C2
R
KLMNO COMMUTER Field. Here’s our guide to easing the pain.
Schedule This season starts with a night
game at 8:20 Sunday. There’s an- other Sunday night game Oct. 17, and a Monday night game Nov. 15. Metrorail usually closes at midnight Sundays and Mondays, but the system stays up late for football.
Driving On game days, traffic volumes surge on Landover Road, Central Avenue, the Baltimore-Washing- ton Parkway and the eastern side of the Capital Beltway. There are no major changes in the road configurations this year. The same old guidance applies: Leave home early, because the traffic will be at its worst in the two hours before kickoff. Three Beltway interchanges at Landover Road, Arena Drive and Central Avenue offer access to FedEx Field. The Landover Road and Arena Drive exits tend to be the most crowded, especially Landover Road as game time ap- proaches. Central Avenue, the southernmost of the three exits, is the one that the Maryland State Highway Administration recom- mends to minimize delays. Consider Beltway alternatives. For example, a Northern Virginia driver could come across the 14th Street bridge on Interstate 395, cross the Anacostia River via Pennsylvania Avenue, pick up Minnesota Avenue SE, turn right on B Street SE, right again on East Capitol Street, which be- comes Central Avenue, then take Morgan Boulevard north to the stadium.
Parking The parking lots usually open four hours before game time, but because of special events in the lots this Sunday, they will open at noon. (That should ease pregame congestion by spreading out the arriving traffic.) Drivers leaving the lots after games will be direct- ed to dedicated lanes to ease con- gestion. Watch the stadium per- sonnel and the overhead lane lights.
Bring your A-game to FedEx Field T
PERMIT PARKING
Platinum Purple Orange Green Yellow Burgundy
202
Copper Lot
495 95
Gray Lot
P.G. Sports Complex
MARYLAND
FedEx Field
FedEx Field
Parking Cash
PRINCE GEORGE’S CO.
E V Exit 16 Parking
Parking Cash
Cash From Beltway Exit 16:
From Beltway Exit 15B: Central Avenue (Route 214 West),
turn right on Morgan Boulevard to reach:
MORGAN BOULEVARD
(Blue Line)
Platinum Lots A1, A2 Purple Lots H1, H2 Orange Lot A3
Green Lots A4, B3 Yellow Lots A3, B1
214 THE WASHINGTON POST
Tailgating is permitted in all the parking lots. People who want to tailgate in more than one space will be directed to the back of the lots, where they can take up addi- tional space until it’s needed for other parkers. Single-space tail- gaters will be directed to the front of the lots.
Metrorail The Blue Line’s Morgan Boule- vard Station is the closest to Fed- Ex. The stadium is a little less than a mile north along a slightly
uphill sidewalk. Largo Town Cen- ter Station, also on the Blue Line, is next closest. After each game, Metro says, it will have extra trains available. Metrorail will stay open until 1 a.m. to get fans home from Sun- day’s game. The last Blue Line train headed toward Franconia- Springfield will leave Largo Town Center at 12:24 a.m. and Morgan Boulevard at 12:27 a.m. If the game goes into overtime, trains will be available, the transit au- thority says.
Parking is free on weekends at Metrorail lots and garages, with two exceptions. If you park at the Morgan Boulevard or Largo sta- tions from three hours before the game to two hours afterward and don’t use Metrorail, you must pay $25 with a SmarTrip card for parking. The reusable cards cost $5. Metrorail riders who park at those two stations on game days should use SmarTrip cards to pay for their train rides, so they can avoid paying the special event fee when they exit the parking areas.
