Can I live in Montgomery County without a car? (Silver Spring: apartment, rentals)

[latenett]

I am wondering if it is possible to live in Montgomery County without a car. I will be working at Bethesda Naval Hospital. I have searched aparment listings and a lot of them say close to metro but when I check the distance they can be a mile or more away. I have also looked at aparment ratings and can only find bad reviews. I have condidered King Farm, Fallswood, Avolon at Grovsenor. We are in our in 40's and come from owning our own home in a very quiet small rural town. Any advice would be appreciated!

[psychofan]

The public bus system (Ride-On) in Montgomery County is actually a very good and more importantly safe transit system. Due to that, I would say that it is possible. Have you looked at downtown Bethesda as well? Then you wouldn't even need to catch the Metro to work, just the bus or even simply an easy bike ride.

Take a look at the Park at Kingsview Village (quiet and safe) in Germantown. Rent is reasonable and it's a 35 minute bus ride from the apartment community to the Shady Grove Metro followed by a 15 minutes Metro ride down to Medical Center at the NIH.

[lscalder]

I am not sure if the metro improved in Germantown buy bus do not operate late in germantown. You can live in montogmery county without a car.

You can live in SIlver spring and take the J1,J2 or J3 bus to BEthesda Naval hospital now everything depends upon your rent budget. Rent in Besthesda is higher then Silver Spring. If you live in/close to Silver Spring Metro you do not need a car because you can take metro/bus to all most any where in the DC area.

[PenguinSix]

I would say you can, but it wouldn't be easy. If you lived in Bethesda you might have some fun walking around the shops and restaurants, but otherwise you're looking at buses and a bit of a hike. Maybe a 'Zip' car membership would be helpful for the days you want to drive to the grocery.

[TrippingJay]

You can if you live inside the Beltway in areas like Silver Spring, Bethesda, and possibly Chevy Chase. Rockville may be possibility as well, but some trips do require a car; especially along Rockville Pike.

Gaithersburg and Germantown are much more spread out, so having a car would be beneficial.

King Farm in Rockville might actually be a good bet where you would not need a car a majority of the time as they have a shuttle to the metro and you could walk to the Safeway and other places within the community.

[lind1550]

latenett,

I would say it is definitely possible to live here without a car because I know some people that don't have cars here.

I think the biggest question is if you're used to having a car, do you want to sacrifice the convenience? To be fair, take into account the various weather conditions you might be walking/waiting for the bus in (winter-20 deg. F w/strong winds, summer-100 deg. F w/high humidity).

Also, I would take the apt rating posts with a grain of salt. I have heard mostly good things about King Farm from people renting there. To be fair, the rent there did increase dramatically a few years ago . . . made people angry enough to move out.

Good luck in your search.

[VirginiaGal]

latenett, you might check out the Washington area apartment locator on the Washington Post's rentals page-- you can select any metro station and choose the search radius, down to 0.25 miles. One downside is that only managed buildings/complexes are included-- not independent listings. Good luck!