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November 30, 2003
Signs of Civilization's Collapse
Yesterday, I departed my parent's house at 3pm to drive back to my home in Capitol Hill in the District. Six and a half hours later I arrived there. That might not have been phenomenal if my parent's lived in Wilmington, NC, or Providence, RI. But my parents still live in the same house I grew up in on the southside of Richmond, VA, a scant 114 miles, door-to-door, from my current abode. At almost exactly 6.5 hours that gives me an average speed of about 17.5 miles an hour through the eastern seaboard parking lot formerly known as Interstate 95 North.
In all likelihood, it could have been much worse than that. I took almost two hours and fifteen minutes to get from Richmond to Doswell, VA, barely 30 miles. At that point, I got off of I-95 and hopped on US Route 1 North which moved at a pretty normal pace until Fredericksburg, where Route 1 North turned into a parking lot as well. After it took me more than an hour to get about eight miles through Fredericksburg, I turned back south (the southbound lanes being virtually traffic free) and caught Route 3 east to 301 North, crossed the Potomac on 301 (the only bridge across the Potomac east of DC) and came into DC through southern Maryland.
The detour tacked an extra 40-45 miles onto the trip and may not have saved me any time in the long run (Fredricksburg to DC via 3 and 301 is just under 90 miles . . . and it still took two and a half hours, thanks to having to merge to single lane for the bridge and passing through the shopping center hell of Waldorf, MD). However, it did at least allow me to actually drive at over 20 MPH for a good portion of that leg, which did wonders for my sanity.
The emergent properties of traffic are kind of interesting: small perturbations at one point (merging, single accidents, even rubbernecking) can result in jams at that or even other areas on the road.
On the other hand, when you've been stop-start inching along the interstate for four hours, never getting above 15 miles an hour for more than 30 yards, it's really very uninteresting.
Posted November 30, 2003 02:42 PM
Comments
The traffic problem around here is becoming a real crisis. Getting to my parents' house ~30 miles away in NoVA can take anywhere from 30 minutes to over 2 hours, depending on totally random traffic factors. It makes it very difficult to make any kind of reliable plans. And it will only get worse before it gets better. I'm just glad I don't have to commute on the beltway daily.
Comments by Tim Moore . Posted November 30, 2003 03:48 PM
Two words: public transit. There should be a train from Richmond to DC, and if it exists, you should have taken it.
Comments by Stephen Downes . Posted December 1, 2003 10:50 AM