Great! 2 backups, one when the X appears miles before the accident, and then again at the accident via rubber neckers. VDOT cannot be relied upon to make any major traffic related decisions at this point. They have failed. You think George and 15 years is a big enough sample size?
Invictius, you will be fine. Even if you are in traffic, everyone else is too.
gasrant
It amazes me the amount of resistance that is met by anyone trying to install a monorail, train, subway, any mass transportation options. How can we pay for it?! The horror! How does a govt pay for anything. Tax income. Or, the modern trend is by selling off our public land to private contractors to build toll roads, of course. 495 Express Lanes, ICC in Maryland. It's not just Virginia.
Only by heavy taxing of gasoline like the models in place in Europe, can we open the roads once again. It's that simple. Our gas is only expensive because oil company's are looting us. Refineries got on board looting us around Katrina. We were told the prices would never go back down. My refining stocks rocked.
We barely tax our gas in the US, relative to other countries that see a clear problem with cheap fuel. Try and impose a 5 cent tax on gas and the masses moan and protest over $25 a month. Yet gas prices spike a dollar a year and everyone blindly accepts it without even knowing why it happened.
The cost: air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, high and unpredictable commute times, toll roads, texters drifting and driving slow as ****, horrible road conditions in need of constant repair, and presumed deteriorating health are but a few. Someone is going to do a study one day on air quality on roads as you sit in traffic. Carbon monoxide is the silent killer. Maybe that is what we need to hear.
The only thing I haven't heard people raving about is the HOV extension on 95 through Quantico. I guess everyone realizes the current dump and merge at mm152 is a terrible situation, what with the 20 miles of backup it occasionally causes.
/gasrant