Live Q&As

First and foremost: Any politician who suggests that governments are engaged in solving our congestion problems is blowing smoke.

There is no serious plan in Virginia, Maryland or Congress offered by either Republicans or Democrats to solve our congestion problems. The most we can hope for is that at some point they will find a way to fix the stuff we already have -- but we're not there yet.

OK. Got that out of my system. Virginia: No bill ever really dead in the General Assembly until the end of the veto session that follows the regular session. So it's still difficult to predict the outcome. There could be some agreement on a modest increase in transportation spending that would allow officials to claim they got something done.

The Maryland Transportation Authority operates the Intercounty Connector and is responsible for toll collection.

The monthly fee for a Maryland E-ZPass account is $1.50. It's waived for the previous month if a driver used the E-ZPass three times at Maryland toll facilities.

Yes, the state is trying to cover its administrative costs on both E-ZPass accounts and the cost of tracking the registered owner of a vehicle that used the ICC without an E-ZPass.

There are things the sign tells you and things it doesn't.

A through driver trying to decide which side of the Beltway to take to reach Virginia would learn whether there's a delay on the Beltway in Prince George's or a delay in Montgomery County around, say, I-270 and the Legion Bridge, a traditionally difficult zone for travelers.

What you don't learn is the condition of either side of the Beltway in Virginia, so if you're heading for the Springfield interchange to continue south on I-95, you wouldn't know about a traffic jam around Tysons, or around the Telegraph Road interchange.

By the way, I use that interchange a lot -- last night, for example -- and haven't noticed any slowdown before the sign followed by a pick up in speed just afterward.

If you go to one of these meetings and comment on service and communication, you're addressing core goals that Metro is setting for itself in the Momentum plan. So go talk about those essential elements.

In a blog posting last week, I wrote about the big gap between Metro's goals and its performance, as illustrated by the Green Line stranding of two weeks ago. Here's a link: http://wapo.st/XGdFsV

For additional information about Metro's problems with communication and accountability, see the story Dana Hedgpeth did last week on Metro's response to The Post's request for Metro documents concerning last summer's Green Line stranding.

You'll see that about half a year after The Post's request, Metro handed over a copy of its "final report" on the incident, in which scores of riders wound up on the tracks. The "final report," as Dana noted in her story: "includes nothing about how Metro plans to prevent riders from fleeing stranded trains or about how the transit agency would better inform riders caught in a dangerous incident."

Dana's story: http://wapo.st/XY7heW

This is a Montgomery County fiasco. The county government is talking about the possibility of the downtown transit center opening in September, but There aren't many reasons to believe that will happen.

The idea of collecting transit services in one place and using it as a focal point for downtown development was pretty good. The execution was terrible.

It isn't so much that this moderately sized concrete and steel garage is taking longer to complete than the Beltway HOT lanes. The issue is more that bus riders and pedestrians have been inconvenienced for years by this project.

Use the mayor's 311 system to report that. You can call 311 or use the online form at http://311.dc.gov.

I think the pedestrian tunnels between Farragut North and Farragut West and between Metro Center and Gallery Place would be a huge improvement. And the price tag also would be huge: About a billion dollars. And that estimate is in 2012 dollars, without any detailed engineering studies, that might reveal additional costs. In the draft of Metro's long-range plan, the thing called "Momentum," these tunnels are a target for 2025.  But my guess is that very few people commuting today will ever walk through those tunnels. (See my response to the first question today.)

Metro ridership dropped on weekends last year. If that's because people are discouraged about the weekend service, it would make sense. Why would anyone ride Metrorail on a weekend if they didn't have to?

I agree that Metro needs to do the work. I also agree that weekends are the best times to concentrate a lot of work, because it gives workers some continuous time to be out on the tracks and platforms while the ridership is relatively low -- low compared to weekdays.

But after a few years of this, I don't see why the communications with weekend riders can't be better. At least, Metro's online Trip Planner should reflect the delays.

This is going to continue for four more years, at this intense level.

Very, very rarely do I see drivers observing the speed limit on any of those roadways, including Georgia Avenue. I do see a lot of bad driving, including the frequent lane changes the commenter referred to.

As for the Intercounty Connector, I really doubt there were many drivers who greeted the 5 mph increase in the speed limit by saying, "Wonderful. Now I can save 90 seconds on the cross-county trip." It's a rare driver who obeys the speed limit on the ICC, so there's little benefit in raising the speed limit.

