This should be an interesting week. A good number of us will be hitting the highways at some point to head out of town. The interstates by this afternoon and into tomorrow will be jam-packed. That means the streets downtown will look increasingly like a scene out of the movie “The Omega Man.” We might even be able to find a legal parking space or two. There’s always that trade-off when people are coming and going. Of course, Friday morning around 5 will look like the middle of rush hour as people rush to the stores on Black Friday. This would be an interesting time for the local jurisdictions to do traffic counts.

Metro is doing its part by adding extra trains and buses, especially on the routes that are going to or near the airports. Enabling more people to take transit to the airports is a good idea. I think most people know how to get to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport but for those heading to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport you can take Metro’s Green Line to the Greenbelt Metrorail station and then catch the B30 Metrobus, which provides direct service from the train station to the airport. Metro will run extra buses on Wednesday, Nov. 21,

Saturday, Nov. 24, from noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday, Nov. 25, as the B30 will operate every 20 minutes instead of the usual 40 minutes. The cost of the service is $3 each way. There is even a way to get to Dulles via transit: Metro’s Orange Line to the West Falls Church-VT/UVA Metrorail station and boarding the Washington Flyer bus to the airport. A second option for air travelers is catching the 5A Metrobus at the L’Enfant Plaza or Rosslyn Metrorail station, which provides direct service to the airport.

On Sunday, Nov. 25, Metro will have additional buses available to transport riders to the airport. The additional buses will be available based on service demand throughout the day. Service is available every 40 minutes in both directions. The cost of the service is $3 each way.

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Seat belts for schools buses

There is a proposal by the federal Department of Transportation that would require all school buses to be equipped with seat belts and, in some cases, with higher seat backs. There are far too many injuries on school buses as young people fall against seats or into aisles when a bus has to stop suddenly or if it is involved in a crash. One of the groups that is opposed or at least has concerns about this rule is the Governors Highway Safety Association. Its concern is that the grants from which states would draw these monies to retrofit school buses might take away from other safety programs.

I have to disagree. The money that is spent on things like drunken driving and speed education is not very efficient. Getting schoolchildren buckled up can have an immediate and measurable effect and needs to be done sooner rather than later.