A Nightmarish Commute

(Friday) February 12, 2010

Outlandish. Dreadful. Horrendous. Terrible. Those are some of the choice and cleaner adjectives area motorists are using to describe their commute into Washington this morning, as federal workers return to their work stations for the first time this week.  It was a commute from hell, and that was before a six-car Red Line Metro train bound for Shady Grove derailed at the Farragut North Metrorail station.

Each day Washingtonians endure the second worst commute in the entire nation, but this morning’s commute was probably the worst of the worst. The backup on I-66 was two hours long. Metro riders encountered closed stations.  Bus riders found Metro buses were unable to operate on some routes because of road conditions. Commuters can expect a repeat during the evening commute, warns AAA Mid-Atlantic.

“This is another one for the record books,” one commuter complained in an email to AAA Mid-Atlantic. The commute from Vienna (no Metro at the end of the line) into Washington took the carpoolers three hours and 10 minutes this morning. He noted, “We left my house at 7:50 a.m.”

It took an hour and a half from Bethesda, one worker whined. The commute from Kensington into the District down Connecticut Avenue was a two hour ordeal, grumbled another commuter. “It was probably one of the worst commute in the Washington area since 9/11,” said a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

The problem? Snow-covered lanes on major commuter routes created chokepoints. Many city streets are still covered by the snow dropped during the mid-week blizzard.

AAA Mid-Atlantic has nearly four million members in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. It provides a wide range of personal insurance, travel, financial and automotive services through its 50-plus retail branches, regional operations centers, and the Internet.  For more information, please visit our web site at www.AAA.com.