I think planners at the city, county, state and federak levels have plenty of good ideas, and the ones I know care very much about helping people get around.

But what good does it do to have a bunch of talented people coming up with great plans that are going to be placed on shelves till the next generation of planners comes up with a new set of plans to sit on those shelves?

As the commenter so rightly notes, the plans are subject to political decisions -- or non-decisions.

Call 202-637-1328 and tell them, or use this comment form: http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/contact_us/ridercomment.cfm

Or contact one of the Metro board members from Virginia: Mary Hynes, Catherine Hudgins and Jim Dyke.

We were there to watch World Cup luge. But we also enjoyed the 10 inches of snow. Won't be seeing much of that around here.

Over at the Miracle on Ice Arena, we watched some figure skating -- part of the Empire State Games held this weekend.

Still on the to do list: Skating on the Olympic oval where Eric Heiden won five gold medals.

Lake Placid is great, winter or summer.

I missed something, and in a quick check, can't find anything in The Post archives that criticizes the HOT lanes for not making money, or reports any financial results.

My own view, as expressed in newspaper columns and on the Dr. Gridlock blog, is that it will take about three years for us to figure out whether the HOT lanes are fulfilling the vision of their advocates. I'm very hopeful that they will, but my concern is whether travelers find them useful, not whether the operator makes money.

The money issue is interesting. It would suggest whether we're likely to see many more HOT lanes developed in the DC area. But what I really want to see is whether commuters develop an interest in trips of reliable length, whether enough buses take advantage of them and whether carpoolers go for the E-ZPass Flex transponders to get a free ride.

There is no maximum on the toll rates. The tolls exist partly so the operator can make money in the construction investment and partly to regulate the flow of traffic.

I can't imagine why people would drive in them if they think the toll is too high. That's a bit of self-regulation.

My concern on the tolls has to do with what you might call the free market aspect. For the dynamic tolling system to regulate traffic flow, many drivers must make their lane choices based on what the message boards say as they approach the decision point.

But many drivers say that's hard to do, because they can't determine traffic conditions in the regular lanes farther along the Beltway.

I've been advising drivers to test the lanes, see if they actually save time, then decide to use them when they must keep to a schedule. So no instant decision-making.

I still think that's a good approach -- used it myself last week and got to a meeting on time when I would have been 20 minutes late taking the regular lanes. But my suggestion doesn't conform to the theory of dynamic tolling. For that to work, drivers must make their decisions based on the current toll rate.

It's not a problem now, when the express lanes are lightly used, but it could be when traffic picks up.

I haven't heard much about accidents since that first week the lanes opened. (I agree with you about the insanity of risking lives to save a buck.)

My own experience is that the entrances are not confusing. You have to pass so many signs to get in the wrong lanes. What I think can be confusing are the left-hand entrances and exits to the lanes. That's not what Beltway drivers are used to, and it can be disorienting.

I think you will get used to this, though I don't like the setup. Those outer lanes are the emergency breakdown lanes at times other than rush hours. That reddish color was added last year to help distinguish the lanes from regular travel lanes.

For safety, I would much prefer that they be used only as breakdown lanes rather than travel lanes. But the Virginia Department of Transportation decided that the traffic volume was so great on I-66 that the lanes needed to be open to all traffic at peak periods.

I can't think of another place in the D.C. area where drivers are allowed to use the breakdown lanes at rush hours. There are places where buses are permitted to travel in breakdown lanes at certain hours.

Police could give the driver a ticket for impeding the flow of traffic. Going too slow can be just as dangerous as going too fast.

On summer weekends, the Route 301 traffic can be heavy. I'd rate it as a toss up as to which is better, 301 or 95 and the Beltway.

SmarTrip cards recognize the virtual tunnel between the two Farragut stations, though none exists as of now between Metro Center and Gallery Place.

Before opting for the real tunnels, I'd give virtual tunnels every chance to succeed. And I'm not sure they will. For one thing, it's difficult to spot the signs that explain the free transfer. For another, I think a lot of people just would rather not go outside.

I wouldn't take any of these long-range proposals too, too seriously at the moment. Let's hear from some officials who say they actually are proposing the tunnels and seeking the money to build them.

I'm very sure many drivers treat our traffic laws as advisories, but I don't believe that should discourage police from enforcing them whenever feasible.