Another Traffic and Routes Thread

So after someone's thread awhile back trying to quantify the cost savings by avoiding the greenway.. and getting nearly all the numbers wrong anyways.. I thought this week I'd take some other routes.

End of previous week and begining of this week has been absymal on the Greenway. At 8:15-8:20 its been taking 45+ minutes to get to Reston. So one day I went the Waxpool way.

First the numbers.. Using my car's trip computer and some estimates. I figure its 7 miles from my house in Ashburn, out waxpool to Rt 28, south to the Toll Road. I don't think the distance variation going the Greenway vs Waxpool is worth mentioning. Once may be longer, but both would be very close (1-2 miles diff top). That kind of difference isn't even worth mentioning.

Some Observations:

-That day, it took me 23 minutes to get to Rt 28/Rt 606 interchange. That was absymal. The backup on Waxpool went further west into Ashburn as far as I could see. Why *anyone* would go this way unless they have to get to Church St or North of that on Rt 28.. I have no idea.

-The people that flat out drive up to the traffic light to turn right to stay on waxpool, and do so from the middle lane. If I had my way.. I'd get out of my car and slash your tires right there. That is not only inconsiderate, its illegal and unsafe. In the almost 7 minutes it took me to get through that traffic light, I saw no less then 6 cars drive up to the light and turn right from the middle lane. If anyone tried to do that while I was at the front, I'd certainly turn wide and force them into the island. People like that don't desire to drive on the roads.

-The traffic at Waxpool's light is nearly the same as the Traffic at Loudon County Parkway. So I don't see much gain from trying to get to LCP over Waxpool except the short segment of Waxpool you save driving on. Tho if I had to drive this way.. driving down shellhorn, and getting on LCP there would probably be the only modification to this route.

-Driving down Moran/etc to get to the post office to by-pass Rt28 is a complete waste. Once you get past Pacific, the traffic opens up and Rt28 is actually wide open south. I actually did 70 on cruise control and never got off cruise control until I hit Rt 606. I don't think their is any benefit to trying to cut down there.. which would introduce more distance, driving on slower roads, more stop signs, and then having to sit on the lights on Rt 606. At least once you are up to that light on Waxpool where you'd turn, you are almost done. Stay on waxpool.

So summing up the Waxpool route.. I think the best way would probably be to go down shellhorn, across that 'road' to get to LCP, and then take Waxpool to Rt 28 south to the tollroad. However, I can't see why you'd do that considering the CONSISTANT traffic on Waxpool. On the bad days, the Greenway is as slow, but thats comparing the worst days. Waxpool is completely out of the question as far as I'm concerned.

Really the best way for me is Greenway to Rt 606 through Herdon as an alt route if the Greenway/toll road is backed up. But recently the backups have been starting further and further back on the Greenway.

And the Greenway's plans to add the 3rd lane the rest of the way out to Leesburg is only going to make it worse

-Steve

 

So for the person who was trying to draw 'cost' comparisons.. avoiding the greenway to get to teh Toll-Road.. really the only cost difference is the $2.30 per way it costs to go on the greenway. ($2.40 - 0.10 discount for SmartTag).

So $4.60 a day x 5 days = $23.00 a week vs. 50 minutes a day x 5 = ~4 hours a week of your time.

On a decent day, it takes me ~20-25 minutes to go the greenway all the way to whiele ave. Waxpool would take almost that long just to get to the Toll-road.

I personally use a hybrid. I drive the greenway to work, but drive Rt 28 on the way home (but I don't get on Waxpool). I figure the $2.30 I save every day not going the greenway home more then pays for my Gym membership.. which is up on Rt7 which is why I don't drive the Greenway home.

Rt28 North now in the evening is fine since the interchanges opened.. but Waxpool is still miserable.

-Steve

 

What's the obsession with distance based tolls? They will not do something that lowers their income.. so that means overall length tolls must go UP to off-set the loss of income if they lessen the short distance tolls. And if you look.. here in Ashburn we are about at the mid point of the greenway.. so if one over simplifies.. our tolls would likely not change much.

Only hope on tolls is to get some better price controls or subsidized help from the state.

The fact that they claimed they couldn't even burden their existing capital bond expenses.. yet they are expanding again goes to show they will continue to raise the tolls. 5 years from now we'll hear the same arguement 'we spent too much and toll income isn't enough at current rates'. Our only hope is really the state taking it over.. which I imagine we'd be long gone before that's even a reality

-Steve

 

Well, given the short distance (~7 miles).. this route would have to be statistically significant portion of your total miles to even matter.

Unless your car gets double the milage.. and you don't barely drive anywhere else. I don't think the cummulative effect of the MPG on this short amount of road would really be that significant.

For me.. the difference between my 'average' MPG I get out of my car vs my worst case MPG in stop-and-go traffic is not that different. I know for my car, the MPG does not go up significantly unless I am in a pure highway driving environment for extended periods.. and even then my MPG only goes up about 8 MPG. But that has alot to do with my car and driving style.

-Steve