Commute from Odenton to Rosslyn, VA... Help (Baltimore, Silver Spring: trip , salary)

[wanderess]

I'm a newcomer to the DC area about to start a new job in Rosslyn and I'm trying to figure out what the quickest way to make the commute would be. If by car, route suggestion would be very helpful. I see it's a 50 minute drive in optimal conditions and wonder what that means in peak traffic (7-8 am)??

Is the MARC really the better choice? If so, is it better to get off in New Carrollton and take the Metro from its first stop to Rosslyn, or go all the way to Union Station and switch twice?

Are there any commuting bus services around here?

Can you tell I'm confused? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[cancan]

Thats a tough commute, could take an hour and twenty could take two and half to three depending......thats a tough one to give ya good info on. I think your just gonna have to drive it and research if there is a better way. Driving in and out of DC or Rosslyn is unpredictable at best.

Ive not taken the metro enough to give you good info there....I am guessing that would be a long commute as well.

Dont worry that commute confuses me too and Ive lived here all my life.

[happjack]

the best move for that commute is via marc penn line and metro. you should plan for an hour (combined) on the train and metro plus whatever your drive to the odenton station.

take the marc all the way to union station...it will be faster than riding the metro from new carrollton. from union station take the red line to metro center and transfer to orange/blue. during rush hour you normally won't have to wait more than about 3-4 minutes for the transfer at metro center.

i've done bwi to crystal city for about 8 years and also had a short stint going to rosslyn. there are just too many variables to make the drive regularly...i tried driving it for about a year before switching to the marc train. i'll never go back to driving as my primary commute. you may be able to drive it in 1:15, assuming you're on the road BEFORE 6:15...after that all bets are off. coming home anytime between 3:30-6:30 will likely add another 20 minutes to the drive home. and you will have an accident at least once a week resulting in a 2 hour drive.

go marc. it's an adjustment getting used to becoming beholden to the train schedule. but it's better than all the unknowns of driving. it's also way ore relaxing on the train.

[cancan]

sounds like solid advice happy jack has given ya....I am out of touch with where the marc and metro go anymore.

[cancan]

Originally Posted by cancan

sounds like solid advice happy jack has given ya....I am out of touch with where the marc and metro go anymore.

I now know my mistake.....I was thinking Olney not odenton.

[wanderess]

Thanks, I appreciate it... I guess I'll be starting on the MARC tomorrow with the masses of other folks headed into DC.

[happjack]

if you haven't already bought a monthly ticket for the marc, i might suggest you buy a 10-trip ticket and give it a test run. then spend a week checking out the orange line option below to see how they compare in reality.

i was thinking that depending on where you're living in odenton, you might be able to save some time by driving to new carrollton and catching the orange line all the way to rosslyn. according to the metro schedule, the trip from new carrollton to rosslyn is about 35 minutes.

comparatively, the trip from union station to rosslyn (including the transfer from red to orange/blue) is about 17 minutes (12 min on metro + i estimated a conservative 5 min transfer). you'll also have the marc trip from odenton to union station, which could be about 30-38 minutes depending on whether you ride a local or express train...again i included a 5 min transfer time.

so:

marc+metro = between 47 to 55 minutes + your drive to odenton station (include an extra 5 minutes so you don't cut it too close).

versus

no marc+metro = 35 minutes + your drive to new carollton (incl. 5 min again).

the drive into new carrollton in the morning shouldn't be too bad if you're leaving odenton by 6:30 AM. the drive home will have some congestion on rt. 50 from MLK to the Highway Airport, but it isn't awful unless there's an accident. however, i would guess the trip home would be an extra 15 minutes compared to the morning.

i think the new carollton option would likely cost a bit more since you'd spend more in gas for your car, and have to pay to park at new carollton. parking is free at odenton (although you need to be there kind of early..before 6:30 is what i hear from the odenton riders...to get decent parking). however, the new carrollton option is a bit more flexible. for example, if you miss an orange line metro car, you likely only need to wait another 5-8 minutes during rush hour for the next metro. on the other hand, if you miss a marc train, you could be waiting 30 minutes or more. you also need to build transfer times into your trip from rosslyn back to union station to give yourself enough of a cushion so you don't miss the marc train home...that's always crushingly devastating, especially when your spouse or kids are at home waiting for you to go somewhere.

as crazy as all of this sounds, either of those options is still preferable to driving!!!

good luck with your commute.

