ranking the area sixth, with an average driver wasting 45 hours in traffic a year.

[agentsteel53]

The Washington, D.C. area has done more things bad than good. 

for example ...

elected officials

bingo.

[cpzilliacus]

Are the Maryland and Virginia sides equally bad when it comes to trafffic?

Yes, I believe that they are.  Though speaking in general, the worst segment of the Capital Beltway (moving counterclockwise) from U.S. 1 in College Park to Va. 267 (Dulles Toll Road) in the  mornings; and (moving clockwise) from I-66 near Falls Church to I-95 in the afternoons.

I-270 in Montgomery and Frederick Counties can be brutal, especially the four-lane section (same number of lanes as when it opened in 1956) between Md. 121 at Clarksburg and Md. 85 south of Frederick.

I-66 in Fairfax County is tough from U.S. 50 at Fair Oaks to I-495 (eastbound in A.M.; westbound in P.M.).

The one place where things have gotten much better is along the south side of the Capital Beltway (I-95/I-495) thanks to the congestion relief provided by the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge.  This project is finally winding down after more than a decade of construction.   

[kendancy66]

My personal (anectdotal, non-scientific) experience with Washington metro area traffic is that, yes, it's the worst in the US.  Super congested freeways on all sides of the metro, and major traffic tie-ups at odd times that even LA doesn't routinely experience (such as 11 am Saturday on I-66 or 1:30 pm on a weekday on I-495 in Maryland).   

Chicago's traffic is pretty bad, but that's because the expressways leading downtown are horrible at rush hour and in both directions.  Especially the Stevenson (I-55), the Eisenhower (I-290), the Dan Ryan (I-94), and the Kennedy (I-90/I-94).  However, the other tollways/expressways in the area are normally not as bad.

You obviously have never driven in LA or CA-91 in Corona on a Saturday.

[StogieGuy7]

My personal (anectdotal, non-scientific) experience with Washington metro area traffic is that, yes, it's the worst in the US.  Super congested freeways on all sides of the metro, and major traffic tie-ups at odd times that even LA doesn't routinely experience (such as 11 am Saturday on I-66 or 1:30 pm on a weekday on I-495 in Maryland).   

Chicago's traffic is pretty bad, but that's because the expressways leading downtown are horrible at rush hour and in both directions.  Especially the Stevenson (I-55), the Eisenhower (I-290), the Dan Ryan (I-94), and the Kennedy (I-90/I-94).  However, the other tollways/expressways in the area are normally not as bad.

You obviously have never driven in LA or CA-91 in Corona on a Saturday.

FYI - I have driven in the LA area on a Saturday, on a Sunday and on weekdays.  Yes, it can be bad.  But overall, the Washington DC area is WORSE.   

Besides, if you know the area roads, you can often avoid traffic jams around LA with a little detour onto surface streets.  There are much fewer such opportunities around the Washington area. 

[kendancy66]

My personal (anectdotal, non-scientific) experience with Washington metro area traffic is that, yes, it's the worst in the US.  Super congested freeways on all sides of the metro, and major traffic tie-ups at odd times that even LA doesn't routinely experience (such as 11 am Saturday on I-66 or 1:30 pm on a weekday on I-495 in Maryland).   

Chicago's traffic is pretty bad, but that's because the expressways leading downtown are horrible at rush hour and in both directions.  Especially the Stevenson (I-55), the Eisenhower (I-290), the Dan Ryan (I-94), and the Kennedy (I-90/I-94).  However, the other tollways/expressways in the area are normally not as bad.

You obviously have never driven in LA or CA-91 in Corona on a Saturday.

FYI - I have driven in the LA area on a Saturday, on a Sunday and on weekdays.  Yes, it can be bad.  But overall, the Washington DC area is WORSE.   

Besides, if you know the area roads, you can often avoid traffic jams around LA with a little detour onto surface streets.  There are much fewer such opportunities around the Washington area.

