This is going to be a poll so I thought this would be the best place to ask.
Background: My best friend bought tickets to see Spamalot in DC for tomorrow. I originally had the day off and was going to go down to his apt in Annapolis tonight. Thanks to New Jersy’s budget crisis my day off for tomorrow was canceled.
I now have to get from Freehold NJ to the New Carrollton Metro Station by 6:45 pm tomorrow night. I am going to be leaving Freehold at 3:30pm which gives me 3 hours to get there.
Mapquest says it is 3:hrs 11 minutes
It wants me to take Rt 33 to the Turnpike over the Delaware Memorial Bridge onto 95 South. Then get onto MD 295 towards 495 then onto 50 to the Metro station
I hate to be a party pooper but you’re not going to make it. You’ll be hitting the capitol beltway at rush hour. I would suggest a different route: Go to lunch at noon and make sure he last thing you eat (preferrably in the elevator on the way back to your office) is a bottle of ipecac syrup. Retch at your desk into your trash can and carry it out with you as you explain to your boss that you’ll be leaving a little earlier than 3:30.
Hmm… scratch the ipecac. I just looked up some info on it and it’s nasty stuff to be used only if you’ve actually poisoned yourself. Bring some prepared vomit to work that morning and dump it into the trash can.
All but 20 miles are on I-95 (or permutations thereof), which is THE route to MD. You’re not going to save 10 or 15 minutes piddling around on the ends. You drive over the limit at your own risk, though.
Might it make sense to try Amtrak from Trenton, NJ or Philadelphia (30th Street Station) to Washington (Union Station, which is about a 10 min cab ride from the National Theater, where Spamalot is playing)? You could meet your friend at the theater rather than at New Carollton; presumably, the time crunch is for you, not for him coming from Annapolis.
The Amtrak site seems to be down right now, so I don’t know if there’s a well-timed train. Philly to DC should be under 2 hours, however, and drops you off much closer to the theater than New Carrollton is, so you gain time there. Should cost about $50 one-way. Obviously, you run into issues with retracing steps to your car in Philly, but if it’s the only way you’ll get there on time…
I’m with Antonius – take the train to Union Station, then get a cab. Don’t dick around with New Carrollton; it takes you out of your way. (OTOH, some Amtrak trains actually stop there.) If you drive you’d never make it – you’ll be going against traffic most of the time, but still there’ll be a lot of volume on the road in every direction. And you’ll eventually have to pass Baltimore, which will put you in its southbound rush. (You should trust me on this; I’ve driven from D.C. to north Jersey at least three times every year for the last decade.)
I know that some of the Amtrak trains have local stops; you’ll have to do the research to see if one works on your schedule, but you might be able to get on the train without having to go all the way to Philly.
Another possibility is driving part of the way and then parking where you can get a MARC train, which is the commuter train in the Baltimore/D.C. corridor. The big advantage here would be avoiding being in your car during Baltimore’s southbound rush hour.
Also, for planning purposes, the National Theatre is at the Metro Center station, which is, uh, I think three stops on the westbound red line from the Union Station Metro stop, although a cab will likely be faster.
Good News: today is July 3rd, and tomorrow is a Federal holiday. Most DC and Baltimore area workers have taken today off. I live in the Baltimore/DC area, and commute through its highs and lows all week, and I’m here to tell you that today, the driving is dead. You may have a shot at it if you consider a few hints:
Take I-95 South but go around the construction backup at the Delaware toll booth. Take DE-273 into Newark, then go down to UDel stadium, head west, and take MD-279 back to I-95. Consult a map for details.
Do not speed in Delaware; they’ll be gunning for tourists today
Take I-895 and its tunnel south through Baltimore, instead of I-95
Jog over to MD-295 at your peril; the connection where MD-295 hits DC gets ugly at rush hour, even though today’s will be light
I can’t take the train because my friend and I do not have enough money for a train ticket. My other friend has already purchased the tickets for the show for us as a gift to me and they will be taking the Metro in from New Carrolton.
They will be at the Metro around 6:45.
Glad to hear that the driving is dead that makes me feel like I have slightly better than a snowball’s chance in heck of getting there on time.
I don’t have any maps here so I don’t know how to get to DE-273 but if I see signs for it I’ll get onto it and then my GPS can navigate me back (I hope)
I need you to define speeding in DE. Do you mean
Do not go over the posted limit even when cars are passing you
or
Do not drive faster then the average car
If I was going to avoid MD295 entirely how would you go?
If the flow of traffic is faster than 10 over the limit, don’t be the front-most car in a group of cars in the left lane. On I-95 through DE, the limit is 55 in places, and the cops love to do the “step out into the fast lane” trick. The driver of the car in front of the pack is basically screwed. Stay out of the leftmost lane, or stay within 10mph of the limit; both will make you much much safer.
Just take I-95 straight down to I-495 (the inner loop) and follow it around to US-50; you’ll have to deal with some traffic no matter what, but you should be okay. Once you get near DC, tune your radio to AM 1350 (WTOP) for traffic reports. Skip New Carrollton and get on the Metro at Greenbelt - the travel time on rails is the same, and it saves you ~20 minutes of driving.
