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:: Bridge (50) Bucks :: $50.00/month !?!?! Hm..m..m I'm not using that bridge (I'm crossing Roosevelt Bridge) but if someone want to pay me $50.00 to use an alternate route which would then stretch the travel time (and miles?), I don't think I'll take it. (I'll pay $50.00 just to get to work half an hour faster if I can) Anyway... I always love the idea of Telework though. Unfortunately I don't get to work from home often. Our office is very nice, big and expensively furnished. Our boss loves us to be at work everyday :) Well, I'm glad to be there...but if in Winter I prefer not to drive through the slipery stormy road. If someone pay $50.00 for me to telework, that would be such a DREAM! I'll pay $50.00 a month to telework :) Heck, take off $100.00/month off my paycheck in exchance for the daily commute :(

Paying For You Not to Cross Wilson Bridge Updated: Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004 - 6:37 AM WTOP's Kristi King has reaction from commuters. ALEXANDRIA, Va. - If you've ever waited in stop-and-go traffic to cross the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to get to work, you know how easily frustrations mount. It's not uncommon for it to take a half-hour or more to drive the 7.5 mile corridor. With the ongoing construction of the new bridge, your frustration with the stop-and-go commute probably has only grown in recent years. Now the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project is offering an incentive to commuters to not cross the bridge. Vouchers of $50 a month are being offered for commuters who use alternative forms of transportation. The one-year test project is called Bridge Bucks. Its aim is to get you to start taking other ways to work before the worst of the delays at the bridge's construction site begin. "The construction has been underway for three years now, but the heaviest construction is really getting started this year and will continue for the following five years," says John Undeland, spokesman for the Wilson Bridge Project. Bridge Bucks will be offered on a first come, first serve basis to 500 commuters from Maryland and 500 from Virginia. Those who qualify will get the money to use on Metro, bus passes or vanpool services. "Whatever works best for the individual commuter, they'll have $50 a month for a year's time to buy down that fare. The beauty of Bridge Bucks is that it really is tailored to the individual commuter. The individual commuter decides what works best for him," Undeland says. In addition to Bridge Bucks, Undelan says the Wilson Bridge Project is encouraging employers to let employees telework. Across the region, it's estimated that 400,000 people telework. With congestion expected to increase during the next phase of the $2.56 billion construction project, new traffic cameras and additional accident patrols will be added through the corridor. The next phase of work includes a new interchange at U.S. 1 in Virginia to handle six additional lanes on the Capital Beltway. That begins in March. In April work on a revamped Telegraph Road interchange starts. In Maryland, work on a new Interstate 295 interchange will expand. (Copyright 2004 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)