Advice on where to live in MD suburbs for a job located at Naval Institute of Health (Silver Spring: zip code)

[Lisa Moore]

My husband and I are a military family moving to the Maryland suburbs due to my husband being reassigned to the Naval Institute of Health. He and I are both very concerned about the area's traffic. We would like to live within a 45 minute commute (during peak rush hour) to the Naval Institute of Health. He will most likely be using the metro. Would we need to find a place right in Bethesda where NIH is located or would Gaithersburg or any other surrounding cities be a reasonable metro commute? Thanks in advance for your help.

[bufflove]

Originally Posted by Lisa Moore

My husband and I are a military family moving to the Maryland suburbs due to my husband being reassigned to the Naval Institute of Health. He and I are both very concerned about the area's traffic. We would like to live within a 45 minute commute (during peak rush hour) to the Naval Institute of Health. He will most likely be using the metro. Would we need to find a place right in Bethesda where NIH is located or would Gaithersburg or any other surrounding cities be a reasonable metro commute? Thanks in advance for your help.

Sure, any western Red Line metro stop would be an easy commute. E.g. Shady Grove (the furthest Red Line stop) to Medical Center/NIH is 15 minutes plus, maybe, a 5 minute wait time during rush hour for the train to arrive. Certainly the closer to NIH the better, but prices escalate quickly the closer you are to DC so that'll depend on your budget.

[Lisa Moore]

Thank you!!

[dkf747]

Look at Gaithersburg 20878. There are good bus routes to Metro. For example, bus 76 picks up in the Kentlands and it is just 10 minutes to Shady Grove from there.

[Lisa Moore]

Thank you! We were definitely looking at Gaithersburg. What is driving like during non-rush hours and on weekends in the metro area? (For errand running, etc.). Are the secondary roads in the suburbs still pretty clogged at those times too?

[bufflove]

Roads are pretty quick-moving outside of rush hour and on weekends. There are accidents and lane closures often enough that I always use google maps/gps when driving, even on weekends, just to be alerted to any detours needed to avoid a backup. By doing that it's pretty smooth sailing most of the time.

[williams.bola]

In addition to the 20878 area of Gaithersburg, I would suggest looking in Silver Spring close to the Rockville (20853 zip)/Silver Spring (20906) border off of Norbeck Rd, Bel Pre Rd, and Aspen Hill Rd. You can also look in the 20902 and 20910 zipcodes of Silver Spring - NIH would be accessible via route 410 if the beltway is backed up and Kensington (20895) is another option.

The traffic in Bethesda is really only harsh from 7am-10:30/10:45 in the morning and from 2:45ish till roughly 7pm, most of the other times the traffic is not entirely awful.

Thank you for your service

[dkf747]

Not all of Gaithersburg is good. That's why I included the Zip code.

[Lisa Moore]

Thanks for the advice!