Taking 50 West from Seven Corners? (Annandale, Manassas: houses, neighborhoods, private schools)

[Doppelganger69]

Hi again, all. I'm still looking at neighborhoods and commute times in prep for our househunting trip in a few weeks, and areas around Falls Church keep coming up as having nice houses at affordable prices. The possible drawback may be commute times to Manassas. As I look at the map, it looks like it might be easier to take 50 West from a lot of these houses (in Sleepy Hollow, Lake Barcroft area) to get there. What do you think about traffic in the A.M. heading West, and P.M. heading East? Any commute time guesses? What about a trip into Vienna for private schools?

Thank you!

[bunnyscootles]

Well you'd be doing a reverse commute... but there's no good way to get where your going. 50 usually sucks no matter where you are. And getting on 495 to get to 66 is going to be just as bad. I'd say at least an hour, without stopping for a drop off.
Maybe someone else would have a better idea of commute route. If it were me, I'd move closer to where you work. Not in Manassas, but closer. Vienna, Centerville, Fairfax?


HTH

[Doppelganger69]

Thanks, Bunny. We had been looking at Vienna, Oakton, and areas of Falls Church that are more accessible to 66, but these areas came up with houses that were so much more affordable that I wondered if they were worth considering. And based on your answer about traffic on 50, I think the answer is "no." Thank you!

[saganista]

Traffic on 50-West in the morning isn't really all that bad, but you'd have so many backups at long lights that it wouldn't be worth your while. The better bet from the Sleepy Hollow area would be to get across 7 Corners, then take Roosevelt over to a left on Washington Boulevard at the East Fall Church Metro station...that would soon dump you onto 66-West which of course has no lights at all...

[Doppelganger69]

Thanks, Saganista, for the routing. Do you think that would be a worthwhile plan compared to living in Vienna or a closer part of Falls Church, or would it add a lot of time?

[handy man88]

Originally Posted by Doppelganger69

Hi again, all. I'm still looking at neighborhoods and commute times in prep for our househunting trip in a few weeks, and areas around Falls Church keep coming up as having nice houses at affordable prices. The possible drawback may be commute times to Manassas. As I look at the map, it looks like it might be easier to take 50 West from a lot of these houses (in Sleepy Hollow, Lake Barcroft area) to get there. What do you think about traffic in the A.M. heading West, and P.M. heading East? Any commute time guesses? What about a trip into Vienna for private schools?

Thank you!

If you're considering Falls Church, I would stick to the Western part of Falls Church, which generally allows you easy access to I66 towards Manassas. There are many elite private schools in NoVA, not just in Vienna.

[saganista]

Originally Posted by Doppelganger69

Thanks, Saganista, for the routing. Do you think that would be a worthwhile plan compared to living in Vienna or a closer part of Falls Church, or would it add a lot of time?

It would depend on where in Vienna or Falls Church. Even though the incorporated areas of the Town of Vienna and the City of Falls Church are themselves fairly small, the areas around them that have those mailing addresses are pretty large.

Anyway, it's six and a half miles from the East Falls Church entrance to 66-West to the entrance at Nutley Street in Vienna. Speed limit or better all the way. The run from the Sleepy Hollow area over to East Falls Church is probably not much longer than an average drive from "somwhere in/around Vienna" to Nutley Street. There is a second Falls Church entrance at Route-7 (it's four miles from Vienna), but getting to it can be a problem, as traffic through Falls Church and headed toward Tysons Corner can get pretty nasty.

Just a note that in the evening, you'd likely NOT want to ride 66-East all the way back to East Falls Church. The merge with I-267 coming from Dulles usually produces a bumper-to-bumper crawl for several miles. Exiting at Nutley Street to pick up Lee Highway into Falls Church, then taking either Hillwood or Annandale Road over to 7-Corners/Sleepy Hollow would be one way to avoid that.

So a transit-time to Manassas difference would exist, but it likely wouldn't be much more than 10-12 minutes or so in the morning. A little more maybe in the evening. Vienna's a little nicer (and has very good schools, if that's a factor...I forget) and it would save that bit of extra driving time, but there is a cost difference as well. Depends which offsets the other I guess, but I would certainly look around at both areas when you come down.

For the sake of transparency, I live in the Vienna/Oakton area, but all of this I think is pretty close to plain old objective as against about 39 years of living in the area...

[handy man88]

Originally Posted by Doppelganger69

Thanks, Bunny. We had been looking at Vienna, Oakton, and areas of Falls Church that are more accessible to 66, but these areas came up with houses that were so much more affordable that I wondered if they were worth considering. And based on your answer about traffic on 50, I think the answer is "no." Thank you!

Those much more affordable areas are much more affordable for a reason. There are a lot of latinos in that area and the schools are not the best.

[Doppelganger69]

Bad schools would be a drawback, but as I am a Latina I would find the other part of your post an asset, not a detriment.