ANYTHING GOES: On bad traffic and my five-minute commute

Deeds, McDonnell, Anderson, Nichols, Marshall, Bell, Torian, Lopez . . . ENOUGH!

OK, I think I’ve gotten the election out of my system.

This week, I thought I would talk instead about traffic.

I come from the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area of North Carolina, where traffic means having to wait an extra half hour to get somewhere — if that.

Of course, around rush hour on the Raleigh beltline, I could still find myself cursing with the best of road ragers, but that seems like a pleasant memory in contrast to those few times I have ventured onto
Interstate 66 at quitting time. Or, for that matter, when I hop on Interstate 95, trying to make it back to Raleigh to visit my folks. I guarantee I move no further than 15 miles in an hour.

Spillover traffic even affects me inside Manassas. I was amazed when I noticed that, if I started from Centreville Road where it crosses Sudley Road, and travelled all the way down Sudley to I-66, it could
take me 15 to 20 minutes to make it the whole way. Of course, I only realized this after I was late for the same appointment multiple times in one month because I did not count on the traffic delay.

Despite these complaints, I am extremely fortunate. I live about five minutes (via car) from the News & Messenger building in Manassas. I am maybe 25 minutes from our building in Woodbridge.

I don’t have to wake up early to begin the epic drive toward Washington, D.C. I don’t have to fight for parking at the Vienna Metro. I don’t have to crowd onto the Virginia Railway Express with strangers
and rely on the whims of VRE fate to get me to work on time.

All I have to do is get up, have some coffee, take a shower, get dressed, hop in my car, and five minutes later I’m at work. Simple, easy and pleasant.

Now, I have plenty of friends who do have to brave the traffic into D.C. or its closer suburbs everyday.

One of these friends tells me about her insane behaviors, which she displays while she battles a never-ending metal wall of traffic — cursing, suggestive gesturing, reckless driving maneuvers, etc.

I have the pleasure of experiencing first-hand the influence of Northern Virginia traffic on the driving behavior of another friend.

You see, driving in traffic has so affected her that she displays the same crazy behavior whether she is driving in heavy traffic or not. Sudden swerves, yelling and frequent dirty words can be elicited from
her if she sees minor traffic infractions even on a relatively peaceful road in the city.

It seems that the stress of heavy traffic has produced a permanent state of driving anxiety in her. I watch her with amusement, thinking that if I had to deal with heavy traffic, surely I wouldn’t become a
crazy person. But given my penchant for nutty thoughts, emotions and behaviors even in the privacy of my home, I would have to call that wishful thinking.

Of course, with the elections just around the corner, we have all been inundated with a slew of proposals to fix transportation and make driving a little more peaceful.

However, though I have been here only a few years, I find myself already despairing that any solution will actually fix matters in the long term.

Sure, we can build, widen, come up with innovative ideas, create fancy organizations, invent commissions or whatever, but it’s not as if the metro area is ever going to reach some sort of stabilization
point where our transportation infrastructure is permanently able to accommodate drivers and riders.

The population will continue to grow, old transportation solutions will crumble, new ones will replace them and, let’s face it, traffic will always be a problem.

I certainly hope someone can come up with a way to fix things, but I’m not hopeful. This might be a perpetual war that we just cannot win.

Alex Granados is the editorial page editor for the News & Messenger. He will be thinking of you while he enjoys his five-minute commute into work. If you want to call him when you’re stuck in traffic, call
703-878-8069. Or e-mail him at agranados@insidenova.com.