I don't disagree with your assessment that DC area traffic is bad.  I lived there for many years.  I only disagree with your assertion that LA doesn't routinely experience off hours traffic congestion like DC.  My experience indicates that off hour traffic tie ups occur all the time if not daily.

[1995hoo]

Are the Maryland and Virginia sides equally bad when it comes to trafffic?

I think one difficulty on the Virginia side comes from a natural barrier–the Potomac. No matter what you do in terms of trying to improve traffic flow within Virginia, you're always going to encounter the chokepoints that come from traffic having to funnel down to the bridges. A new crossing further north or further south might help somewhat, but it's not something that can ever be completely eliminated unless you could somehow cover over the river (and that's obviously impractical in just about every possible way).

Maryland traffic heading to the District of Columbia doesn't face the same issue.

I don't necessarily agree with the comment that it's hard to avoid traffic jams in the DC area with a detour onto surface streets, but I've lived here since 1974 and so I know umpteen different ways to get everywhere. True, there are some backups you can't avoid, and the two that most readily come to mind are the chokepoints at the bridges and the backups on the roads that lead across the Beltway. Especially in Virginia, the Beltway is almost like a wall that has limited passageways through it. The traffic all has to funnel down onto the limited number of roads that cross the Beltway. This morning when I left our house I observed the length of the backup on Van Dorn Street heading north towards the Beltway and I immediately knew it would take 40 minutes to go two miles if I tried to use that road (so I didn't). There was a wreck on I-395 this morning and another one on Backlick Road (the next surface road to the west that passes under the Beltway), so it only left a few ways across the Beltway in this part of the county and all those commuters opted for Van Dorn. Ugh. My observation is that Maryland seems to have more roads that cross the Beltway and that this problem isn't quite as bad there. That's not to say it's not a problem, of course.

But aside from those chokepoints, I've found that if you know where the surface streets go and which ones have bad traffic lights or poor designs (the latter including things like not having dedicated left-turn lanes), you can usually move along pretty well even when the Interstate is snarled.

[cpzilliacus]

My personal (anectdotal, non-scientific) experience with Washington metro area traffic is that, yes, it's the worst in the US.  Super congested freeways on all sides of the metro, and major traffic tie-ups at odd times that even LA doesn't routinely experience (such as 11 am Saturday on I-66 or 1:30 pm on a weekday on I-495 in Maryland).   

Chicago's traffic is pretty bad, but that's because the expressways leading downtown are horrible at rush hour and in both directions.  Especially the Stevenson (I-55), the Eisenhower (I-290), the Dan Ryan (I-94), and the Kennedy (I-90/I-94).  However, the other tollways/expressways in the area are normally not as bad.

You obviously have never driven in LA or CA-91 in Corona on a Saturday.

FYI - I have driven in the LA area on a Saturday, on a Sunday and on weekdays.  Yes, it can be bad.  But overall, the Washington DC area is WORSE.   

Besides, if you know the area roads, you can often avoid traffic jams around LA with a little detour onto surface streets.  There are much fewer such opportunities around the Washington area. 

I concur with the above, and I have driven the roads of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego Counties a lot.

Traffic can be bad in any of those counties, but the big difference is this - the network redundancy of the  freeway system - in Metropolitan Washington, D.C., there's not much in the way of redundancy. 

Southern California's freeways are often congested, but in the event of an incident, there is (generally) an alternate route.

One major exception to that is getting from Los Angeles to the Antelope Valley area of northern L.A. County - the only major connection is Ca. 14 (Antelope Valley Freeway) - if that has a problem the alternates tend to be circuitous (going west to I-5 or east to I-15) or small, narrow roads through the mountains.

[D-Dey65]

Back in 2010, I drove up north and I was able to use the surface streets to avoid the Springfield Interchange and the eastern beltway, and I had no problems whatsoever.


I tried the same thing in 2011, and it was a total disaster.