Considering moving to Vienna, Route 7 (Arlington, Reston: renting, houses, neighborhoods)

[gbandi]

Hi There,
I am currently renting in Mclean off Georgetown pike just inside beltway and looking to buy a house on Route 7 in Vienna within 1-2 miles of 267 exit. The houses are larger and newer than Mclean and are in my price range as well. I will be commuting to Georgetown Hospital (usually take 495, CB parkway, canal Rd as Chain bridge takes for ever).

1. How bad is the traffic from route 7 (within 1-2miles of 267 exit) to 267 to 495. I will be commuting between 7-8 and between 4.30 to 5.30. How many minutes will i be adding to my commute. Metro is not an option as GU does not have a stop. Would anyone recommend any backroads (lewinsville, brooks etc) or colvin run exit to 267?

2. The area drains to mclean schools (colvin run, longfellow and mclean). they are great schools but how long is the bus ride for the kids. i have heard some parents complaining about it. i only have a 5 year old but looking at house appreciation as well.

thanks in advance

[703]

Dont have have a shuttle to GU from Rosslyn?

[kevinm]

Route 7 does not go through Vienna. Route 123 does. Route 7 goes to Falls Church.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by kevinm

Route 7 does not go through Vienna. Route 123 does. Route 7 goes to Falls Church.

The OP is describing neighborhoods south/west of Route 7 betwen Reston and Tysons that are in the 22182 zip code, have Vienna mailing addresses and feed into Colvin Run ES, Longfellow MS and McLean HS. Route 123/Maple Avenue runs through the actual Town of Vienna.

[gbandi]

I have followed some of your messages on this forum. i was wondering what you think about those neighborhood, schools and traffic?

[JD984]

Originally Posted by gbandi

I have followed some of your messages on this forum. i was wondering what you think about those neighborhood, schools and traffic?

It seems to me as if you are commuting early enough that the move probably would only add 5-10 minutes to your commute each way. I don't know any great shortcuts to Georgetown from that area. However, if you want to get on the Toll Road, there's an entrance off of Trap Road just south of Wolf Trap. That might save you a few minutes if Route 7 is congested in the morning.

The neighborhoods are certainly very nice and range from Shouse Village, which is an older neighborhood, to newer developments. Some of the homes are very close to Route 7 itself, which can be noisy, and it's also a bit of a hike from that area to grocery stores, etc. I think you'd either have to go to Maple Avenue in Vienna, the stores on Chain Bridge Road in McLean, or the Harris Teeter in Tysons.

As to schools, I had the impression that you were specifically focusing on the neighborhoods in the Colvin Run/Longfellow/McLean pyramid. Colvin Run ES is in the immediate neighborhood, so that's not a bad walk or bus ride at all. McLean HS and, in particular, Longfellow MS are further away. I chuckled when I saw your reference to complaints about the length of the bus rides, because parents in some of these neighborhoods asked to be redistricted from Kilmer MS/Marshall HS to Longfellow MS/McLean HS many years ago, when there was a larger disparity in those schools' test scores than exists today. I don't know that the length of the current bus rides is really too bad; students who live in parts of North Reston and Great Falls north/east of Route 7 certainly have a much longer ride to Cooper MS/Langley HS than the students in this part of Vienna who attend Longfellow MS/McLean HS.

You also might want to look at the current Longfellow/McLean boundary maps on the FCPS web site:

http://www.fcps.edu/images/boundarymaps/mcleanhs.pdf (Longfellow has the same attendance area as McLean; it's just more crowded because GT/AAP students who otherwise would attend Cooper MS also attend Longfellow).

The area in Vienna you're considering is considered an "attendance island" by FCPS Staff, which means it is a bit removed from the rest of the Longfellow/McLean attendance area and potentially somewhat vulnerable to redistricting in the future. I personally think the other schools in the area are fine as well, but this might be relevant to your decision.

Hope this helps.

[michgc]

I have a friend in Shouse Village and likes it very much. It's very family-friendly. There is a pool and clubhouse. Those schools are all good ones. Colvin Run is brand new - maybe 4-5 years old. Can't comment on the commute. Good luck!

[claremarie]

The length of bus rides can vary a great deal and can be difficult to predict from looking at a map. For example, when my son was in kindergarten, we lived 1.2 miles from the school and he was on the bus for more than 30 minutes on the incoming run, because the kindergarten bus picks up most children at their door and he was the first child on the bus. The kindergarten bus is an outlier, of course, but the kids at the first stop in the morning and the last stop in the afternoon are always going to have a long ride, no matter how far away the school is.
You can probably get a copy of the bus schedule from the elementary school, which will give you some idea of where your prospective neighborhood fits into the routes, but these routes can change from year to year.

[goeagles]

In terms of commute, a lot depends on the time you would be leaving for work. I live in Sun Valley - just down the road from where you are looking to buy - and make the commute each day into the district, across the TR bridge. if you leave the house before 7:15, it should take about 35-45 minutes to get to GU hospital.

If you leave after 7:30/7:45, you'd be lucky to make it by 9:00 - the reason being that (i) GW parkway south-bound gets clogged with the choke points being the ramps to the Key Bridge and TR Bridge; (ii) Old Dominion (the back road "cut-through") from McLean to Arlington is overloaded with traffic and you usually are crawling until you get to Lee Highway - sometimes you get lucky in between the waves of traffic and can make it through to Lee Highway in about 15 minutes; (iii) Lee Highway approach the Key and TR bridges is backed up - but the traffic for Key Bridge (left most lane of the three on Lee Highway) moves or edges up faster than the other two.

Even though 267 is right there, the ramps for the beltway exits (in either direction) are always backed up and jammed. There are alternative back roads to consider - cutting over on Lweinsville to Old Dominion. But again, it really does depend on your schedule and the time of the morning you usually leave the house.

On the way home, you should be fine up until you get to route 7 by Rte. 267. the westbound traffic on 7 is heavy at the time of the evening, but can cut through on Lewinsville (which also has its fair share of traffic in the evening).

hope this helps.