Not usually anyway, I’ve only been able drive myself to work for the past year and I’ve made the drive once in that time. I almost always catch a bus and walk the last quarter-mile. Sometimes the traffic on the 14th Street Bridge into DC is so heavy that it backs up the onramp at Army-Navy Drive & Eads. That in turn will back up Army-Navy for three blocks with people trying to turn left at Eads and you get the occasional driver who decides that the laws don’t apply to them. I even saw an actual case of gridlock this morning! Some moron in a gold colored late-model Mercury decided to park in the intersection at Army Navy & Fern while waiting for the traffic to move. Then there are the ones who don’t wan’t to wait as long as everyone else so they cross Fern while in the right lane then bully their way into the left lane further on. Worse yet, some of those don’t even bother to bully their way in, they just stay in the right lane and make a left at Eads anyway or go up just past Eads and make a U-turn. What do I see when I get up to Eads? Three rows of cars trying to funnel into the one-lane onramp! One from northbound Army-Navy, one from southbound Army-Navy, and one from Eads.
I find this whole situation quite amusing. All these drivers are like sheep, they’re used to travelling the same route day-after-day-after-day that they don’t realize that they can skip all the waiting in traffic just by going a half-mile out of their way. Yep, that’s right, a half-mile. US Route 1 (aka: Jefferson Davis Highway) paralells I-395 into DC and its traffic, at least in this neighborhood, is almost always flowing smoothly. All those sheep have to do to get there is go one block over and three blocks up but no, they just sit there in traffic, barely moving, trying to get on 395. Morons.
Urk…I sometimes regret that I started driving to work!
I commute from Centreville, and work in Old Town Alexandria. Used to HOV with my roommate to the Rosslyn Metro, take the train to Braddock, and then cab or bus to the waterfront. Usually took me about an hour and 15 minutes, but it was stress free and I could nap on the train.
Just bought a car and started driving it. I usually head up Braddock Rd, catch the Fairfax Cty Pkwy until it ends at Van Dorn, hop on 495 outer loop to Rt. 1, and I’m there. About 45 minutes drive, not bad.
However, today it ALL went bad. The freakin Rt. 1 exit off of the Outer Loop was completely closed off due to construction, forcing me to cross the Woodrow Wilson bridge. I cross, hop off at the next exit, turn around and catch 495 inner loop. Which is stalled to a crawl all the way to the 295 exit. Now, I don’t know this area very well; I just moved up here a few months ago. However, I say “screw it” and jump on 295 just to see what happens. Lo and Behold, they’re doing construction there too, completely shutting off the right lane…and bogging traffic. I end up heading all the way to the “Downtown / Capitol St.” exit off of 295, catching 395, and hopping off at Rt. 1 in Crystal City. Elapsed time: 1 hour 45 minutes. I was soooooooo pissed. sigh
Hubby doesn’t drive so I have to drive him to work…except when we are living in D.C., he metros, takes the bus to Union Station and the Red line to Tenleytown/AU. Then he walks about a mile to work, he finally started taking the bus when we had all the snow, now he’s back to walking.
I don’t go anywhere till almost 9am (and I’m always home before 3:30pm). The one morning I did, I rear-ended a car on Constituion at maybe 5mph in bumper to bumper traffic on the hill beside the Capitol Building. Scared the crap out of me, when I got to the dealership 20 minutes later I didn’t mention the mishap incase they decided the car had ‘damage’.
I’ve since learned a route out of the District that doesn’t involve Constitution Ave and takes less time.
I had a ‘moment’ the other day while coming up 7th St SE at Eastern Market at around 2 in the afternoon. They have those angled pull-in spaces on the west side of the street and parallel parking on the east side. In variably someone will be double parked on the eastside of the sreet causing everyone to drive around them, of course you have to cede the right-of-way to on-coming traffic which can lead to jams.
This day we had not one but two double parked cars. Traffic is making it’s way around when someone in on-coming traffic looking for a parking spot spots a soon to open, well, spot. So, they stop to let the car out which halts traffic in both directions. No problem, it will just take a second or two. But wait…the exiting car doesn’t want to go south, the direction the car would be pointed if they backed out properly, they want to go north, AND they have no idea how to back out to make the turn north even if there weren’t two double-parked cars in the way. After a bit of to-and-froing they realize south is a better direction. As the car begins to turn south, an impatient, really huge, pick-up truck decides to drive around the stopped cars and is now blocking the south bound lane. I’ve been sitting there for what felt like 15 minutes but was probably only 10 minutes when one of the double-parked cars finally realized they had to move to resolve this jam. The first car moves and we can all creep forward so the truck can squeeze back into line or almost and the south-bound traffic can make its way through which will allow us in the north-bound lane to eventually get on with our day. As I’m nearing the second of the double-parked cars, I see someone come out of one of the businesses, get in their car and drive away. Traffic can now flow again.