Exit 15
495 95
Arena Drive West to Platinum Lot F1 Purple Lots F2, G1 Orange Lots F2, G2, H3 Green Lots F3 Yellow Lots A3, B1 Red Lots 4, 5, 10
LARGO TOWN CENTER
(Blue Line) 214 202 LANDOVER ROAD
From Beltway Exit 17B: Landover Road (Route 202 West), turn left on Brightseat Road to Platinum Lot E1, E2 Purple Lot D1 Orange Lots C1, D2, E2 Green Lots D3, E3 Gray Lot E4 Yellow Lots A3, B1 Burgundy Lot D4
Landover Mall
Exit 17
he next phase of September Shock is about to kick off. Among the many lessons that drivers and transit users must re-learn as summer ends is how to confront congestion in Landover. Usually, the community’s transportation sys- tem is not overburdened. The change is dramatic during the few hours before and after the Redskins play at FedEx
DR. GRIDLOCK Robert Thomson
Ripping through the ‘Silver’ lining
Dear Dr. Gridlock: I foresee nightmarish traffic
congestion both during and after construction of the Wiehle Avenue Metrorail station (and, later, the Reston Parkway station) and adjacent development. Fares on the Silver Line will
have to be so high that I’ll bet many commuters will still choose to drive; and because of the hassle of lugging heavy bags through stations with non-functioning escalators and elevators, I for one will probably continue to take taxis to the airport. It seems that the main users will be people traveling longer distances to Dulles (at least those who are willing and able to carry luggage up and down stationary escalators if necessary) and commuters who already use the Metro. Traffic will escalate near the
stations in Reston, and anyone attempting to drive out of Reston will be caught in it. Greatly expanded rapid bus transit would have been far less disruptive and costly. —Alice Markham, Reston
Construction of the new
Metrorail line through Tysons Corner and along Route 267 to Wiehle Avenue is so far along that it’s easy to think of the whole package as a done deal. But there’s a lot left to do. The route doesn’t even have
an official name yet. Many people refer to it as the Silver Line, but the Metro board has yet to colorize it. And that’s the simple part.
The transit authority, which is not in charge of building the rail extension but will operate it, has not set a final service plan for the line. Part of that will depend on how much room it can clear in the crowded Rosslyn tunnel by diverting some Blue Line trains. Metro plans must also take into account how the new line might change ridership patterns. Commuters in the farther out suburbs of Virginia will be able to board at stations that are closer to them than Vienna or West Falls Church. Should train line assignments be adjusted accordingly? A plan to buy the extra rail cars to operate the line has only recently been set in motion. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan
2003 PHOTO BY KEVIN CLARK/THE WASHINGTON POST Stadium personnel will direct drivers to ease congestion. Drivers leaving the lots after games will be directed to dedicated lanes. DR. G’S TIPS
NATION’S TRIATHLON The Nation’s Triathlon is scheduled to start at 7 a.m. Sun- day. The annual event includes a swim in the Potomac, a bike ride through central Washington and a run near the Mall ending by the Tidal Basin. The crowds and street closings will probably dis- rupt Sunday morning traffic along the Potomac and around the Mall.
ADAMS MORGAN DAY Police will close 18th Street NW from Columbia Road to Flor- ida Avenue starting at 4 a.m. Sun- day for the Adams Morgan festi- val, which is open from noon to 7 p.m. Side streets leading to 18th Street in Adams Morgan also will be closed to through traffic. There probably will be a lot of au-
THE DAILY QUIZ
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o
tomobile traffic and many pedes- trians in the surrounding area.
PAVING ON ROUTE 50 Starting Sunday, the Virginia
Department of Transportation plans to close lanes on Route 50 in Chantilly for milling and pav- ing along a 1.8-mile section be- tween Route 28 and Stringfellow Road. The work will take about four weeks to complete, VDOT says. Route 50 will be reduced to one lane in each direction from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday nights.
14TH STREET BRIDGE The lane closures on the north- bound 14th Street bridge are about to reach their halfway point: The new work zone, block- ing the far left lane, is set to be in
place by the Monday morning rush. Drivers still will have four lanes open during peak periods. Over the summer, the District
Department of Transportation bridge rehabilitation project ad- vanced quickly across the lanes. The most recent lane blockage, which closed part of the second lane from the left, has been in place for just three weeks. This next lane closing, covering the entire left lane over the bridge, is scheduled to last eight weeks. Af- ter that, other lane segments will close as workers repair the sec- tions of the bridge surface that are closest to the District.
