Gridlock

I had to go back to Alexandria, Virginia, today for a meeting.  After my early morning yoga class and a cup of coffee at Starbucks, a friend offered me a ride downtown, where I could pick up the metro.  It wouldn't save any time, but would give us some more time to talk and cut the train ride in half.

We headed down Georgia Avenue in typical morning traffic - heavy, but flowing well.  But eventually we reached a long back up.  Charlie had been pointing out places where he could turn onto alternate routes - I got the sense that it was a bit of a gamble - you never knew if the choice you took would turn out to be better.  Eventually, we took one, as the traffic ahead wasn't moving.

The plan was to go over a couple of blocks and go down 11th street.  But that was similarly contested.  As was 13th street.  As was the cross street that we were on - backed up for several blocks. Way up ahead, at 14th street, a small number of cars, perhaps 2 or 3, would make the left hand turn each light cycle.

Eventually we got to 14th street, which was as far as we could easily go.  We had used up all the Plan Bs.  It was plugged up as well, but after a few blocks traffic thinned out to merely very busy - albeit with some traffic weaving cyclists that were, probably unwisely, putting themselves at the mercy of our attention and reaction time.  Another 15 minutes or so making our way down 14th and then back tracking to Charlie's office and the adjacent metro station, and we went our separate ways.

According to Charlie, this was unusually bad.  I've been downtown a number of times, but never commuted and generally avoided rush hours.  I'm amazed that people will put up with it on a regular basis.