But Metro was built with the District as the area’s hub, with spokes radiating from it.
People trying to beat the traffic are caught in traffic. Outbound I-66 is congested even at 2 pm on weekdays. Now they extend from 6 to 10 in the morning and from 4 to 8 in the evening. The region has 337,000 government jobs, with loads of consultants attached to them. Fairfax County has an unemployment rate of 2.5 percent. It’s a nightmare-such wild growth without any road improvements.īusiness in our region is booming. In Loudoun County, the eighth fastest-growing county in the country in Prince William County, one of the fastest and increasingly in Stafford County. There are subdivisions for 5,000 people in a clump, with no improvements in either mass transit or roads. County supervisors keep expanding housing for these additional people in clumps outside the Beltway. Shortly before Shaffer’s retirement, we talked about what he’s learned.īecause more and more people are moving here, which is because we have jobs. They live in Centreville and have three children: Mary is a hairstylist, Carrie does marketing and event planning for the State Department Federal Credit Union, and Peter is an electrician in Baltimore. Shaffer’s wife of 28 years, Vi, is a research vice president with the Gartner Group, an IT consulting company.
#DR. GRIDLOCK SERIES#
He coauthored a book on a Washington sting operation- Surprise! Surprise!: How the Lawmen Conned the Thieves -and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for a series exposing corruption in local poverty programs.Īlong with writing his column, Shaffer hosted an online chat about traffic and gave several speeches a week to civic organizations. Gridlock, Shaffer was a reporter and editor. Peter Jay, a Post correspondent in Vietnam, liked Shaffer’s articles and later hired him for the Metro section.īefore becoming Dr. During 27 months there, he taught English, adopted a Vietnamese orphan, and wrote articles for the Pacific Stars & Stripes. He was attending the University of Southern California when he was drafted into the Navy and sent to Vietnam. While in high school, Shaffer became a sportswriter for the local paper. His father managed a dairy plant, and his mother was a housewife. Shaffer, 61, was born in San Bernardino, California. Some didn’t really care if I did anything concrete for them-they were just grateful for the chance to vent.” “I got 500-plus e-mails a week since day one of this column. Shaffer has retired from the Washington Post after spending the last 20 of his 35 years there fielding commuters’ gripes in his Dr. “We’re heading for a transportation catastrophe.” Washington traffic doesn’t just seem to be getting worse it is getting worse-by the day,” says Ron Shaffer. What else is going on in transportation? Share the news in the comments below.Ken Adelman has been conducting What I’ve Learned interviews since 1988. USA Today reports that the greenest homes are those near public transit, based on a study from the Environmental Protection Agency. Here's a guide to red-light cameras around the region compiled by the Post's James Buck.ĭelta Air Lines, which has been very active in social media offering assistance to its customers, takes its Delta Assist brand to Facebook. Red-light cameras in Falls Church are snapping pics of hundreds of cars. Suzanne Peck, Metro's assistant general manager in charge of technology, has stepped down, according to the Washington Times. Metro officials have said such inspections have withheld legal challenges in other states, but said they will meet with the American Civil Liberties Union to discuss their concerns. The ACLU plans to sue Metro over its controversial bag check program, according to this report from NBC Washington. Programs from Arlington, Maryland Area Regional Commuter trains and Metro may all be in danger. Washington Post staff writer Ben Pershing writes that funding for some transit security programs may be in danger as Congress considers budget cuts. Michael Perkins, writing on Greater Greater Washington, says Arlington is examining ways of gathering statistical data on parking usage to improve enforcement and provide information about what spaces are occupied. What else is going on in transportation? Let's take a look. I passed swarms of cyclists using the new bike lanes on 15th Street NW as I walked north from McPherson Square Metro station. Gridlock has details on what you should watch out for.Ĭapital Bikeshare riders seem to be out in droves this Friday. Rail work is the top story of the weekend and beyond, with a major shutdown on the eastern ends of the Orange and Blue lines, and traffic tie-ups in Northern Virginia due to the advance of the subway extension into Loudoun County.