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Keeping cool in Virginia’s HOT lanes
DR. GRIDLOCK Robert Thomson
Great thoughts, or not, on stops at Wolf Trap, Reston
Dear Dr. Gridlock: W
hy didn’t the planners of the Dulles Metrorail project include a stop at
Wolf Trap or at downtown Reston Town Center, at Reston Parkway?
Regarding Wolf Trap, similar
wonderful venues like Ravinia on the North Shore in Illinois have public transportation (in Ravinia’s case, the train). This would allow more people to take advantage of cultural opportunities here as well as alleviate traffic that builds up before and after shows at Wolf Trap.
If parking were provided, it would also provide another stop for people to park and catch the train to go into D.C. Regarding Reston Town
Center, a Metro stop there would allow people to actually walk to work in Reston. It would also offer commuters into the city another place to catch the Metro rather than just Wiehle Avenue or Tysons. It just seems like this whole
COURTESY OF TRANSURBAN
Computer illustrations of the Beltway HOT lanes in Virginia as they will appear in 2013, the year the project is scheduled for completion. Buses, motorcycles and emergency vehicles will travel the lanes at no charge, as will passenger vehicles with at least three people aboard.
A driver’s guide to the project that could enhance your Beltway experience by 2013 MD.
by Robert Thomson 495
“High-occupancy toll” is the wrong name for the new lanes that will become part of the Capital Beltway’s western side in Vir- ginia by 2013. They should be called the “high-occupancy or toll” lanes, because it’s either/or, not both. We need to make this easier for drivers to understand. Here’s a start.
THE RULES The four new lanes will be free for car- pools with at least three people aboard and for buses, motorcycles and emergency vehi- cles. (Hybrids will not have an exemption to use the HOT lanes.) Other drivers can use the lanes if they pay the toll. Big, 18-wheel trucks won’t be allowed in the lanes. Smaller trucks can use them if they pay the toll. The lanes will be HOT all the time.
VARIABLE TOLLS What drivers pay will be based on the level
of congestion and the distance they travel. Officials with Fluor-Transurban, the consor- tium of two private companies that operate the lanes in partnership with the Virginia Department of Transportation, say they don’t know what the toll rate will be at any given time. Maybe 10 cents a mile in light traffic, maybe a dollar a mile in heavy traffic. The operators want to make money. You want to make it to work or your next ap- pointment on time.
BELTWAY HABITS Fluor-Transurban doesn’t expect drivers will use the lanes every day. They’ll use them when they calculate that it’s worth the price to shorten time spent on the Beltway. Most drivers in that segment of the Beltway don’t use it for the entire length. For many, it’s a relatively short connector road between two other segments of their commute. Fluor- Transurban thinks the average trip in the
267
Tysons Corner
66 HOT lanes VIRGINIA 495 Springfield 95 0 MILES 95 1 THE WASHINGTON POST 3
MONTGOMERY CO.
LOUD. CO. VA.
P.W. CO.
Detail
FAIRFAX CO.
MD. D.C.
P.G. CO.
395
ALEXANDRIA 95
495
FAIRFAX CO.
ARL. CO.
29 66 50 D.C.
project is being run by Tysons developers with no thought to other areas or people from the suburbs who may want to get into D.C.
—Joan Pifer, Great Falls
Good instincts on wanting
HOT lane operators promise a bit of both. Remember, the fact that they want to make money works in your favor. If you don’t be- lieve their promise that you’ll be able to drive at about 55 mph in free-flowing traffic, you won’t buy their product.
WHAT DRIVERS WILL NEED To use the lanes, drivers must have a tran- sponder. An E-ZPass will work, but carpool- ers will need to use a special version being developed. It will have a switch for a carpool setting. This is another distinction between the HOT lanes and the ICC: Drivers on the ICC who don’t have transponders will get a toll bill, with a $3 surcharge, based on a pho- to taken of their license plate upon entering the highway. The HOT lanes don’t plan to bill that way.
WHAT DRIVERS SEE HOT lanes will cost $5 to $6.
NOT LIKE THE ICC Although the region’s other new toll route,
Maryland’s Intercounty Connector, also will vary its rates, this is not the same as what planners refer to as the “dynamic” tolling on the HOT lanes. The connector will be an express toll road
with rates that vary by time of day rather than the level of congestion. There’s no ex- emption for carpoolers. On the ICC, if you know the hours you’re traveling, you’ll know the rate you’ll pay.
WHAT DRIVERS WILL PAY FOR Drivers complain to me as much about the unreliability of their trips as the congestion. They’d like to go faster, and they’d like their arrival time to have some consistency. The
Approaching the HOT lanes, which will be on the driver’s left side, there will be elec- tronic displays showing the toll rates. How those signs will say that is still under dis- cussion. The idea is to convey the rate in a way that’s prominent and easy to under- stand so drivers can make their decisions quickly and safely. After that, there’s not much to see. There
won’t be any tollbooths. The toll rate is locked in when a sensor detects the vehicle’s transponder. Scores of other sensors along the lanes will be measuring traffic flow. That information will be relayed to the HOT lanes operations center, where the toll rates are set. But they’re not changing your rate once you’re in the lanes. The only other sensor af- fecting your trip is the one that records your exit, to determine the distance traveled.
drgridlock@washpost.com
on
washingtonpost.com
Video: For a computer-animated video that shows commuters how they will use the HOT lanes, visit
postlocal.com.
DR. G’S TIPS
TRAVEL IN TYSONS Tysons Corner is getting rear-
ranged. The HOT lanes project and the Dulles Metrorail project, which come together in Tysons, are lining up some major moves.
