Live Q&As

I've seen some bikers at off-peak hours, but haven't watched at rush hours. My main concern was whether pedestrians and bikers would intersect in unfortunate ways in the middle of Pennsylvania, but that didn't appear to be a problem.

Do you think autos are having a problem? (That wasn't apparent at the off-peak times when I was watching.)

I don't recall anyone establishing a quota for how many bikes needed to use the new lanes in the early going to consider it a success.

To the best of my knowledge, Gray has not said anything about reversing the bike lane program. It's not exactly a radical effort. Many big cities are trying to make their streets friendlier for cyclists and walkers, just as DC has been doing.

Certainly, Fenty is better known as a cyclist than Gray is, but that doesn't mean Gray would shift policy on this.

Do you folks think he should?

I believe what you've been seeing is utility relocation work, in advance of the long-anticipated reconstruction of that bottleneck at Georgia and Randolph. Utility relocation really annoys travelers. It tends to be disruptive and it lasts a long time. (Utility relocation for the Dulles Metrorail line through Tysons Corner took a couple of years and required frequent lane closings. Utility relocation at the Silver Spring Metro station for the new transit center frusrated a lot of station users because they didn't see a building coming up out of the ground.)

The utility work at Georgia/Randolph should be done by the end of the year, I believe.

I notice I'm getting many more complaints than usual about the accuracy of the message boards. (There are always some, and the message boards never seem free of problems.)

I saw a problem on Friday on the Green/Yellow Line platform at Fort Totten: I was waiting for a Yellow Line train to King Street, and the board showed two trains: a Green Line train in 5 minutes and a Green Line train in 18 minutes. The first train to arrive, two minutes later, was a Yellow Line train.

Others experiencing more than the usual inaccuracies?

Yes, Metro has a big project lined up for the Columbus Day weekend. I'll give you full details on Sunday's Commuter page in The Post, plus I'll do something on the Dr. Gridlock blog before that, but basically, Metro is going to shut McPherson Square and Farragut West for the entire three-day weekend. The Blue/Orange Line platform at Metro Center also will be shut. Metro workers will be replacing track switches at McPherson.

I imagine there will be signs once the law takes effect on Friday, just as DC has signs for its hands-free law.

I'm not an expert on laws, but I doubt states or municipalities are required to post every new traffic law they pass.

The Post's Ashley Halsey III had an interesting story about the issue of cell phone bans: http://wapo.st/aXqEBS

That's different from what the schedule was supposed to be during the day on Sunday. There were supposed to be two Yellow Line trains per hour. This is what Metro said:

"Yellow Line trains will operate approximately every 30 minutes between the Huntington and Mt. Vernon Sq/7th St-Convention Center Metrorail station. ... On Sunday, September 26, Yellow Line trains will depart the Huntington Metrorail station at approximately 11 minutes and 41 minutes after the hour and Yellow Line trains will depart the Mt. Vernon Sq/7th St-Convention Center Metrorail station at approximately 21 minutes and 51 minutes after the hour."

The Post had a good story today by Annys Shin, headlined "Drivers skirt rules on disabled parking." Here's a link: http://wapo.st/9tFfJM

Our latest round of discussions about this started a week ago, over the story about the woman who's car disappeared near the convention center after she used a handicapped tag -- issued for her husband, who wasn't with her -- to park in a handicapped space. She wasn't towed because she abused the handicapped spaced, but many, many people focused on that issue.

HOV lanes and HOT lanes -- where they've been tried -- certainly speed traffic flow in those lanes. They almost certainly reduce travel times in the general purpose lanes just because their construction added lane capacity to the highway.

I think HOV lanes cannot be converted to general purpose lanes under the terms of the federal aid that supported their construction, at least not without federal approval.

One reason we need HOV lanes: We need lanes where buses can have priority. I think a big part of our future congestion fighting program will be encouraging people to take buses, and there has to be an incentive in time saving.

Are you saying that Ohio Drive is completely shut to traffic between 6 and 10 a.m.? That's certainly different from what the National Park Service has been telling me.

There should be "two lanes of inbound traffic only."

I don't recall hearing an August date. What I remember from the NPS announcement in April is that the project would be completed in the fall.

Either that or you're just out of practice. The trains have been under manual control since the June 2009 crash on the Red Line, and they'll stay that way till Metro thinks it's got the automatic train control system fixed and safe. so we don't have another crash.

Meanwhile, some operators are better than others at driving the trains. Many people have written to me with complaints similar to yours.

Metro doesn't want panhandlers in the system, but it's a question of a transit police officer actually spotting someone engaged in that activity. I understand why you don't want to leave the platform to report it. That's probably the way almost everybody feels. One suggestion:

If you've got a phone with you, call the transit police at 202-962-2121 and tell them what you're seeing.

All those things, I think. The only transportation improvement I can think of that's helped I-270 inbound was the doubling up of the exit ramp for the Dulles Toll Road in Virginia. (That's how much volume we have heading from I-270 onto the Beltway and across the Legion Bridge to VA.)

The Maryland State Highway Administration is studying possible improvements for I-270. Could be more HOV, could be express toll lanes, could be the Corridor Cities Transitway. Whatever it is, it's a long way away. There's not much money around for big new transportation projects after the Intercounty Connector.

I'm not aware of anything different this year. Just a guess: There's some issue for those ships with getting dock space, or the unloading schedule or the supply chain farther down the line. Sometimes it's just cheaper for the owners and operators to keep goods on an anchored ship for a little while than to bring them into a dock and unload them.

Delays and cancellations on MARC are not unusual. I don't get many complaints from commuters that they've been completely stranded in DC, rather  that they've had to wait for another, crowded train.

Would this help as a preview? Sign up for the MARC alerts on the line you expect to take. See how often you get a notice about a service disruption and figure how you would deal with it in reality: http://wapo.st/blskOs

That's going to be the responsibility of the District Department of Transportation, which has a very active pedestrian safety program.

To report the problem, use the Mayor's 311 communication center. But it sure wouldn't hurt to let your local Advisory Neighborhood Commission or your council member know about your concern.

First of all, the busted escalators are one of the biggest problems we have in the system. Communications about busted escalators are another problem. I think many of you know that Metro keeps a list of the out of service escalators on its Web site, which is progress. But that's not always up to date, and really, how many people are going to check that status page before they get on the subway?

Many of you know from our previous discussions that if one escalator is busted, or under long-term repair, the one next to it will be turned off so people can walk up or down. (Walking up is really difficult at some of the deep stations.)

Sometimes, Metro tells me, there are problems with the escalator machinery and an escalator can't be made to go in the opposite direction from the one you see it going in. (I kind of doubt that's always the case.)

I just don't see that happening in time to help anybody but the youngest commuters among us. First of all, there's no money around to do that. Virginia doesn't have it. Maryland doesn't have it. The feds maybe someday could scrape it together if both VA and MD were united in asking for it.

Maryland wants to protect the undeveloped areas of Montgomery County. Virginia's state government is in favor of another river crossing, in theory. You wait till a specific crossing point gets named, then see who stands up for it.

You remind me of another thing I've noticed: When you look online for the Next Train arrival times, they don't necessarily match up with the real arrival times at the platforms.

Yes, it has an expiration date of June 30. Every year, it has that same expiration date and every year, the General Assembly extends it till the next June 30. I think that pattern is unlikely to change.