How bad is Rolling Rd/Old Keene Mill in the mornings? (Burke: townhouses, middle school)

[CaliTerp07]

We're under contract on a house in Burke near the VRE station. I work in Kingstowne, DH is in Old Town. It looks like both of us will take Rolling Rd. to Old Keene Mill to Franconia.

What's that like in the morning? I head out by 7:15, DH is more like 8:30.

(I'm kicking myself for not trying the commute before putting in an offer, but it all happened so fast I didn't have time to do my normal over-planning!)

[Fern435]

Traffic on Rolling Road to Old Keene Mill Road and east to the mixing bowl is fairly heavy between 6:45 - 7:30 am (schools and commuters). Things usually move well, but if there is one accident/fender bender, things get messy fast. (I drove those same roads at 6:55 am every school day for 4 years--one student to WSHS and one student to Irving Middle School. If you leave before 6:45 am, you might be ahead of the crowd).

The area around Burke VRE is very pleasant. Good luck on the home!

[Yankeesfan]

I don't know how Rolling Road is; Old Keene Mill traffic is heavy but usually moves steadily. It improved a lot when the Mixing Bowl project separated the highway traffic from the through traffic on Franconia Road. If traffic backs up because of a mess on the highway, you'll be able to get past it on the left to the overpass. Congratulations on your home purchase! That's a very nice area.

[khuntrevor]

My parents moved to Springfield in 1963, and they say that traffic on OKM has improved since the by-pass was completed. However, it was horrible before that. It's going to be lighter than Braddock.
Your commutes don't sound bad. Why don't you hop on the Parkway at Rolling Rd?
I was working at Malek's in 1997, and we closed at 3am, during the week. By the time we got the place cleaned up and sat down for a cold one--the traffic was already building on OKM (4:40am).

[yamota]

Years ago it wasn't so bad. We would go up Old Keene Mill then zip over to the HOV on 395. If there was a lot of traffic on Old Keene Mill sometimes we would go straight to FFX parkway and take the HOV 395 from there

[Yankeesfan]

That's a good suggestion, you could try taking the Parkway straight over to Kingstowne as well as Old Keene Mill Road and see which one works out better -- then keep the other in mind as a potential alternate route.

[CaliTerp07]

Thanks everyone! Inspection went smoothly last night, so it looks like we'll be packing and moving next month!

OKM turns into Franconia, and I work ON Franconia--so the Parkway would likely add time, but it's definitely worth trying one day to see what happens!

[yamota]

Well, if that's the case you could stay on the left lane of old keene mill and take the flyover past 395 and springfield mall, that'll land you right on Franconia on the other side

[khuntrevor]

pioneer dr. exit on the pkwy, also---different ways to skin a cat. Franconia Pizza is legendary-- I wonder if it lives on? There used to be a great travel agency in those office townhouses on Franconia Rd......