Indeed.  It is a rare instance that I've pulled onto 66 from an Arlington on-ramp and not ended up in bumper to bumper traffic - time of day doesn't matter.  It's generally not an issue for me, though - I live within walking distance of the orange line (and work at Farragut), and the surface streets in Arlington are just fine.

But if I actually had to go to Bailey's Crossroads on a regular basis?  Or was one of those poor souls with a job out in Tyson's/Reston?  Postal, I think.

I think better mass transit should be more than part of the solution - it needs to be the centerpiece.  There simply isn't enough land left to pave over.  But more paving has to to be the case, in some places (but not I-66 inside the beltway - it simply moves the bottleneck to the Roosevelt).
 

First, there is more to Virginia than the DC suburbs, endless as they may seem. This is different from Maryland, where the 'burbs seem to have critical mass in statewide elections.  While it may be true that Kaine's victory owes a lot to gains in the suburbs, Dems can't win the state back without making a dent in the Republican strongholds around Richmond, the Tidewater, and the Shenandoah Valley.

Second, I have to take issue with the point about mass transit.  The subway system is excellent, actually reaches the suburbs where the commuters live, and cost a hell of a lot of federal money.  The emphasis needs to be on more incentives for commuters to use it.   If I were king, I'd have all private vehicles entering the "Pink Zone" (borrowed from Italy, where they do this) of the Mall, K Street, and Georgetown be required to park at the perimeter and walk. It's good for everyone.  And, eliminate parking at the Federal buildings (unless you're Asst. Secy. level or get an exemption due to handicap or something).

Third, Prius is an early form of a transforming technology.  There are still a lot of rough edges.  Your rental car people should have showed you how to use the vehicle!

Yikes didn't know it would beltch out the comment without paragraph breaks!

My 'rents moved us down to Northern VA back in the late 60s and save for college I've lived here ever since. Things are very, very bad, as in reaching the critical mass stage. We have reached the tipping point where most folks in Fairfax, Arlington, Falls Church and Alexandria know that there's no more roads to build and that the current metrorail system is reaching Tokyo desity in the rush hours.

So it's not simply a matter of encouraging folks to use mass transit! They are when they can. Parking lots at Vienna and Dunn Loring stops on the Orange line are full by 7:30 or so and I suspect that is also the case at West Falls Church. Trains also back up in the mornings as there's only one two track tunnel to get you from VA to DC on either the Orange or Blue lines (The Yellow line has a separate bridge across the Potomac). It's a tinker toy subway for what is now a huge city.

Folks who claim they cannot afford to live any closer than Mannassas are in denial about choices made. They could afford to live closer to work but insist upon either new construction or are unwilling to settle for a condo or townhouse closer in. Folks living in Gainsville literally must have a hole in their head -- the traffic jams out there begin at 6:00 am. Me? I saved up and was able to afford a 40 year old SFM in Fairfax in a school district that is pretty good but not the best so it was 60,000 less than the houses behind it that are in the primo high school district.

Unfortunately however instead of actually having the political courage to stand up to the folks downstate who do not wish to allow us to build the infrastructure we realy need, cockamaime schemes are being hatched. HOT lanes are a boondoggle that will be a nightmare for generations to come. Maybe, I hope and pray that enough politicans and citizens will wake up and smell the coffee -- it's not a free lunch.

"This afternoon, I took a trip to the Trader Joe's in Fall's Church and holy shit is there a big traffic problem in Northern Virginia. Considering that this was a totally non-rush-hour excursion, the experience left me sobered and frightened as to what regular commuters living in the area must experience. So, by all means, make traffic the top issue in statewide politics."

Welcome to suburban, blue state America in the early twenty-first century. I haven't spend any amount of time in northern Virginia since the mid 1990s (when my parents lived briefly and for no especially good reason in Jackie O horse country), but rush hour traffic was already quite preposterous in the early part of that decade (my friend and I drove to college in New York from the west coast, and it was the only particularly nightmarish leg of the trip...it took hours to get through Virginia, and I think we almost gave up going to college and stopped for good in Maryland).

Some places are even worse today. Something like the whole of southern California is a parking lot most hours of the day and night now, and as they have found you really can't build your way out of this problem. We need policies that encourage telecommuting, more rail and bus-only lanes. But barring a kind of peak oil catastrophe the suburban dream might just prefer to migrate to other areas. Increasingly, the inner suburbs are becoming enclaves for rich, liberalish people, and the folks with the real nightmare commutes tend to be exurbanites. One suspects many of them would be as comfortable living outside Reno or Tucson as living in Riverside County.

Many American subway systems -- Metro and BART, for example -- are not true subways, but small-scale commuter-rail systems.  If you compare them to the system in Paris, say, you just want to cry.  Building a real network involves building more than a few lines. 

Slightly off-topic, but: the trip from downtown DC will be easier (a straight shot on US 50 to the Parole exit, then right to go under 50, right again once you've gone under 50, then left at the third light), and the store will be WAY less crowded once you're there.

note to chinshihtang: Kaine won the Tidewater area (Norfolk, VA Beach, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton, etc.) pretty decisively last month.  He won Richmond proper by a sizable margin; I *think* he took the greater Richmond area.

Statewide, Kaine won or effectively tied Kilgore in all but three incorporated cities statewide: Bristol, Colonial Heights, and Poquoson, IIRC.  He won in places like Lexington (home of VMI), Lynchburg (Jerry Falwell's city), and Danville (a Southside/NASCAR town), let alone places like Virginia Beach (home of Pat Robertson's empire) and Richmond.  So the Dems are already doing what you suggest.

Matt, next time you get a hankering for Trader Joe's, save yourself the Virginia traffic migraine and go up to Silver Spring instead.  Maryland traffic is sane by comparison.

Shoot straight up 16th Street, turn right on East-West highway, then left on Colesville Road.  It's about half a mile outside the Beltway on your right.  Can't miss it.