Commute from South Arlington to Tyson's (McLean, Leesburg: how much, construction, camp)

[justinrlee]

Hi,

I currently live in Gaithersburg and work in Tyson's Corner. One of my friends has a room available in south Arlington (pretty much at the South Glebe and 395 interchange) that I'm considering taking, but I'm not sure how much it'll help with the commute.

I tried the commute with my GPS yesterday and it took me all the way up Glebe to 66 W, which took about 25 minutes in no traffic. Is there a faster way? Take Leesburg Pike?

Suggestions would be awesome!

Thanks,
Justin

[saganista]

Leesburg Pike would be unlikely to be faster. Might try taking Glebe all the way to Old Dominion, then Old Dominion to 123-South.

[CaliTerp07]

395 to 110 to 66? You'd avoid all the stop lights that way, but I don't know if it'd be any faster.

[OrangeFish]

Originally Posted by saganista

Leesburg Pike would be unlikely to be faster. Might try taking Glebe all the way to Old Dominion, then Old Dominion to 123-South.

If you will be taking Old Dominion soon (as in this week), note there is a great deal of post-storm clean-up underway, and often the road is reduced to one lane (with resulting traffic/congestion). I learned about this first-hand today in the commute between my office in Ballston and my kids' camp at Georgetown Pike.

[saganista]

Hmmm. Assuming the cleanup work is west of Williamsburg Blvd, might have to take that over to Great Falls Street and then to 123...

[SallyField]

IMO Glebe-Old Dom-123S is the way to go. Most of your traffic will be getting through Arlington. Once you get to North Arlington, you should move pretty well, barring the storm cleanup on Old Dominion, which I would assume is only a one or two-day thing.

[Carlingtonian]

I live in N. Arl and commute regularly from near Mt. Vernon. Here's what you do:

From S. Glebe, take Arl Ridge Road and then turn left at the second four-way stop. Veer left to merge onto Wash. Blvd. Go about a mile, then turn left onto Pershing. X Glebe. Right onto G. Mason and follow it to Lee Hwy. From there you'll have to find a route to Old Dominion (as G. Mason dead ends before picking up again), but it's not hard. Old Dominion takes you right into Tysons. Good luck.

[terrence81]

I live in south Arlington and commute that way but to Fairfax. You have to take into account rush hour traffic. It'll only take 25 minutes in the middle of the day. I take George Mason to Washington Blvd getting on 66 at East Falls Church because Glebe gets so backed up. Also 66 gets backed up in the morning between Glebe and East Falls Church I guess because of construction I don't know why. I avoid Glebe during rush hour and advise you to do the same if you move to Arlington.

Your morning commute will probably be 25 if you avoid Glebe. Your afternoon commute will be about 45 maybe a little shorter if you get off early enough. Traffic gets really backed when the toll road and 66 merge.

Old Dominion might be an idea as well. Good luck either way.

[saganista]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Old Dominion takes you right into Tysons. Good luck.

Old Dominion takes you right into McLean...and then right into Great Falls Park. If you want to get to Tysons, you have to hang a left onto 123-South on the far side of McLean, right by J.Gilberts restaurant.

Also, unless something has changed, you should be able to cross Lee Highway on North George Mason Dr and follow that to Yorktown Blvd. After a left there, it would turn into Little Falls Road, and at the mini-circle, you could hang a right onto Powhatan St up over the hill, ending at Kirby Rd where a left would take you to Great Falls St and a right on that would take you to good old 123-South. I did that route in reverse for a good while in the morning with good results, but it was a few years ago now.

[justinrlee]

Thanks so much, I'll have to try a couple of these once I actually move in (in a month or so).

If y'all want, I can post results.

Justin