Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Gridlock Our Way to the Future?

Route 7 in Tysons Corner, Virginia. A stone's throw from my home of these past many years. When I first moved in my realtor kept telling me that the area would soon become a center of commerce given the fact that the Metro was due to open within a year. Flash forward nearly seven years later and the people of Tysons are still awaiting the arrival of the Metro. That's not to say that things aren't happening to help the Metro become a reality. Construction has been going on at a feverish pace for over a year now and slowly but surely we're starting to see signs of that progress coming to the area. Unfortunately along with it comes gridlock that was bad to begin with but has been becoming worse day by day.


Take for example the times of day when I dread driving through Tysons Corner which are morning and afternoon rush hour. I hate going through the area around that time simply because I've seen that while efforts are being made to ensure that traffic continues to flow even with all this construction, it's not being handled in the most efficient manner. For example, you end up racing from one traffic light to the next (a few hundred feet down the road) only to end up waiting there for that light to change to green. Add a couple of hundred cars and you can see how quickly the gridlock and mayhem can add up. I have previously left nearly 45 minutes ahead of time to reach a place five miles away simply because traffic is so bad that I couldn't afford to leave any later.


And before any of you eco-friendly types take it upon yourselves to lecture me about riding a bike the five miles rather than sitting in a car polluting the environment, you can keep your comments to yourself. I had considered that option in the past and very nearly did it until I saw that many bike riders in the Tysons area ride with one foot in the grave given that drivers rarely ever yield let alone 'share the road' with cyclists. That being said, isn't it safer staying in a larger piece of metal rather than protecting the cycle with your much more fragile body? Perhaps those environmentalists figure that the needs of the environment far outweigh those of humans but then I'm not here to argue for or against that point.


Still, the problem as I see it in Tysons Corner at present is the fact that proper study hasn't been done on the traffic patterns. I mean I have waited on the corner of Route 7 and Westfields Boulevard for nearly three minutes with no one moving and that wasn't because the intersection was blocked, on the contrary, it was because the traffic light cycle was completely out of whack and was allowing vehicles to turn left despite the fact that all two cars which had previously been waiting had long since turned. Rather than allowing traffic to progress for at least three or more traffic lights (thus keeping traffic moving) by only having it move from one traffic light to the next leaves a great deal of residual traffic behind. Now I know dealing with traffic isn't going to get any better (at least not for a few more years when all construction is done) so I think the least those in charge of road logistics on the project could do is try to make improvements now before things get worse.

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