D.C.-area commutes are getting worse

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The region’s roads are at capacity and more and more drivers are being added to the system, creating major problems for commuters now and in the future.

“We have a new Wilson Bridge and a new Mixing Bowl, but in terms of capacity, we just haven’t added capacity,” AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman John Townsend said Wednesday. “The population keeps going up and we have run out of capacity.”

Even the area’s planned road projects can’t keep up. By the year 2030, the amount of vehicles on area roads will increase by 118 percent, but new lane miles built will only increase by 13 percent, Townsend said, citing a regional Transportation Planning Board study.

“We are behind, literally, the eight ball,” he said.

The average one-way commute for people living in region is about 33 minutes, according to newly released 2005 statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. Average commutes from Virginia’s Stafford County and Maryland’s Calvert County, for example, run about 40 minutes.

But that’s just an average. Because the roads already are so congested, inclement weather or any traffic incident can cause daily commute times to “vary greatly from day to day. That is the real killer,” said Ron Kirby, a regional transportation planner.

And as more and more people get on the roads, the chances of collisions and other incidents that create road hazards rise, Kirby said.

Transportation agencies have been focusing on faster removal of fender benders and broken-down vehicles on major arteries because they can lead to major backups.

Kirby says better traffic engineering is necessary to make sure exit ramps, merge lanes and traffic signals won’t cause significant delays. Kirby mentioned the ramp from the Beltway to westbound Dulles Toll Road that created a parking lot every morning until it was expanded.

“When traffic is growing like it is, we have to watch out for things that are okay now, but won’t be in two years,” Kirby said.

cgoodman@dcexaminer.com

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