Rush Hour for Lunch

"Having so many of the approximately 115,000 Tysons workers on the road, often driving less than a mile to grab a sandwich, is complicating construction plans for a Metrorail extension and Capital Beltway toll lanes that will rip up the streets around the area. An analysis of traffic counts shows more than 23,000 vehicles on the major Tysons thoroughfares, routes 7 and 123, between 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m., surpassing the morning rush by 24 percent."

"Things are so bad that traffic planners are introducing a lunchtime shuttle to try to get some of the vehicles off the road."

"As Virginia's most concentrated jobs district and shopping hub with four major highways traversing it -- Route 7, Route 123, the Beltway and the Dulles Toll Road -- Tysons presents unique traffic challenges. The lunchtime rush underscores the need to change the area -- a business center the same size as downtown Denver -- into a more urban, less car-centric workplace, officials said."