Northern Virginia commuting question

[BeachSkin]

Question for the locals. I have a job opportunity near Dulles that I'm giving a lot of thought to. I have always liked the Arlington area whenever I've been up there and I'd like to live there. But the commuting could be an issue...would driving from Arlington to Dulles daily be a reasonable commute?

[hail2skins]

Sounds like you'd largely be going against traffic.

[SkinsHokieFan]

It wouldn't be terrible although you would have to deal with the tolls. Morning communte would be ok except for the exit by Glebe road on 66, afternoon you are looking at 45 minutes plus

[No Excuses]

It depends. What part of Arlington are you thinking about? I live in Arlington and my family lives by Dulles Airport. The commute is not bad at all. I've gone home on weekdays during closing work hours and it's never taken me more than an hour. Usually takes anywhere between 35-45 minutes. It's a pretty convenient drive.

[#98QBKiller]

Yeah it sounds like you'd be going against most of rush hour traffic. It would probably be about a 30 minute drive, maybe a little more depending on what time you leave.

[greenspandan]

you'd be going the opposite direction of most traffic, but i would be willing to bet 45 minutes each direction each day. i work near dulles airport, but on the opposite side of 28. traffic in every direction is pretty bad.

[Skinz4Life12]

you'll be going the opposite of heavy traffic but its still gonna be 45 minutes

[ixcuincle]

66 - Dulles Turnpike - destination

Other than the tolls I don't see a problem, I was driving around there the other day and there was no traffic to Dulles

Now from Dulles back to Arlington...that's another story.

[hockeysc23]

I love when people say going against traffic. This is NOVA commuting, we can make traffic out of any accident people stare at or when it rains.

[DButz65]

I love when people say going against traffic. This is NOVA commuting, we can make traffic out of any accident people stare at or when it rains.



Exactly! I lived in Arlington MOST of my life, and moved the **** out of there when I could, I'm loving it

[No Excuses]

Arlington is awesome if you are a college student in your 20's (especially the Ballston to Rosslyn Strip). But it's not ideal for a family based set up at all.

[#98QBKiller]

I love when people say going against traffic. This is NOVA commuting, we can make traffic out of any accident people stare at or when it rains.

Going against the traffic works. I live in DC and commute to Old Town everyday and it's almost always a pretty smooth commute. I look over and feel bad for the traffic jams trying to get into the city over Memorial bridge and down GW Parkway every day.

[fullnelson9999]

My family lives in Chantilly and my mom commuted to Tysons Corner every day for years. If you take the toll road, then you're golden. Get a Smart Tag.

[SloppyOneXXVI]

I drive from MD to Sterling (basically Dulles) everyday. Driving there is a breeze. You'll get passed going 65 on the toll road. My 26 mile commute takes me 30 minutes.

Driving home is not as much fun. The toll road is still fast, but once you get to the 495 exit (even if you're continuing on the toll road), there's traffic everywhere. If you're allowed to flex your schedule at all I would suggest doing a 7-330 type schedule to beat traffic.

[Sticksboi05]

Arlington is awesome if you are a college student in your 20's (especially the Ballston to Rosslyn Strip). But it's not ideal for a family based set up at all.

Yeah it is, well not in the Rosslyn-Ballston corrider of apartments but in the bordering neighborhoods, absolutely. The problem is it is laughably expensive.

To the OP, my parents moved here to Arlington in the early 80s (1983?) specifically because of the Metro. Now, my Dad works in southwest D.C. so he takes Metro which isn't to Dulles until like 2016 but in the meantime, there is a daily Metrobus from Rosslyn to Dulles if you want to avoid the headaches of driving.

Commuting OUT of D.C. in the morning is nowhere near as bad as commuting in but it all depends on when you'd leave.

The way home would be daily hell but you are an advantage going the opposite of most. That's just being honest. My Dad thinks the people that deal with it are brain damaged it's so bad.

[Titaw]

If you work near Dulles, you can take the airport access road, take either the loop or turn around in the Marriott parking lot and save yourself $3.50 a day. To completely miss traffic you are going to need to get to work at roughly 6-6:30 and leave around 2-2:30. If you leave any time after 3 you are going to hit traffic at 66.

[No Excuses]

If you work near Dulles, you can take the airport access road, take either the loop or turn around in the Marriott parking lot and save yourself $3.50 a day. To completely miss traffic you are going to need to get to work at roughly 6-6:30 and leave around 2-2:30. If you leave any time after 3 you are going to hit traffic at 66.

I used to do that until I got busted one day. They had a check point set up at Dulles Airport that was monitoring cars avoiding the toll by making u-turns near airport parking lots :ols:. Had to pay a fine which pretty much totaled the amount of toll money I had saved over 2 months.

[TMK9973]

IT depends where - My GF lives in Arlington and works in Chantliy (Sp?) and does the comute every day (about 45 mins there in the morning, leaveing arlington at 8:15am) and about 60 mins back (leaving about 5:30pm).

I work right off 28 and 7, and when I stay at her place it takes me about 55 mins in the AM to get to work (leaving around 8am), BUT takes me about 75 to 80 mins to go to her place right after work.

[Dukes and Skins]

I mean I live in Loudoun and while it's not the cheapest place to live in you can find good housing right now for good pricing and it would be a heck of a lot easier commute. There are townhouses and such for 300,000 which is good considering those same townhouses about 2 years ago would be 500,000. It's all dependent on where you wanna live and if your willing to make the commute