Monday, July 2, 2012
All drivers can use the lanes inside the Beltway during the afternoon rush
Update (2:30 p.m.): The Virginia Department of Transportation has lifted the high-occupancy vehicle requirements of two or more passengers for today's afternoon commute on westbound Interstate 66 inside the Beltway. VDOT has also lifted the requirements for both the morning and afternoon commutes Tuesday. HOV requirements will be lifted for I-66 eastbound commuters in the morning, and I-66 westbound commuters in the afternoon. Regular HOV restrictions will remain in effect on I-66 outside the Beltway and on I-95/395. ----- Original: HOV Requirements on I-66E Lifted for Monday Commute The Virginia Department of Transportation will lift high occupancy vehicle (HOV) requirements for Monday morning's rush hour to ease traffic in the aftermath…
Friday, June 29, 2012
Work scheduled 10 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday; fourth lane will close for 30-minute increments throughout the night
Drivers should expect delays on I-66 West near its intersection with I-495 Friday night as the Virginia Department of Transportation removes an old overhead box girder as part of the 495 HOT LANES project. Between 10 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday, VDOT will close three lanes of I-66 west at I-495, and drivers will be limited to a single lane. After midnight, VDOT said in a release, the fourth lane will close for up to 30 minutes at a time throughout the night; from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m., there will be a one hour temporary stoppage. The exit from I-495 south to I-66 West, Exit 49, will also be closed. Crews will be directing drivers to continue to exit 52B, Little River Turnpike (Route 236) east and follow signs to I-495 north to take Exit 49A…
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Residents at Wednesday night's meeting say they want more bike lanes, shoulders and traffic calming.
Residents told planners Wednesday they need more biking structures and bike lanes on service roads that parallel major roads like Route 50 during the last of two countywide public meetings on the Fairfax County's Bicycle Transportation Master Plan. About 40 residents came to Wednesday night's meeting at the George Mason Regional Library, where they viewed a final draft of the plan and offered feedback to representatives from the Toole Design Group, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and more. Fairfax County officials have hosted public meetings throughout the county over the past year to solicit feedback from residents in those areas about their bicycle needs. County officials also hosted a meeting in Reston on Tuesday. Goals…
Friday, June 1, 2012
County, rail officials unveil new structure at Orange Line's busiest station
On a typical weekday, 13,682 customers board Orange Line trains at the Vienna Metro Station. By the end of the day, Metro estimates just as many travel back. And until this week, those some 27,364 passengers filed onto just two escalators and an elevator, creating gridlock on the platform and a bottleneck at the exit gates -- neither of which are ideal day to day, let alone in an emergency. On Thursday, Fairfax County and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority officials unveiled a new staircase both to improve access to trains and offer customers more options at what they called the busiest station on the system's Orange Line. "It's a safety issue as well as a matter of convenience," said Fairfax County Sup. Linda Smyth (Providence…
Monday, May 14, 2012
Celebration culminates with pit stops for "Bike to Work Day" on May 18
Local and national bike organizations are encouraging cyclists to ditch their cars this week for "Bike to Work Week," a national celebration aiming to encourage citizens across the country to bike to work, or for pleasure, on a regular basis. The week culminates in Bike to Work Day on Friday, held rain or shine, when cyclists can make a "pit stop" at one of 58 locations across the D.C. region for T-shirts, refreshments, giveaways and bicycling advice. There are nine pit stops planned across Fairfax County. The two most popular stops are in Reston and Vienna, at the Washington and Old Dominion Trail's intersection with Maple Avenue, Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling Bruce Wright said. This year, Whole Foods Market, Bikes at Vienna and …
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
With third straight year of zero funding for program, cyclists say some transportation improvements are threatened; county to look toward Arlington for model
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors formally adopted a $6.7 billion budget Tuesday morning, a spending plan which put aside more money for human services, schools and employee pay but, for the third consecutive year, not bicycle programs. Although the county funds a full-time bicycle coordinator in its transportation department, the bicycle program has gone without funding since fiscal year 2011, according to Fairfax County staff reports provided to supervisors this year. The county's formal bike program was launched in 2006 as the Comprehensive Bicycle Initiative. Early projects included developing the county's first bike route map, retrofitting connector buses, and adding bike racks to county park and ride lots. The program received…
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Board votes to eliminate 'peak of the peak' surcharge at Thursday meeting, but moves forward on other increases
Metro riders will pay at least $0.10 more per off-peak ride — and up to $.75 more during peak hours — in a fare adjustment passed Thursday by the transit authority's board of directors as part of a $1.58 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2013. The increases, which also include a $0.25 hike in parking lot and garage fees and a $0.20 charge for paying bus fares with cash instead of a SmarTrip card, would take effect July 1, the Washington Post reports. The fare hikes are part of a plan to close a projected $103 million deficit. Initially, the board had predicted it would face a $116 million shortfall. Metro would eliminate the "peak of the peak" surcharge passed on to riders during rush hour, which was introduced with the system's …
Monday, April 16, 2012
Gov. McDonnell says $300 million more for Silver Line might mean scrapping 40 other projects.
Gov. Bob McDonnell’s administration said last week 40 transportation projects across the state would be gutted if the state legislature includes another $300 million in bonding for Metro's Silver Line Phase 2. The projects include three in Northern Virginia: Route 1 widening in Prince William County and the interchange at Route 659 and the Battlefield Parkway extension in Loudoun County, the Washington Post reports. Most House and Senate budget negotiators agreed last week to a two-year, $85 billion spending plan. But negotiators stripped $300 million for the Silver Line from that plan after Gov. Bob McDonnell announced he would not support the extra Metro funding. That position was a departure from his previous offers to direct more of …
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
After $300 million in metro funding stripped from state budget, Senator says Governor's office has sent mixed messages this session
Gov. Bob McDonnell's decision to withdraw support for $300 million in extra funding for the Silver Line last week is a departure from his previous offers to direct more of Virginia's spending plan to the project, says State Sen. Janet Howell, the latest in what she calls a string of "mixed signals" this session about the governor's position on the issue. The lack of support prompted state budget negotiators to strip the metro funding from the proposed plan, Howell (D-Fairfax) told the Washington Post, despite recent offers from McDonnell to contribute as much as $200 million toward the rail that will eventually run from Falls Church to Dulles Airport. Howell called the back and forth "galling," saying there had always been some offer on …
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Incident that shut down HOV lane remains under investigation
A four-vehicle crash Tuesday afternoon on I-66 West remains under investigation by the Virginia State Police. Spokeswoman Deborah Cox said two of the drivers involved in the crash were charged with reckless driving and following too closely, respectively. According to the department's preliminary investigation, the crash was a result of a chain reaction that began when a Dodge Caravan, traveling between Gallows Road and the Nutley Street exit, struck a Honda motorcycle. The impact pushed the motorcycle into a Subaru Outback, Cox said, which struck a Ford van. All of the vehicles were traveling in the left HOV lane. The motorcycle operator and the driver and passenger of the Subaru were transported to the hospital with non-life threatening …
Bob T
6:26 pm on Friday, June 8, 2012
Out of a $6.7 billion budget the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors had better find a way to allocated several million dollars to bicycle programs that immediately take cars off the county's overcrowded roads. If they can't figure it out then maybe it is time for a new county board. more ›