The whole ‘me first, the world revolves around me’ attitude of drivers is incredibly annoying. Don’t they know the world revolves around me???
I live in Northern Virginia too. However, I used to live in Greenbelt, Maryland and I would commute to the Alexandria/Springfield area through D.C. NOT FUN. However I worked odd hours so I did not have to drive during rush hour. Non-rush hour, it would take me 35 minutes. Rush hour, it would take me over an hour, at least an hour and 15 minutes.
Then I got a new job in Rosslyn. Commute was still 35 minutes, non-rush hour. Then I moved to Sterling, VA, which is in Loudoun County, a far western suburb. And this new job was 9-5, so as you can imagine the commute was NOT FUN. It took an hour.
Thank god I finally moved to Falls Church. Now my commute is 15 minutes. I live right off of Route 29, Lee Highway, and I just take Lee all the way to Rosslyn. Not bad at all after years of horribly long commutes!!!
Traffic here is horrific. When I lived in Maryland, I learned that if I needed to get to Northern Virginia anytime during rush hour (which is like 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., then 2:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.), it was impossible. The Beltway is literally a parking lot during those hours heading from MD to VA. Even on weekends.
I am so glad I moved from the far-out 'burbs and live closer in. Even though it is wickedly expensive. You just can’t win in Washington D.C.
Wickedly expensive is right…I’m lookin’ to move closer in; so far I’m considering Old Town Alex., and I’ve looked at a couple of places off of the Courthouse metro; single bedroom apts are going for 1100+. Found a reasonable condo in Old Town for $950 though - think I may take it. I’d be all of 8 blocks from work, woohoo!
I lucked out too by finding an awesome 1-bedroom apartment in downtown Falls Church for $755. That is SUPER CHEAP for an apartment in this area! I found it because the landlord is a friend of a friend. It’s a privately owned building, and that seems to help keep prices down.
I’ve walked to work for the past three years. I’ve decided it’s insane to keep paying insurance and repairs on a car that I use maybe once a week so I’m selling it within the month.
I figure that the almost $2000/year I’ll not be spending on the car is good for at least 50 car rentals, should I need them.
Privately owned buildings are great, for the most part. I lived in an apartment for six years; AFIK, the owners only had that one building. My rent was $650 but that was 2½ years ago.
Another Northern Virginian checking in. I did the commute from Manassas to Herndon for two years. Lord help me if it started raining on a Friday around 4 p.m. because my commute then went from fifty minutes to an hour and a half or more. Or if there was an accident on either Rt. 28 or I-66, the bailout traffic was God awful. And don’t even get me started on traffic that resulted from concerts at Nissan Pavillion. The only good thing that’s happened here recently is the new interchange at 28/29. Before that, I could get entire chapters of textbooks read at that light.
Fellow NoVirginian here who drives to work, but with a reverse commute. Live in Shirlington, work in Springfield. 10 miles, 15 minutes. (The rent sucks, admittedly, but I can do a lot with an extra hour/day not spent on the road.)
I’m not as lucky as Smeghead, but I’m close – I live 4.5 miles from my office, and it usually takes less than 15 minutes to get to work. I just take Rt. 410 straight from my door in Silver Spring to my office in Bethesda. Ahhhh…it’s nice.
Although… the other week, a bus broke down right before the light at Connecticut Ave. and the resultant backup made me an hour late for work. Because one freaking lane was blocked for 20 feet.
That Conn Ave. light is the great equalizer anyway: Get stuck behind some behemoth? Don’t bother passing him, since you’ll only be one car in front in that loooong line at the light. Woe unto he who tries to turn onto 410 from a side-street near the light – you’re banking on the kindness of strangers, dude, and you know how far that’ll take you.
I live in Alexandria and work in Crystal City. I take the bus to the metro and it takes about 35 minutes total in the morning and about the same at night. And someone else drives. I’ve had my share of hairy commutes and I’m glad I live where I do.
