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Relocating and not sure where to begin looking to live. Understand commute will be a challenge regardless so want to find a place where I can enjoy all the area has to offer. Love running, walking, people, foodies, etc. Love the appeal of Old Town Alexandria,maybe norther Arlington. Prefer to live where it's active with ease of accessiblity to airports for frequent business travel. Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideally a two bedroom apartment.
Live alone with frequent visits from grown children. 48 year old active female.
Everything I'm reading says to stay away from the Alexandria/Tysons commute - stay far away. Thoughts about living in Tysons or Arlington, perhaps? 2K budget and travel OK with metro option.
Check out Reston, the town center area is active, lots of trails for outdoor activities, plus metro is building their line to there so should have good commute options. Also, not far from Dulles if you are traveling from there.
Everything I'm reading says to stay away from the Alexandria/Tysons commute - stay far away. Thoughts about living in Tysons or Arlington, perhaps? 2K budget and travel OK with metro option.
I do this daily, from Old Town to Route 7 in Tysons. I average about 30 minutes in the morning, but tend to drive a little faster than most. I would put it at around 30-40 minutes as the average morning commute, and 25-35 for the average evening commute. I'm hoping this will get better after the new lanes open in a month. I usually leave anywhere from 7:30-8:30 (the later it gets the worse it seems). I go about 17 miles, so I figure this is about as good as I can expect considering it isn't a reverse commute.
I should mention, traffic literally comes to a stop right out of springfield until you get to about Gallows Road, but surprisingly this is only about 10 minutes of actual delay, despite how bad it looks. I used to do Tysons to Belvoir, and seeing the traffic on the inner loop going the other way turned my stomach, but in practice, it has not been a showstopper.
I should mention, traffic literally comes to a stop right out of springfield until you get to about Gallows Road, but surprisingly this is only about 10 minutes of actual delay, despite how bad it looks. I used to do Tysons to Belvoir, and seeing the traffic on the inner loop going the other way turned my stomach, but in practice, it has not been a showstopper.
If you work in Tysons and live in Alexandria, take 110 to GW to 123 not 495. You will have the option of the BRT coming to 495 soon (using the HOT lanes so it will run without impact of traffic most of the time). Or you could form your own carpool and use the HOT lanes (again it is required to run at minimum 45 mph).
I would argue you should atleast give living in or around Tysons a chance, but I understand its a work in progress area and you might want to live in a more establish fun hang out. I can totally understand and would agree if that is your case (but you might want to just check out Tysons to see whats what).
If you work in Tysons and live in Alexandria, take 110 to GW to 123 not 495. You will have the option of the BRT coming to 495 soon (using the HOT lanes so it will run without impact of traffic most of the time). Or you could form your own carpool and use the HOT lanes (again it is required to run at minimum 45 mph).
I would argue you should atleast give living in or around Tysons a chance, but I understand its a work in progress area and you might want to live in a more establish fun hang out. I can totally understand and would agree if that is your case (but you might want to just check out Tysons to see whats what).
It's not worth the effort to go all the way up to 110 and then down the GW parkway to 123. The amount of traffic coming into and out of tysons from the northern side of the beltway from maryland precludes any sort of benefit for using that method. If my current commute were averaging an hour, I would consider that method, however there are too many variables involved to make it advantageous (such as stoplights on Route 1, congestion on 495 coming from the north side and the added delays that can occur around the pentagon or the bridges into DC). The problem with that route is I hit Alexandria traffic going into DC, then pass by DC, and hit DC traffic heading to arlington/tysons, pass that and then get to sit in traffic coming from MD down into Tysons or 123 traffic with lights.
And to address living in Tysons: I lived there from 2007 until a few months ago. I liked certain things (reverse commute to basically everything, including DC if you are going to NW via the GW parkway), but the constant state of construction really gets old. The lack of a "community" is another thing that turned me away. People who shared my demographic tended to live in DC, Arlington, Reston, etc, and most of the residents of the Tyson's area tended to be of middle eastern descent, which isn't a bad thing, but I just didn't fit in culturally. There just isn't much to Tysons', and on the weekends it feels like a ghost town outside of the Malls. Once the Metro is there and it develops an orange-line feel, I'm sure it'll be great, but it took 20 years for that to happen to Arlington, and I don't have time to wait around. I moved to Old Town and finally feel like I'm a part of a community that takes pride in itself and has some history to back it up. I don't feel like I'm just camping out among a never ending lineup of strip malls. I can eat dinner in places that existed 100 years ago and walk in areas that felt as much like a community in 1920 as they do now. This is in contrast to Tysons' where the oldest things there are Clydes (circa 1985) and a few other odd places that haven't been turned into an office building yet.
It's not worth the effort to go all the way up to 110 and then down the GW parkway to 123. The amount of traffic coming into and out of tysons from the northern side of the beltway from maryland precludes any sort of benefit for using that method. If my current commute were averaging an hour, I would consider that method, however there are too many variables involved to make it advantageous (such as stoplights on Route 1, congestion on 495 coming from the north side and the added delays that can occur around the pentagon or the bridges into DC). The problem with that route is I hit Alexandria traffic going into DC, then pass by DC, and hit DC traffic heading to arlington/tysons, pass that and then get to sit in traffic coming from MD down into Tysons or 123 traffic with lights.
And to address living in Tysons: I lived there from 2007 until a few months ago. I liked certain things (reverse commute to basically everything, including DC if you are going to NW via the GW parkway), but the constant state of construction really gets old. The lack of a "community" is another thing that turned me away. People who shared my demographic tended to live in DC, Arlington, Reston, etc, and most of the residents of the Tyson's area tended to be of middle eastern descent, which isn't a bad thing, but I just didn't fit in culturally. There just isn't much to Tysons', and on the weekends it feels like a ghost town outside of the Malls. Once the Metro is there and it develops an orange-line feel, I'm sure it'll be great, but it took 20 years for that to happen to Arlington, and I don't have time to wait around. I moved to Old Town and finally feel like I'm a part of a community that takes pride in itself and has some history to back it up. I don't feel like I'm just camping out among a never ending lineup of strip malls. I can eat dinner in places that existed 100 years ago and walk in areas that felt as much like a community in 1920 as they do now. This is in contrast to Tysons' where the oldest things there are Clydes (circa 1985) and a few other odd places that haven't been turned into an office building yet.
Dont disagree with anything you said, except I have a friend who does this same trip and consistently tells me how much better GW is than 495. Dunno. Couldnt you shoot up George Mason or Sycamore also if you wanted backroad style?
I think it also depends obviously on time of day.
On the subject of Tysons, everything you said is absolutely true. Trust me I love Old Town, I love Arlington, I love Vienna, and Tysons isnt anything like those places. Its a fixer upper for sure. But I would still say the OP should look atleast at what is available there to know as a baseline option.
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