Meetings begin Monday at various base locations “to gather personal insights on how you interact with transportation options on base.”
The first session is 10:30 a.m. Monday at the Wright Field Gym on Area B. No RSVP is necessary.
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump ordered federal employees to begin the process of ending remote work arrangements and returning to offices and military bases.
Since then, traffic has appeared to be heavier outside base gates, particularly in the morning.
With about 38,000 employees, Wright-Patterson’s working population has doubled in the past two decades, making the base the biggest concentration of employment in one location in the state of Ohio.
Base security personnel at gates deal with 325 to 375 vehicles per hour, “but delays can occur due to weather or construction,” the base says on a website FAQ.
“We anticipated an increase in traffic following the return-to-work executive order and took steps to facilitate the flow through our gates and entry control points,” Col. Sean Brazel, 88the Mission Support Group commander, said in response to questions. “Currently, we estimate several thousand additional vehicles are entering Wright Patterson Air Force Base each day.”
“There’s been much discussion over the impacts to local traffic because we understand how this affects the bus routes for local school systems, and local traffic patterns for commuters both around, and on the base,” he added.
To ease congestion, the base has opened an additional gate from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Area B and changed traffic flow patterns to ease congestion, he said.
The base has made traffic-flow changes and asked motorists for patience. They’re being encouraged to allow extra times for their commute.
Chidlaw Road on Wright-Patterson’s Area A no longer has stop signs, allowing for smoother movement, the base said in February.
Spruce Way, also on Area A, will remain a stop-controlled intersection, but with new signage indicating cross traffic does not stop, the base also said.
Last year, Wright-Patterson’s gate 1B, off Springfield Street in Riverside, was opened for morning traffic, a move that would continue “as long as data supports,” a representative of the 88th Air Base Wing said at the time.
Since then, the base has opened gate 1B full-time.
“The 88th Civil Engineer Group is helping us look at different options as well for every gate that we have open, these improvements that we’re trying to make to the gate, when it comes to the drop arms, to traffic lights, all that, those are all improvements we’re looking at as well,” Maj. Michael Bruno, operations officer with 88th Security Forces Squadron, said in a February statement.
There are some exceptions to the return-to-work mandate.
According to Air Force guidance last month, some telework may be authorized for weather, office closures, or other reasons “where a supervisor determines it meets a compelling agency need,” the base says in a website FAQ. Health may also be a factor in continuing “telework,” the government term for remote working arrangements.
According to a new Washington Post poll, 49% of federal employees support and 50% oppose a five-day in-office requirement.
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