Make way for me

This past week, I was driving on Rt. 28 going to work as usual and I remembered the number of times I had been on that road for the following obvious reasons. I have been on that road for the past 3 years, day in and day out, dropping my son to school at Reston for two years (his school was in Reston and I was taking the toll Road) and I go to work (I work in Ashburn). I have been through the traffic when the bypass was being constructed, when I was told that traffic would flow seamless and that sitting in traffic would be long gone when all the bypasses were constructed. During those years, I would leave very early to drop my son off to school. My early, unlike others, was at 7.15 am every weekday. If I missed that sweet spot, I was bound to sit in traffic for an eternal period of time or so it seemed.

Now that the bypass constructions are all done, one would think that the flow of traffic of that road would be smooth. But when I was driving this past week at 10am in the morning, the scenario was not the same. I was sitting in the bumper to bumper traffic for ever. The simple reason being, not all signals on Rt. 28 were converted to bypass. It is true that the traffic flows smoothly when there is a bypass but what happens when you come across a signal? It causes a bottleneck. So the solution of seamless traffic was pushed a little further. Is that a true solution? Until all major signals are replaced with bypass, I don’t see traffic flowing smoothly, not just on Rt. 28 but on all major roads.

To compound to the problem above, the traffic was also slowing down because there was an accident and the two cars involved pulled over on the shoulder and the cop was investigating it. All the drivers had to slow down till they reached the accident spot to see for themselves and get an answer to their what, how and why the accident had happened. After they passed that spot, traffic was flowing smoothly. The cop was doing his duty and I couldn’t understand why others would want to put in their share of investigation. Is not one man (or woman cop) enough to do the investigation? Do we all have to slow down and throw in our shares as well? If the traffic kept moving as normal under such situations, most roads will be free of slowdowns.