It's Official.....

That's right, it's official..... I officially HATE DC traffic now. For those that know me, they know that this doesn't come as any surprise to them. This morning, just really irked me for some reason. For the last week and some change, while my brother was taking a vacation from work, I had been riding the train to and from work everyday. I found this to be quite a relaxing commuting option. The Fredericksburg VRE train station is about 10 minutes from the house, I hop on the train, grab a seat, and wait until we get to Crystal City a little more than an hour and fifteen minutes later. That being said, I decided to try this out for a bit longer, say, by purchasing myself a monthly pass for March to see if it just wasn't some sort of honeymoon.

Well, since I have to go out to Dulles International Airport to catch a plane this afternoon to Columbia, SC, for work, I had to drive in this morning. It didn't take me long to get around 35 miles up the road, however, about 10 minutes away from the 234 commuter lot, my father gives me a call to tell me that there have been 4 accidents on I-95. I'm thinking, swell.... I took it as a bad omen of things to come. When I dropped by the 234 commuter lot to pick up some slugs, there were no people and a line of 15 cars... Strike two...... After waiting about 20 minutes to pick someone up. Then, when I do get on the HOV lanes and get up the road about 10 minutes, the thing is slammed, both lanes, all the way up to the Pentagon.

HOV lanes in Northern Virginia are a fantastic idea, especially on I-95, it's HOV-3, and until hybrid vehicles started being mass produced, you could get up and down the freeway with smooth sailing. However, VDOT, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to grant an exemption to the HOV-3 rule to those who drive clean fuel cars, in order to give people an incentive to buy them. Well, guess what?!?!?!?! People are buying these things like hotcakes now. At the middle point of the year last year, VDOT, once again, in it's infinite wisdom, decides to extend the exemption until the end of 2006. Granted, this was a great idea at the time, but, when I see 5 out of 6 cars, like I did this morning, are hybrids with only 1 person in them, that gets me going. It tells me the exemption needs to be terminated.

This is just another great reason why I think I should continue to ride the VRE to and from work, so I don't have to put up with the wonderful traffic on I-95..... What a terrible morning to drive in.......