Virginia Congressman Takes A Ride

By Michael Pope

In Virginia, Congressman Jim Moran is fighting the morning commute, trying to get from the Franconia-Springfield Metro station to a new Department of Defense building on Alexandria's West End.

The congressman and a handful of transportation officials have assembled here, at the Franconia-Springfield Metro station for an experiment. They need to figure out how long it will take during the morning rush hour to get a shuttle bus from the Metro station to a building known as the Washington Headquarters Service. That's the site where thousands and thousands of new commuters will begin arriving a year from now.

“This should be a 15 or 20 minute ride," says Moran, before the bus departs.

Aboard the bus, 20 minutes comes and goes. Moran begins to lose patience.

“We could watch grass grow faster than this traffic," he says.

Finally the experimental shuttle bus arrived at its destination. 48 minutes and 30 seconds. So much for a 15 minute commute.

“I think that’s too long, and of course this is all before we have another 4,000 vehicles on the road,” he comments.

The solution, Moran says, is that the Pentagon should wait until a transportation solution is in place before employees are moved to the Washington Headquarters Service.