Live Q&As

I've seen some similar comments on various postings following Metro's announcement Friday that the Metro board wants Interim General Manager Richard Sarles to stay on as the permanent boss. He was one of three finalists for the job.

I disagree with Sarles on certain policies, such as his decision last month to treat all riders as terror suspects and have the transit police randomly select certain riders to prove their innocence through a bag check.

Despite that, I'm not sure I understand the comments expressing overall dissatisfaction with his one-year tenure in the interim post. Perhaps some of you would like to write in about that and we can discuss it some more.

I've seen bus drivers change shifts at the ends of the line and at various points along routes, including along Georgia Avenue on the 70s line, but am not sure how the decision is made on selecting the point.

Just a guess: That the point selected is either at the end of a line or near a bus garage or a bus route that connects with a garage.

The scenario you're describing doesn't sound as bad to me as the delays that occur at the start of a route, where the passengers must remain standing outside the bus -- in the cold or other bad weather -- while the transition is made.

I'm not aware of any local highway department that doesn't use rock salt at some stage of its anti-icing program. The biggest thing around here in the past couple of years has been the emphasis on pre-treating the highways with salt brine many hours before a storm arrives, to prevent the ice from forming a bond with the pavement.

That seems to be having good results, but is not used when a the forecast says the storm will start as rain, since the rain would just wash away the brine treatment.

Does any one know of a highway department that does without rock salt completely?

Saw a driver do that last night on Capitol Hill. In Maryland and Virginia, drivers can make a left turn on red from a one-way street onto a one-way street, but it's illegal in DC.

From time to time, readers write in to ask about this, usually after they've been stopped at a light in DC and had a driver behind them honk for them to turn.

I'm not aware of anything in the DC traffic law that specifically bans parking on bridges. But there should be some sign stating the parking rules on Conn. Ave, a major commuter route. One sign that parking isn't allowed would be the absence of meters.

Arlington's federal lawsuit claims that officials have not properly considered the environmental impact of creating High Occupancy Toll lanes along I-95/395. The lawsuit still is in the courts. The Virginia government still would like to build the HOT lanes. (This lawsuit doesn't affect the HOT lanes construction along the Beltway in Virginia.)

I think you're looking at the District Department of Transportation's reconstruction of the connections to the 11th Street Bridge. Drivers can see the new spans for the bridge rising between the two old ones in the Anacostia River.

Along 295, you see construction underway for the ramps and bridges that will connect those new spans to the highway. The two new freeway bridges are scheduled to be done around the end of this year. I think the construction of the third span, the one designed to provide a link for local traffic, will take a year beyond that.

This morning's commute was one of the worst we've had in a long time, whether people were driving or riding Metro. A very large water main broke in Prince George's County, closing part of the Beltway, and Metro had a cracked rail at Rockville.

The transportation infrastructure is stressed when it's very cold or very hot.

It's not terribly unusual for Metro to discover a crack in a rail. Usually, what happens is that a crew goes out and stabilizes the rail, then Metro restores service, with speed restrictions, till a crew can go out overnight and replace the rail.

There's a fairly extensive program to replace aging equipment all along the Red Line. I'm not sure that the occasional busted rail tells us anything in particular about the state of Metro.

I just mentioned the maintenance program on the Red Line in response to the earlier comment on this morning's terrible commute in the cold, but I'm not saying this is going to make a huge difference in what you're commute will be like in the near future.

The Red Line maintenance program, for example, is a longterm effort to deal with the problems of an aging system. It's the right thing to do, but in the short run, what you'll notice most is the increasing amount of track work and the resulting disruptions from single-tracking of trains around the work zones. The maintenance program gets much more aggressive in 2011.

I think the managers of the Dulles rail project would say that the construction along Route 7 in Tysons Corner is the most difficult. The work along Route 123 is mostly confined to the north side of the roadway. The work along the Dulles Toll Road is largely confined to the median.

But along Route 7, it's necessary to eliminate the service roads, shift all the travel lanes outward, and create a median that will not only contain the new rail line but also two new stations. The utility relocation alone took a couple of years, and required the disruption of businesses along the route.

The only underground part of the thing is the short tunnel from Route 123 to Route 7. That was dug through the natural high point of Fairfax County. The grade would have been too steep for trains if the tracks were laid at the surface through there.

If I'm picturing this correctly, it's what's known as a HAWK signal. You won't believe what that stands for: High-intensity Activated crossWalK.

They are unusual around here, but not exactly rare. The District, for example, has one on Georgia Avenue, just south of Silver Spring.

They get placed at spots where pedestrians are at risk, even in a crosswalk. Engineers do studies and first decide that a standard traffic signal isn't the best solution. That might be because they think the standard signal would make the location less safe for both drivers and pedestrians.

I've watched how pedestrians respond to some of the, so I know you're right when you say that one of the issues is that some pedestrians just ignore them. Sometimes, they won't bother pushing the button to activate the lights, which are very good at getting drivers to stop. Sometimes, they won't bother to use the crosswalk at all.

I don't find the HAWK signals confusing for pedestrians as much as I find the pedestrians just ignoring them.

I haven't seen this, but will take a look. Driving through the HOT lanes construction zone, which includes about 14 miles of the western side of the Beltway in Virginia, is a real challenge because of the lane shifts around the interchanges, bridges and overpasses, all of which are being rebuilt to accommodate the four extra lanes of the Beltway.

The situation is a bit odd. Sarles was 65 when hired last year, but I don't believe he was checked out mentally or emotionally at any point in his tenure. Metro officials made a point of saying that while he was the interim leader, he wasn't hired to be caretaker. He's had full authority.

On the other hand, let me reproduce a quote from Sarles that appeared in Ann Scott Tysons's story on his hiring March 5, 2010:

"I have been asked why would I want this job, and if I want the permanent GM job," he said. "Let me be very clear, first, that I am not a candidate for the permanent GM job. I am taking this position as the interim GM because Metro is a vital public transportation system not only in this region but as a symbol for this entire country."

Any long trip in the DC region -- whether by road or transit -- involves a great deal of uncertainty. When I was writing my story for Sunday's Commuter page in The Post, Ron Kirby of the Transportation Planning Board pointed out to me that commuters hate long trips but what really kills them is the uncertainty about when they'll get there. Long drives, and even long Metrorail trips, lack predictability -- as you can see from the reports about this morning's commute.

There are many communities in the DC area, where housing, jobs, commerce, entertainment and transit are close together -- just not enough of them for our huge population.

Outside of DC, Bethesda is such a community. So is Arlington in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. But of course, you'll pay a lot of money for that.

I think I'll post your question on the Dr. Gridlock blog this week, and we'll see if we can get some other suggestions and guidance for you.

Yes, it's illegal. Police won't accept the excuse that you entered the HOV lanes before the rules took effect.

Thanks for the feedback on our earlier exchange about the shift changes for bus drivers.

October 2012

Thanks. Pedestrian safety has been one of the areas where traffic engineering has been making some decent progress over the past couple of decades, but there's still a long way to go.

Haven't got an opening date yet, though it should be soon.