Extreme gridlock going into and out of Reagan National Airport frustrated travelers and drivers Sunday evening during one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Cars, cabs, rideshare vehicles and shuttle buses crawled on the roads surrounding DCA for hours. Many reported on Twitter they sat in traffic for more than an hour inside the parking garages.
It took a News4 crew more than an hour and a half to get to the airport from Northwest D.C. earlier in the evening.
By about 10 p.m., airport officials said traffic was finally subsiding and people picking up passengers from the airport should meet them at the ticketing level.
Police were directing traffic on the George Washington Parkway southbound ramps to DCA.
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Travelers told News4 they waited for Uber and Lyft drivers for long periods of time only to have them cancel their rides and they had to start the process all over again.
"I got here at 3:10. That's about two hours. It's so bad. I mean, I don't know what's going on about the traffic, but I've never seen it like this," Ben Getachew said.
Construction on the lower-level arrivals roadway creates a bottleneck at the airport's upper level during busy travel periods.
A spokesperson for the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority said drivers dropping people off at the airport should consider taking travelers to Metro stops that are a couple of stops away from DCA to avoid traffic.
