The Metropolitan Washington region has a notorious reputation for congestion and traffic. Though Northern Virginia has only about 4% of the state’s land area, it has about 24% of the population, 24% of the registered vehicles, 29% of the employment, 21% of the highway/road lane miles and 21% of the overall daily vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the state.

The region also boasts the second most utilized peak-hour public transportation network in the country that includes an extensive Metrorail and Metrobus system, seven local and regional bus systems, two international airports and the Virginia Railway Express commuter rail system.

In short, Northern Virginia's heavy congestion is not the result of a lack of transportation choices.

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Highways

The Commonwealth of Virginia operates the nation’s third largest state-maintained highway system (57,867 miles), trailing only North Carolina (78,000 miles) and Texas (79,535).

For more detailed information on the statewide and regional highway networks, click on the links below.

• Statewide Network Profile
• Northern Virginia Profile
• Major Northern Virginia Transportation Corridors
• Most Congested Northern Virginia Corridors
• Historical Statewide and Regional Vehicle Registration and Vehicle Miles Traveled Data
• Major Projects/Construction/Upgrades in Northern Virginia (including Dulles Rail)

Metrorail is the nation’s second largest rail system, with over 1,100 rail cars, 86 stations over 1,500 square miles of land. The system carries over 200 million passenger trips a year. On a typical weekday there are about 312,000 Metrorail trips in Northern Virginian.

Metrobus is the nation’s 5th largest bus system, with over 1,500 buses in its fleet.

For a more detailed account of Northern Virginia's public transportation system, click on the links below.

• Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA/Metro)
• Virginia Railway Express (VRE)
• Local Bus Networks