[wanderess]

Well, I did the commute today and it was incredibly long. I can see why I don't run into many folks with small children commuting into DC.

I left home at 5:55 and arrived at the MARC station at 6:05 for the 6:22 train. By the time I walked from the outer (not overflow) lot to the train platform it was 6:15. The train didn't show up until 6:25 and got moving pretty quickly after that.

We arrived on the outermost track for Union Station at 7:00. It took me 10 minutes to get a Metro ticket and find the platform for my train.

I waited 4 more minutes for a Red towards Shady Grove, got on and easily found a seat (unlike on MARC, where there were seats but they had to be searched for). About 6 minutes and I was at Metro Center.

Another 5 minutes to find Orange to Vienna, 2 minutes to wait for a train, got on and found another seat easily. About 7 minutes to Rosslyn.

At Rosslyn, the way out of the station is really long. Huge escalator blocked up with people. I finally made it out onto the street, located Wilson, and hiked a quarter mile uphill in the drizzle.

End result? I was in front of my building at 7:43, exhausted.

The ride home when I "knew the ropes" at noontime instead of rush hour still took 1 hour and 35 minutes.

I guess if I were much more long-legged and/or fitter I could have managed the stations faster, and if I didn't care if I stood the whole time, I could show up at the MARC platform later. Maybe I could get fully done in 1 hour and 15 minutes. But.... those things aren't me, so I think I've made a serious mistake committing to this job. I have small kiddos at home and 13 hours away is a long time -- it's illegal for them to be in daycare that long.

I just thought I'd post my cautionary tale for anyone else considering this commute. For the childless, it is probably very doable, but even a lucrative DC salary doesn't make it work for someone like me. I appreciate all the advice though.

[wanderess]

Not sure what you meant by "??????????"?

13 hours is a long time to be away from my kids. It means I have approx 1.5 hours with them before they go to bed, if I'm lucky. Secondly, daycares won't keep children for more than 11 hours. To my understanding that's state law here and it was also national law in England. Good logic to it -- kids don't need to be in daycare that long in one day.

My post was certainly not meant to offend or elicit excited question marks without words; however, these are the facts of the matter if they help anyone in my situation. If you don't feel the same way, fine.

[trickymost]

Originally Posted by wanderess

Not sure what you meant by "??????????"?

13 hours is a long time to be away from my kids. It means I have approx 1.5 hours with them before they go to bed, if I'm lucky. Secondly, daycares won't keep children for more than 11 hours. To my understanding that's state law here and it was also national law in England. Good logic to it -- kids don't need to be in daycare that long in one day.

My post was certainly not meant to offend or elicit excited question marks without words; however, these are the facts of the matter if they help anyone in my situation. If you don't feel the same way, fine.

I am fully sympathetic to your situation. I work in software, and feel I'm pretty good at what I do, and the past couple times I've searched for jobs between DC Metro/Maryland/Baltimore, 95% of the interviews (and positions I ultimately accepted) were based out of DC. The ones in MD just didn't compare in salary, benefits, or job opportunity.

As a result I've got a miserable commute involving driving, MARC, and Metro where I don't get to see as much of my daughter as I'd like to.

Then again the alternative would be move the family down to DC area, where the crushing costs of housing (even as they soften) would mean my wife would have to work full time, and we still could have pretty long commutes depending on where we end up, not to mention having less money for living.

If it's any consolation, what I keep telling myself is there are lots of people in the DC metro area that aren't going nearly as far as I am, but still takes almost as much time. A couple friends I have live in Ashburn VA and work in DC proper, and their commute is about 1hr 20 minutes average. Another colleague lives in Reston and works in Rockville past the metro, which means he must drive, and he said it averages 1.5 hours but isn't unusual to be 2 hours or more. Other people I know live in Silver Spring and commute to Arlington on the metro, and that is anywhere from 45 min - 1 hour since it includes walking to and from the metro.