Driving in Washington at times can take a LONG time. Here's the Beltway (the Freeway which circles DC) as seen from the Yellow Metro in the afternoon. Firstly, there is currently only 3 lanes in each direction due to a decade-long project to improve the Beltway, centered on replacing the Wilson Bridge. The traffic here is heading home from work in Virginia to home in Maryland across the Wilson Bridge. Today the traffic was actually moving, but more often than not, it is nothing more than a parking lot. Just like the Orbital Car Park around London.We avoid the Beltway whenever possible, but there aren't that many bridges across the Potomac, so sometimes there's no avoiding it. In general, driving in the DC area takes twice as long as you expect it will and it takes a while to adjust to this.
