Jun
29
VDOT: Making Slow Traffic Slower
Filed under traffic, signs at 4:07 pm | Leave a Comment
I left work around 2:00 pm on Friday afternoon, which unfortunately is well after the start of rush hour on Fridays during the summer in Northern Virginia. One particular stretch of the drive home that’s always particularly enjoyable is the backup where the highway “merges” 2 car pool lanes and 1 on-ramp into an already full 3 lanes of traffic. There’s nothing quite like inching along in a 2 mile backup on hot asphalt in 98 degree weather.
Occasionally traffic will ease up a bit after that merge, but on Friday the congestion remained and we plodded along. I wasn’t too surprised, as anything can cause traffic to slow down around here (e.g., a parked car on the side of the road, a new sign, rain, sun, clouds). This day, however, the additional slowdown was caused by our beloved VDOT. On one of the electronic overhead signs, usually reserved for useless and out-dated traffic information, they had a flashing message alerting us that we were under an Ozone warning, and encouraging us to reduce traffic by carpooling. As soon as I passed under the sign, traffic sped up and cleared out all the way to my exit.
VDOT claims to have “numerous initiatives to preserve the environment while keeping Virginia moving.” And yet they caused tens-of-thousands of cars to idle on the highway for 30 minutes longer than usual because of a pointless sign. How is that helping the environment or keeping traffic moving? It seems to me it’s doing quite the opposite. Nice work, VDOT.
Jan
6
gas station boycott
Filed under travel, signs at 11:02 am | Leave a Comment
It’s no secret that some people are boycotting Citgo for various reasons. Me? I’m avoiding them simply because their gas is too expensive:
Sure, gas is more expensive than it used to be, but $22.60 per gallon for regular and $246 per gallon for premium?! The decimal points in their prices have moved from position to position with each passing price change, though never in the correct place. It was amusing at first, but after a couple months, I’m now beginning to wonder.