Longest commute in the country (Arlington, Reston: real estate, 2009, house)

[GreenGene]

.... not that this is something in which a community really wants to lead the country!

A Dubious Distinction: The Longest Ride in U.S. - Washington Post, Feb. 3, 2009:

Open Meadow Lane is in one of the many new developments off Linton Hall Road in western Prince William County. Census figures show that its residents have an average one-way commute of 46.3 minutes, compared with the national average of 25.1 minutes. This is the first of what will be annual detailed reports that go down to the neighborhood level.

To some Washington area commuters who spend more than an hour in the car each way, 46 minutes might not seem like a lot. But it's an average that includes people with five- and 10-minute commutes. The 46.3 minute average is longer than commutes in the New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago areas. Three other Washington area communities made the top 12: Fort Washington and Clinton in Prince George's County and Dale City, also in Prince William.

Well, here in Dale City, I guess we can take some comfort (not a whole lot, but some) in not having the longest average commute.

Also,

The crisscrossing across the region from home to work to home again is one of the key reasons why the Washington area has the second-worst traffic congestion in the country, behind Los Angeles.

And it's been that way for quite some time .... the worst traffic east of L.A. ..... yet another dubious distinction.

[tgbwc]

I agree with that part about the crisscrossing commutes. So many people don't drive simply from Dale City to DC, the Pentagon, etc and therefore don't have transit options such as HOV, VRE, bus lines, slugging.

[HEATHER72]

As someone who lives in Gainesville off of Linton Hall, that article irks me. Sure a majority of people may work in DC, but not all do. And of course the commute may be long, but people CHOOSE to live here. While some facts may be true, but when were these facts collected? Ok now I see it says from 2005 to 2007... well during that time Linton Hall was being widened. That road construction is now 99% complete.

No there aren't huge white collar offices out here... yet. But the Washington Field offices for the FBI did move to the area, so that is a start.

And yes Bristow is on the map. We just don't call it Bristow, it is Bristow.

The article also refers to this area as being one of the area's largest bottlenecks. I find that hard to believe as well. I think the article gives a false impression of our town based on out dated information. We do have major road construction going on in the area. Sure it would have been nice to have it all built before neighborhoods popped up, but that's not how it works. One of the reasons we do enjoy living in this area is the lack of traffic. For us, places like Vienna, Tysons Corner, and Fairfax are busy with traffic all the time. I always tell hubby that would drive me nuts.

So once again as someone who lives on the Gainesville/Bristow border off Linton Hall... I don't want that article to give anyone the false impression that we have bumper to bumper traffic all the time and that everyone's life sucks due to a 45 minute average commute. Many years ago I used to travel that far for a job that paid $6.50 an hour. So now I don't think much of my hubby's 45 minute commute to Herndon for a 6 figure salary job. You have to keep things in perspective.

[fdeitz]

As usual the Washington Post exaggerates and distorts whatever it reports. My commute to Reston is actually better from Gainesville than it was when I lived in Manassas - even though it is longer in mileage. If the Washington Post can't even get a simple fact such as Bristow being a name recognized by the Post Office, they definitely can't get anything else right in that article. It also appears they pulled out a one block sample - which may have been skewed by just 2 people working all the way down in Washington. In places like Tyson's Corner - it may take 20 minutes to get from one end to the other in rush hour traffic. It only takes me 35 minutes to get to Reston when I leave at 5:55 AM in the morning, and that's better than the 40 minutes it used to take me from Manassas.

Actually, at times the Washington Post appears to have it in for Prince William County - they've done plenty of negative reporting about it in the past year on other issues. And on any subject I know about - when they report it they distort the facts or just publish flat out misinformation.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by fdeitz

If the Washington Post can't even get a simple fact such as Bristow being a name recognized by the Post Office, they definitely can't get anything else right in that article.

A name recognized by the Post Office doesn't mean anything in the DC area.

[HereinVA]

Originally Posted by HEATHER72

As someone who lives in Gainesville off of Linton Hall, that article irks me. Sure a majority of people may work in DC, but not all do. And of course the commute may be long, but people CHOOSE to live here. While some facts may be true, but when were these facts collected? Ok now I see it says from 2005 to 2007... well during that time Linton Hall was being widened. That road construction is now 99% complete.

