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It depends on where you are, how much walking you are willing to do, and if you schedule happens to work with the available bus schedules.
As someone who is willing to walk up to 12 miles when not following a schedule and 5 miles when following one, I can walk most anywhere that has a sidewalk. I used to metro to East Falls Church which would probably not be considered very walkable except that I would walk about 2 miles to my doctor's office weekly, walk back afterwards, and then metro back home. Obviously it wasn't D.C. but it was still get-around-able if you were willing to walk some distance. There was a bus route on part of of my walking route but I just didn't think it was worth a dollar something and waiting fifteen minutes just to save a mile of walking.
As someone who is willing to walk up to 12 miles when not following a schedule and 5 miles when following one, I can walk most anywhere that has a sidewalk. I used to metro to East Falls Church which would probably not be considered very walkable except that I would walk about 2 miles to my doctor's office weekly, walk back afterwards, and then metro back home. Obviously it wasn't D.C. but it was still get-around-able if you were willing to walk some distance. There was a bus route on part of of my walking route but I just didn't think it was worth a dollar something and waiting fifteen minutes just to save a mile of walking.
I did the same in Dallas. There are hardly any sidewalks, so you end up walking through mud puddles and weed patches. People heckle you, really. And every cop slows down to check you out because it is such a bizarre sight to them, they suspect that you are up to no good.
The area around PG plaza metro station is walkable, maybe West Hyattsville metro station too.
But overall PG county is sprawled out with wide roads and poor bus service for the most part. A lot of the buses don't run on sundays and/or after 9-10pm.
There are 15 metro stations in PG county:
Green line:
Greenbelt (Not walkable)
College Park (Not Walkable) PG Plaza (Walkable)
West Hyattsville (Walkable, but not great)
Southern Ave (Not Walkable and wouldn't recommend this area)
Naylor Road (Semi Walkable, but its subpar. Wouldn't recommend living in this area)
Suitland (Not Walkable, but its do-able....wouldn't recommend living in Suitland)
Branch Ave (Least Walkable station in PG county)
Blue line:
Capitol Heights: (Not Walkable, wouldn't recommend living in this area)
Addison Road: (Not Walkable, wouldn't recommend living in this area AT ALL)
Morgan Blvd: (Not Walkable, but the surrounding area is decent)
Largo Town Center (Walkable)
Orange line:
Cheverly: (Not Walkable, but area is decent.. a mix of diverse middle class and industrial)
Landover: (Not Walkable. wouldn't recommend living in this area)
New Carrollton (Not Walkable....yet. There are plans for revitalization but that can take some time. Also the apartment complexes near this station aren't the safest)
In a nutshell, PG county for the most part is ghetto or the areas that are decent don't have decent public transport, if any at all or the area just isn't walkable.
This area I bolded is not safe at all. It is considered one of the most dangerous metro stations and I would put it up there as a dangerous place. People think because it has nice new shops that it's nice over there but it is very dark and all types of things happens at this stop.
None of the metro station in Prince Georges County have 'transit oriented development' around them. Seems they either cut into low density 50s style surburbs or followed existing railroad lines through industrialized areas (Landover station). But with a number of supplemental transit options now (Zip car and Bikeshare), it's easier than ever to live without a car pretty much anywhere in the area. I did it for 7 years during the pre-cell phone era, so at that time, you had to become WELL-versed in bus schedules and keep change and cash for cabs and such. They only time I yearned to have my own car was when I wanted to go to big box store or visit friends in the burbs late at night.
PG Plaza is actually transit oriented. It does have apartments, stores, restaurants and the whole 9 around there, but as I said in the previous post, it's really not that safe.
If i was going to go carfree in a suburb of DC I would either
A. Get really, really good at biking
B. Join Zipcar
or
C. Both.
Not to say there arent a few burbs with good bus service, good walkability, etc, but either A or B would so leverage things, I dont see why one wouldnt do one or the other. If I couldnt drive at all (and so couldnt do zipcar) and for one reason or another couldnt bike, I think I would really try to stay in an urban area like DC or maybe parts of arlington or Alex.
The website contains the PG lines as well well on the map yes but schedules no plus all THE BUS routes stop after 7PM or 6PM but due to wmata being everywhere its not that big of a deal
The DMV total gets about 420,000 Metrobus riders a day which includes all of DC, Maryland, and Virginia routes.
He wasn't asking about the DMV btw. Kinda wouldn't make sense since he doesn't have a car.
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