Best DC neighborhoods for reverse commute on the 66 (renting, buying)

[elspouse]

We live in Rosslyn, SO works in reston, but want to move into DC proper (yes, I know we can get the city feel in Clarendon without as long a commute blah blah, but for personal reasons want to live in the District). We'll probably be buying rather than renting.

We want to live within 1-1.5 miles of Dupont and are hoping to find a place with easy access to the highway (Roosevelt Bridge) without too much driving on surface streets (= long backups at every intersection in our experiences driving DC). Which (safe) neighborhoods will offer the easiest access to the I-66 with minimal surface street driving? SO's reverese commute from Rosslyn is now 25 minutes, realistically, how may minutes would starting from one of these neighborhoods add?

[saganista]

You can use Key Bridge in addition to the TR to reach 66 from the District. You may not want to in the end, but it shouldn't be forgotten, nor in the grand scheme of things should Chain Bridge. Getting to and across any of them in rush hour will be something of a challenge, but it will probably pay to keep all of the options in mind. Unless you can afford the big bucks in east Georgetown or Kalorama, potential neighborhoods that are near Dupont might include West End and Logan Circle, but I think you'll end up having to dig around some to find an area that balances affordability and desire to be near Dupont with the necessity of getting to Reston and back everyday. The good thing (if there is one) about the morning rush in DC is that it starts later than in the suburbs. It's sneaking up on 7:30 here and the trafficland TV cameras show both Connecticut and Wisconsin are open and moving freely. Still, I would guess that in the end, moving into the District would at least double the daily commuting time...

[claremarie]

Foggy Bottom, near GWU, is probably the closest residential neighborhood with easy access to I-66 (no "the" in front of 66, btw), but depending upon the exact location there and the time of departure in the morning, you will still have to deal with surface streets, many of them infuriatingly one-way in the wrong direction, and traffic lights that could add another 10-15 minutes to the Rosslyn-Reston run. That's just a guess -- but when I lived in Virginia my dentist was on 19th Street near Dupont Circle and it was amazing how LONG it took to crawl from his office down to the E Street Expressway towards 66, and that was usually at 10 am or so. Until you get to the Expressway and onto 66, you're still mixed in with people who are NOT making a reverse commute and are working their way through the surface streets.