FAIRFAX COUNTY PARKWAY The Virginia Department of
Transportation will make some traffic adjustments this week in
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preparation for opening the two- mile parkway extension that will provide direct access to Inter- state 95. Starting Thursday evening, Rolling Road will close at Done- gal Lane. Traffic will be shifted right onto Donegal and then back to Rolling Road, where it will run parallel to the parkway extension before heading off to the old Roll- ing Road path. Motorists heading north from the Fullerton Road intersection will follow Rolling Road through several shifts onto Donegal Lane, then shift to the right and back left onto Rolling Road. Northbound motorists will follow this route until Friday eve- ning, when the northbound lanes of the new parkway section open. Southbound drivers on Rolling Road will follow this route until
the morning of Sept. 21, when the southbound lanes of the parkway open.
Once all the lanes of the new
parkway section are open, the section of Rolling Road between Richfield Road and Chancellor Way will be closed for up to a year while crews build a bridge across the parkway for the new config- uration of Rolling Road. The new section of the park-
way will be named the “Trooper Charles Mark Cosslett Memorial Highway,” in honor of the Vir- ginia state trooper killed in a mo- torcycle crash in 2002 while re- sponding to one of the D.C. snip- er shootings.
COLUMBUS DAY WEEKEND Metro has announced plans for a Columbus Day weekend main-
POINTS & REWARDS
Shoppers Food & Pharmacy Take the stress out of lunch box preparation—stop by your Shoppers deli tonight.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Explore contemporary attitudes toward gender, age, race, and sexuality during the 2010-11 season. See
woollymammoth.net.
tenance project that will close the Farragut West and McPher- son Square stations and suspend service on the Blue and Orange lines at Metro Center. The shutdown, for switch re- placement at McPherson Square, is the latest in a string of holiday weekend maintenance projects during which Metro has tackled big jobs that can’t be done effi- ciently with others overnight or weekend closings. The disruption will last from 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8, to the mid- night closing on Monday, Oct. 11. Metro will bridge the gap be- tween stations with free shuttle buses, but that will add at least 40 minutes to riders’ travel time.
For more traffic information, go to
washingtonpost.com/traffic.
A complete list of PostPoints Spots can be found at
washingtonpost.com/postpoints.
Washington Airports Authority, which is responsible for building the line, continues to pull together the plan for phase two of the construction, the Dulles part. That will add six stations beyond Wiehle Avenue. In addition to the one for Dulles International Airport, there will be stations near Reston Parkway, the Herndon-Monroe Park and Ride Garage, Route 28, Route 606 and Route 772, at the end of the line in Ashburn. Phase two is still in preliminary engineering, and the airports authority has invited the public to two
information sessions this week to review the planning. The first will be held Monday at the Sheraton Reston, 11810 Sunrise Valley Dr. in Reston. The other is Tuesday at the Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum, 21668 Heritage Farm Lane in Sterling. Both meetings are from 6 to 8 p.m.
Dear Dr. Gridlock: Would you please remind your readers that motorcycles have the same rights and rules to follow as cars on the roads? I ride a motorcycle to and from work frequently along Beach Drive to D.C. and have been passed three times in the past five weeks by cars crossing over the center double yellow line, even on curves. As we see more and more people riding motorcycles, we need to remember that safety is a shared responsibility. —Jennifer Boger, Kensington
These are a few tips for drivers from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Allow a motorcyclist the full lane width. Never try to share a lane. Check mirrors and blind spots before changing lanes. If you see a flashing turn signal on a motorcycle, wait to make sure the cycle is actually turning. Motorcycle signals are not always self-canceling, and riders sometimes forget to turn them off. Road conditions that are minor annoyances to car drivers can be a significant hazard to a motorcyclist. Set a greater following distance when behind a motorcycle, giving the cyclist more time to maneuver or stop in an emergency.
Dr. Gridlock also appears Thursday in Local Living. Comments and questions are welcome and may be used in a column, along with the writer’s name and home community. Personal responses are not always possible.
To contact Dr. Gridlock: By mail: Write to Dr. Gridlock at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. By e-mail:
drgridlock@washpost.com. On the Dr. Gridlock blog: blog.
washingtonpost.com/dr-gridlock. On Twitter: drgridlock.
on
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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2010
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