ROUTE 7 LANE SHIFT
All three eastbound lanes of Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) between Spring Hill Road and Route 123 are shifting about 40 feet to the right to prepare for construction of the Tysons Central 7 Metrorail station in the Route 7 median. The traffic shift will remain for the next three years. This summer, a similar lane
shift will occur on Route 7 in the area of Spring Hill and Tyco roads to make room for construction of the Tysons West Station. All five of the stations in the first phase of
THE DAILY QUIZ
Which Post event of wacky, brain-teasing fun, is featured in this week’s Washington Post Magazine?
(Hint: It starts at Freedom Plaza.)
EARN 5 POINTS: Find the answer, then go to
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the rail project will be under con- struction by late fall.
BELTWAY BRIDGE DEMOLITION
Traffic on the Capital Beltway’s outer loop has been shifted to a new bridge over Route 123 and the ramps have been adjusted. Next weekend, the old Beltway bridge is scheduled to be demol- ished. That will require the com- plete closing of Route 123 at the Beltway from 9:30 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. June 14. Traffic in and out of Tysons will
be detoured. Drivers leaving the shopping areas will be directed to Route 7. McLean traffic heading into Tysons will be directed to Georgetown Pike (Route 193). Ex- pect delays navigating the Route 123 and I-495 interchange.
After the demolition, workers will start building a new bridge as well as a HOT lane connection at the Westpark Drive bridge.
BRADDOCK ROAD/BELTWAY The HOT lanes project creates
little adventures all along the western side of the Beltway in Virginia. At the Braddock Road/ Beltway interchange, the east- bound lanes of Braddock are shifting this weekend to the new bridge.
ORANGE LINE SERVICE There will be no Orange Line
service between the East Falls Church and West Falls Church stations throughout Sunday. Next Saturday
and Sunday,
Metrorail will again shut off serv- ice between the stations while
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OHIO DRIVE The reconstruction of Ohio
Dulles Metrorail construction continues in the area where the new line is expected to connect with the Orange Line by 2013. Metro will operate free shuttle buses between the stations Sun- day and next weekend, but riders should add at least 30 minutes to their travel times. It would be best not to park at Vienna, Dunn Loring or West Falls Church, the stations west of the disruption. One option is to drive east to the Franconia- Springfield Station on the Blue Line or the Huntington Station on the Yellow Line for the rail trip downtown.
Drive caused a lot of disruption for drivers in the District during the past week. The project affects the roadways between Independ- ence Avenue SW at Ohio Drive SW, near the Lincoln Memorial, up to the southern end of Rock Creek Parkway, south of the Ken- nedy Center.
Phase 2 work, now underway, is scheduled to be done at the end of July. From 6 to 10 a.m. week- days, traffic will be stopped at 17th Street and Independence, the National Park Service said. Traffic will be routed to north- bound 15th or 17th streets. The Park Service recommends
that inbound drivers use 15th Street/Raoul Wallenberg Place SW before reaching 17th Street to alleviate backups west of 17th on westbound Independence.
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tersection, a $3 million project intended to improve circulation and safety, is scheduled to be done in August. The city will an- nounce the final traffic pattern then.
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better transit service to entertainment and activity centers in Northern Virginia. If I could go back in time and plan the new Metrorail line, I’d probably go for a stop in downtown Reston but would balk at putting one at Wolf Trap. But even my half-measure reflects an impressive willingness to spend other people’s money. Let’s look at some of
transportation and financial issues I’d have to consider in planning the stops. My advisers would remind me of the history. The plan for the rail line grew out of the interest in linking downtown Washington with Dulles International Airport. The airport is one of the
region’s major transportation centers, but it’s also an eight-cylinder economic engine for Northern Virginia. The other big one is Tysons Corner, which eventually factors into the planning. But the original focus was on using that wide median along the Dulles Toll Road/Access Road for a transitway. The highway is the path of least resistance for a transitway. The government already owns the land and doesn’t have to pay any more for the right of way, or knock down any more homes. We don’t want to stray from the route we have and dip down into the middle of Reston. Okay, fine. We’ve got a route. If we care about the airport service, what else do we want? We want a fast trip between the airport and downtown with no transfers and as few stops as possible. We don’t
want light rail or rapid bus, and we certainly don’t want stops at an entertainment venue like Wolf Trap. We want a Metrorail express.
But the region has other goals, too, and besides, if we’re going to get this thing done, we’ll need some allies and financial partners. That’s where Northern Virginia’s other big center for jobs and commerce comes in. Putting four stations in Tysons Corner compromises the goal of a fast trip for airport passengers, but it enhances the goals of strengthening Virginia’s economy and turning Tysons from a space station for shoppers into a modern urban center. With 100,000 people working in Tysons, this plan also boosts the ridership potential for a heavy-rail line that will cost about $5 billion. I wouldn’t add to that expense
by putting a station at Wolf Trap, just west of Tysons along the Dulles Toll Road. It would be a great way for us to get to events, but there wouldn’t be enough riders to justify the expense. I’d settle for the express bus link to West Falls Church on the Orange Line. How about adding a huge parking garage in the highway median and making it a transit center for commuters? I’m not a fan of those station designs, like the setup at Vienna. They generate highway traffic, and the expensive garages are never big enough. That’s why I would love to see
a rail link into the middle of Reston. I see those long lines of cars heading into Reston from the toll road in the morning, and I feel sure they’d love a link like that, too.
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:
washingtonpost.com/drgridlock. On Twitter: drgridlock. 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.
on
washingtonpost.com Taken for a ride?
SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2010
Need to vent about your daily commute? Have a question you think Dr. Gridlock and your fellow commuters can answer? Want to share your traffic and transit advice? Join Dr. Gridlock in his new forum at
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