I took my lady friend into the city yesterday so she could load up at the Chinese grocery store. The store is located in the Merrifield area of Northern Virginia, near Tysons Corner.
I hadn't been through there since I retired in 2010. I travelled via Route 7, the same way I used to go when I was working.
The traffic in Tysons was unreal, just a solid mass rolling from signal to signal. This was at just after 1 in the afternoon. What it would be at rush hour, I don't even want to think about. How people deal with this on a daily basis, just trying to live their lives, is beyond me.
No wonder people are nuts.
It's traffic gridlock around the NCR and even out further. The roads can't handle the traffic volume. I don't miss it! You could never make plans. Going 10 miles at the wrong time could take up to 2 hours to get too your destination. I liked Stanardsville area but my job required I was in the NCR.
I don't know who planned the roads and sprawl in Northern VA but she should be fired for doing a terrible job.
I love that store.
The entire Tysons area is undergoing a huge transformation. With the arrival of the Metro route 7 will pretty much become unusable through town. Their goal is to convert Tysons into to a walking town center like Reston. BUT traffic all over NOVA is like lunch at the ant farm.
However, it's still not as bad as Atlanta. Down there they just stop all at once!
I had to drive through Boise, ID yesterday. The street planning has been a disaster in that town for the last 50 years. They've spent mega millions on freeways, etc. going east-west but not a nickle for north-south. N-S is terrible during the slack traffic times and impossible in rush hour.
When I retired, they had just started construction of the Silver Line. Now, on Route 7 in Tyson's, you can't even see the buildings on the other side of the road because of the elevated "subway" line.
Thank you, LORD, for making it possible for me to get out of that nutburg!
Granted I am talking the early 1960s, but my aunt use to live over there... where Tyson's Corner is now, I can remember when that was all cow pastures....
Northern Virginia was home, but I left to go to college in Boston in Jan 1971.... and never went back... by 1980 for good reason...
Definitely isn't the Virginia I grew up in...
use to be a wonderful place.... now just more urban sprawl...
And yeah, that same Aunt is living in West Virginia also...
Selling my NOVA home next year. Bought it new 25 years ago in Reston when the population was around 20k. I bet with all the high rise condo's the population out this way is well over 200k now.
Heck there's as much of a skyline in Reston as there is Crystal City!! Amazing the growth that's taken place over those same 25 years.
Definitely, not the same NOVA I moved from SC too. But I'm going home so all is well and good.