Is Ashburn congested? (Arlington, Alexandria, Leesburg: daycare, how much, home)

[jgrfan]

I might take a job in Tysons this winter. My wife is from the South East and although we lived in Crystal City our first year of marriage, she's horrified at the congestion in the area.

That being said, she's a stay at home mother. If we live in Ashburn and she stays in the immediate area (groceries, parks, church, mom and baby type things), will she find it very congested as opposed to say . . . Arlington or Alexandria?

Isn't Ashburn pretty much a DC/Tysons bedroom community?

How would this place be for stay-at-home moms that are used to Northern Carolina instead of Northern Virginia?

thanks!

[5stones]

I really don't think it's any more congested than any other area in NOVA. The adjustment for me was that there really was no "down time" there are always people running errands etc... the parking lots are busy etc.

Ashburn would be a nice place fora stay at home mom. There are many, it's suburbia personified. You have everything you need within 10miles. It's very diverse as all of NOVA is and people moving in and moving out all during the year so it's easy to be "invisible" unless you make an effort to get involved in hte community and meet people.

[mlv311]

Every SAHM that I know who lives, or has lived, in Ashburn loves it because it is easily accessible to community amenities, shopping, doctors, etc. If it wasn't because my husband would have had an extremely long commute into DC, we would have moved there in a heartbeat.

[jgrfan]

SAHM . . . now I get it. For a second there I thought we were gonna have a cyberfight.

So, a SAHM could at least learn to love the neighborhood which would go towards offsetting her husband's commute to Tysons. Is there a possibility for a reasonable commute work/life balance beyond Dulles? All we have to do now is figure out how to pay for it.

[dullnboring]

Within the immediate local residential streets, Ashburn is not very congested. It's the main streets that one needs to travel on to get TO Ashburn that can be a problem. The good thing however is the fact that on a day to day basis, these roads aren't needed to be traversed for a stay at home mom in that generally Ashburn is divided into little communities and each community has one large central shopping center where you can meet most of your daily needs. There will be a large grocery store, a Starbucks, a Blockbuster, a daycare center, a barber shop, some fast food restaurants, some sit-down restaurants, a nail salon, a tae kwon do studio, and that sort of thing. There are also plenty of walking paths and sporting fields and community centers.

Most families love Ashburn.

[ShopCzar]

It can be difficult to get in and out of Ashburn during rush hour for sure but if you're working in Tyson's you have two commuting options, the toll road (Rt 267) and Rt. 7 as a backup so that's good.

Tops for family friendly neighborhoods in this area are Ashburn and South Riding. South Riding more so than other neighborhoods, it's a new revolution it seems and has a very active SAHM community. Give it a look.

[5stones]

I am in Ashburn every mon/weds from 5pm and returning at 7pm. My daughter plays tennis at the sports pavilion. Traffic on Ashburn village is not that bad! I have to cross all 4 lanes to get back to rt7 sometimes it takes 1-2min to get a break, sometime 30seconds!
you can take Claborne all the way out to Broadlands. Waxpool is widening and now loudoun county pkywy cuts all the way to rt7.

If you take 267 getting on and off is easy in Ashburn. (but I would personally take 267 to 28 and cut over to ashburn from there and save toll$$)

There are MANY small shopping areas with grocery stores and others store etc... you can get everything you need and never have to get on rt 7!
You have Wegmans right there too (if you don't know it google it!)
Dulles town center (the big mall) is about 10 minutes away.
You have all the resturants (chain) that you could desire and Lowes, HomeDepot, Sams,etc...all in Dulles.

The Ashburn commute to Tysons isn't completely aweful (my husband does it from Leesburg daily) Ashburn was a bit too expensive for us so we bought in Leesburg. 20 minutes longer commute in bad traffic on rt7 (on 267 about 10min longer)

If you are still in sticker shock over pricing...look in Leesburg prices are a bit better and you get a old historic downtown area! Lots of great family neighborhoods etc..

[JerzBoy]

How long is the commute from Ashburn to Tysons on a normal day? How much are the tolls on 267?

[5stones]

normal commute day just about an hour. (leave at 6:30-7am - return 6-6:30pm)
Traffic gets real bad on rt7 from about 7:30-8:30
Tolls I'm not sure about, I don't know if Ashburn gets hit with the $3.75 toll into 28 as Leesburg does.