HOV Lanes Closed Friday

I assume they will do it 2 ways, if only buses are running. From what I could see in the pentagon parking lot, there were maybe 10 buses.

Well I just got into work, took me over an hour. I was watching the HOV lanes from about 6:25 to 7:35 and the only vehicles in them where trucks putting down orange cones and 1 cop heading southbound along 395 HOV. So they had to close HOV for the buses that up until now still haven't used the road. Why couldn't they just close HOV from say 9 to 4? To be fair, traffic moved ok from about mile marker 162.5 on 95 all the way to the Pentagon, but it crawled (like usual) from 156 to 162.

I know it's a Federal holiday, but there will still be a ton of people on the road traveling, shopping, or like me, heading to work. I live off the 610 and I don't want to sit in traffic for 2-3 hours in the morning just to come to work and have to turn around and do it again in the afternoon. Realistically, could the delays during the morning and evening traffic be that bad?

I agree that it makes no sense, but not necessarily for the reason pondered.

The Secret Service, who are really the ones who request the HOV closures for the President, have already shown an interest in not disrupting traffic during hours that would inconvenience large numbers of commuters - so I think that postulation is out.

The real problem is that VDOT is closing the HOV for 12 hours!!! Now... we've all sat in some pretty bad traffic but the last nightmare commute I had did not even take a quarter of that duration(pretty close though).

The Marine Corps Birthday Ceremony will be in Arlington, VA at 10:00 AM. So the few buses coming up from Stafford on the 10th would have no problem sharing the HOV. (Most personnel would arrive on the 9th and be squared away already.)

The dedication ceremony in Quantico, VA will be at 1:00 PM - with the next event being the Birthday Ball in Falls Church, VA at 6:30 PM.

If dedication and viewing were from 1:00 - 4:00 PM there would be plenty of time to traverse, with minimal abatement, from Quantico to Falls Church in 2.5 hrs.

If the dedication and various other ceremonies surrounding the Corps events necessitated the action of closing the HOV lanes for a full week I would be a strong advocate of said action.

That being said... it's not necessary in this case.

This simply wasn't thought out very well. VDOT took the easy road not the socially conscious road.

Thousands of people work on Friday.

And tens of thousands will be on the highway Friday pm, including a whole bunch of shoppers, workers, and long distance cars. This could blow up in VDOTs face.