Interstate 81: A Civil Highway; Fixing I-66

The Civil Highway

This week, the Curmudgeon traveled to Christiansburg, Virginia (adjacent to Blacksburg, home to Virginia Tech), a good four hour trek from Arlington.

A few observations from the trip: I-81, which runs the length of western Virginia, mostly through the Shenandoah Valley, is one of the most beautiful highways in the eastern U.S. (and connects quite a few bloody Civil War battlefields, such as New Market and Antietam). It is also the backbone of the eastern freight industry, with truckers running practically bumper-to-bumper along its length.

One of the interesting things about I-81 is how politely most people drive on it compared to the angry free-for-all on I-95 (which passes through dozens of civil war battlefields between D.C. and Richmond), which the Curmudgeon has the misfortune to drive up and down frequently.

On I-81, which is just four lanes--two in each direction--truckers stay to the right, except when passing; when they pass, they invariable go through the ritual of flashing their lights at each other to signal when its safe to move back into the right lane, and to acknowledge the signal.

Cars in the left lane tend to be going a bit faster than the trucks, but they "go with the flow". In other words, with few exceptions, they don't weave in and out of lanes and tailgate drivers in the hope of pushing them to move faster. If traffic slows a bit, they wait patiently with sufficient space between cars.

In contrast, on I-95, no matter how fast traffic is moving, you can still count on some maniac wanting to go even faster and having no patience. Drivers tailgate dangerously close and recklessly switch lanes, occasionally leading to a particularly bad accident that slows everyone down.

The result: even in heavy traffic with many, many trucks, I-81 moves pretty smoothly without so much stress, while on I-95 the aggressive drivers disrupt traffic and actually slow everyone down (including themselves).

In 20 years or so, we won't have that problem, as cars will be driven by computer robots. (Or will the robots cut each other off and make obscene gestures?)

Don't "Widen" I-66--Fix It

Arlington politicians are mostly opposed to "widening" I-66, the main interstate highway linking Washington D.C. with western Virginia. They believe that Arlingtonians--many of whom bitterly opposed building the road in the first place (because it went through a "nice" part of the county)--also oppose widening it. The debate has raged on for years.

The problem is that I-66 doesn't need to be widened. Instead, engineers need to remedy a problem in the highway's design. The problem is at the interchange with Glebe Road, where two lanes of traffic from Glebe Rd. merge into only two lanes of I-66. Not surprisingly, this creates congestion and backs up traffic even during non-rush hour period. The remedy is to add another lane westbound starting at Glebe Road and extending to the beltway. There is no need to add a lane before Glebe Road--indeed that would only exacerbate the problem.

A similar problem exists on I-66 eastbound, with an even simpler solution. There the problem is the interchange with N. Sycamore Street. A steady stream of cars onto I-66 from the Sycamore ramp causes huge congestion, which gets relieved a mile or so later at the Glebe Rd. exit. Simply adding a lane from Sycamore to Glebe Rd. would solve the problem. There is no need to add a lane from Glebe Rd. all the way into D.C.--it would only result in a back-up at the Roosevelt Bridge.

The cost of these fixes has got to be a lot less than proposals to simply add another lane in each direction. Perhaps if the politicians on both sides would stop talking past each other on this, they could fix I-66 for a reasonable cost.