Exactly.

Not only that, but for all of 2005 and the large majority of 2006, Sudley Manor Rd. did not go all the way through to the 234--that wasn't complete until November 2006

Also, the 28 was widened to a two lane road in 2006--can't remember exactly when that project was completed, but when we moved here in the summer of 2006 they were still working on it.

[dgtlsunshine]

I live in Bristow and I don't agree with this article. The access roads have been tremendously increased since the 2005-2007 time frame. I grew up in NYC all my life and I think I know a lot about horrible pull out all my hair traffic.

[imisscarlsbadcalifornia]

We live in Haymarket and while I don't commute, my husband commutes to Dulles/Sterling every day and rarely complains about the traffic because he takes several alternate routes when the GPS says the 66 is slammed. He said that he actually enjoys the drive up the 15 and then out to the 50 because it is so scenic, especially when compared to drivng in LA or Denver (where we have both lived in the past). Even the interstates here are more scenic than in those places (I mean, if you're going to be trapped in the car at least there are nice trees to look at!). I don't know anything about the leanings of the Washington Post but I agree with the others posters here about it not being as bad as the article proclaims. I hear that things will be even better as the road construction is completed, but I also hear that Prince William county is the next Fairfax county. Several real estate agents I've met think that in 15 to 20 years we will look more like Fairfax than not, but I'm new here so I'm just repeating what I've been told rather than speaking from a place of "knowing". Bottom line, I doubt you'll have much trouble commuting to Manassas from Gainesville/Bristow/Haymarket.

Good luck to you.

[guyincognito]

I don't see anything particularly inaccurate about this article. The Washington Post isn't "slamming" Bristow. In fact they make it sound like an idyllic slice of suburbia with one major detraction - traffic. And anyone who says traffic isn't bad commuting from there I can only conclude is a stay-at-home mom or someone who leaves the house before 6am.

There is no easy commute from there to any of the major job centers in the area: DC, Tysons Corner, Reston, or Springfield. I used to live just south of Manassas and commute to Tysons and I was hating life. You lose all flexibility in your life - even if you wake up dead tired you dare not hit the snooze button one more time because you know it will add 15 minutes to your commute. You keep Jimmy Buffet's concert schedule on your refrigerator so you know when he'll be at Nissan Pavillion and plan to leave work by 2 those days. Contrary to the goal of many people moving there to escape "busy Fairfax", suddenly everything in your life revolves around timing to avoid traffic.

I moved to Arlington and couldn't be happier. I have a commute under half an hour and don't worry about rushing out of the house in the morning to "beat" traffic. There may be more traffic in Arlington in general, but I spend way less time sitting in it than those in PWC.

That being said, some people don't mind traffic, some don't have long commutes, etc. so that shouldn't detract from the benefits the area offers. The washingtonpost is doing those looking to move to the area a favor though by reporting what those of us who have lived in PWC already know - commuting sucks!

So now I don't think much of my hubby's 45 minute commute to Herndon for a 6 figure salary job. You have to keep things in perspective.

Sorry, I can't leave this one alone... it's nice that you don't care that your husband has to sit in traffic. What does he think?

And "imisscarlsbadcalifornia", your prefixing of "the" to route names and numbers calls you out as a Californian without even looking at the user name!

[ChristineVA]

This study was just reported on Channel 7 news last night. I'm not sure this study falls on the shoulders of the The Washington Post, who may have merely reported it. It is a report that's done every year and this year, Bristow happened to make the charts this year! I live in Dale City which dropped down to number 12 or so this year--we were at #3 for a long time.

I, too, don't disagree with this study. The news reporter even addressed it last night that people were crying foul because, certainly, people commuting from Fredericksburg and Annapolis have longer commutes. He told everyone to remember that these were averages and that many folks living in those places (Fredericksburg and Annapolis) also had many very short commutes of 5-10 drives because they worked locally. This pulled the longer times down significantly. Bristow, apparently, has no close-in industry as other, more developed places do.

Personally, I think commutes from both Bristow and Manassas are some of the worst out there because I-66 just keeps on getting worse.