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Chart of the Day: I-95 Congestion Bottlenecks

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Source: Virginia Department of Transportation (by way of Inside NoVa)

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is getting more sophisticated in how it analyzes and presents data. The chart above comes from a VDOT study looking at average northbound speeds on Interstate 95 to determine where to focus traffic-relief efforts, according to Inside NoVa. The department will develop a similar study for the Interstate 64 corridor this summer. (I’ll get to specific VDOT proposals in a later post. Right now, I’m just grooving on the cool data presentation.)

From the chart we can readily see three areas where traffic gets crunched: Richmond, Stafford/Fredericksburg, and Northern Virginia — with the most nightmarish slowdowns occurring around Occoquan. It may not tell us anything we don’t already know, but it does measure the congestion more precisely and help pinpoint the bottlenecks that need to be addressed.

— JAB

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7 responses to “Chart of the Day: I-95 Congestion Bottlenecks”

  1. Dick Hall-Sizemore Avatar
    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    This is a cool graph and depiction of data. It would be helpful to know the time frame that is being measured, i.e. 7-9 am, or earlier, later. When I was commuting, I usually did not experience the slowdown shown around Richmond. I traveled on I-95 from the Bryan Park interchange to downtown.

  2. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    time DOES matter and I think they’re talking about peak hour.

    I think it is more than “bottlenecks”. The further north you go in NoVa and peak hour, the worse the congestion.

    You can fix “bottlenecks”south of there but all that is going to do is streamline the flow faster into the NoVa gridlock.

    The big thing the VDOT study is showing (read the whole report) is that adding more lanes for non-toll traffic is not feasible nor will it do much.

    They’re suggesting more rail, and more HOV and tolls.

    To Northam’s credit, he is trying to get more rail into the DC-Richmond corridor.

  3. djrippert Avatar
    djrippert

    “To Northam’s credit, he is trying to get more rail into the DC-Richmond corridor.”

    Why is that to his credit? It looks to me like he needs rail from Stafford to DC not DC to Richmond. People in Richmond don’t commute to DC and people in DC don’t comute to Richmond. People in Stafford commute to DC but not people in Richmond.

    This “rail to Richmond” is just another state government boondoggle intended to make Richmond look more like a major city than it is.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      You realize of course there ARE people who DO commute from Richmond to DC and more people WOULD if there were regular service instead of commuting on I-95.

      It’s more than Richmond. It’s Tidewater, Charlottesville, Roanoke, etc.

      I’m surprised at you. You’ve been all over the world and I’m quite sure you have seen rail in other countries, right?

  4. Acbar Avatar
    Acbar

    I’m very familiar with all those I-95 slowdowns shown in the graph, at various times of day, days of week etc. Yep — looks about right! These are average speeds at each milepost in the direction indicated, so hours of essentially no restriction are averaged with hours of maximum speed restriction — by percentile. Note, this particular chart is northbound only so it does not reflect the Stafford merge southbound at the south end of the express lanes, or the Occoquan merge southbound where I-95 loses the 4th through lane; both have a notorious impact during southbound rush hours and Saturday midday during shopping hours. If you want to see ALL the charts click on this: http://www.ctb.virginia.gov/projects/major_projects/easset_upload_file65013_141080_e.pdf

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I do volunteer taxes north of the Rappahannock River and live south of it and there are days when traffic on I-95 is at a standstill.

      Just imagine if other places we went to on the interstates – functioned like this section.

      The fundamental underlying premise for the Interstates has effectively been destroyed in the Washington to Fredericksburg corridor and it’s moving towards Richmond.. I-95 south of Fredericksburg is starting to see problems also.

      This is as much a peak hour problem as it is a non-peak hour capacity issue.

      At 2am , I-95 is open and easy. At 6am, not so much and most of the traffic is solo commuters.

      1. idiocracy Avatar
        idiocracy

        What do you expect, here in Virginia everyone uses the Interstate for local trips because the alternative is a joke.

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