Stafford to Reston - daily commute options (Richmond, Centreville: buying a house, buying)

[marketingguy1]

Hi All,

It looks as though we will be relocating from Chicago to Stafford (need to be close to family and reason for the choice of area). Job will be located in Reston, and I realise its going to be a long commute, but am willing to make the trade off to be closer to family. So, if you could help - are there better commute options than others, how long is the daily commute likely to be (Google says around 1hr15) but I know about the traffic having been to the area a few times.

Are there slug lines or alternative options folks would recommend? Appreciate the help.

Thanks

[HokieFan]

The rule of thumb is to at least double what google tells you. Dude, that commute is going to royally suck.

You can get more opinions by posting in the Northern Virginia sub forum.

//www.city-data.com/forum/northern-virginia/

[marketingguy1]

Thanks! I'll repost there too.

[novanwbie]

Yeah, that's going to be a mess, because of the mixing bowl and no direct way to Reston. I guess you'd be best off going out the Greenway, at least it's against traffic. But if you can live anywhere closer to work, do it. We made a huge mistake in NoVA buying a house that was too far out, and my husband's commute was absolutely ridiculous. Fifty miles (roughly what you're talking about, depending where in Stafford) was regularly 2.5 hours. You could potentially take 234 up to 66 and wiggle your way up to Reston (28 is much better now than it used to be), or the Fairfax County Parkway. I would try those before I tried 95.

[spencgr]

Driving will be a nightmare. Public transportation won't be any better. You could take the VRE to L'Enfant Plaza and the Metro out to Reston, but you will have rail time of about 2 hours, and that doesn't include getting to the station, waiting for the Metro, or getting from the Metro station to wherever you work in Reston (likely need to take a bus.)

[NOVA_guy]

I know people who live in Woodbridge and commuting to Reston, which is only about 30 miles, takes them sometimes almost 2 hours. If you can, I would move closer to Reston otherwise the commute is going to be brutal.

[Bigfoot424]

Originally Posted by novanwbie

Yeah, that's going to be a mess, because of the mixing bowl and no direct way to Reston. I guess you'd be best off going out the Greenway, at least it's against traffic. But if you can live anywhere closer to work, do it. We made a huge mistake in NoVA buying a house that was too far out, and my husband's commute was absolutely ridiculous. Fifty miles (roughly what you're talking about, depending where in Stafford) was regularly 2.5 hours. You could potentially take 234 up to 66 and wiggle your way up to Reston (28 is much better now than it used to be), or the Fairfax County Parkway. I would try those before I tried 95.

Possible route but 28 is no better in my opinion. At least not from Manassas through Centreville. No matter what you will be in one heckuva commute.

[novanwbie]

I agree. OP -- I understand wanting to be close to family, but if you're always on the road, do you lose the benefit? Perhaps you can live closer to work and visit family during non-rush-hour times. Truly the most important lesson we learned while living in NoVA was to live as close as you can to work.

[marketingguy1]

Thank you all- the job fell through. Back to the drawing board. Sounds like it would have been a haul!

If I wanted to live in stafford- would it be preferable to look at roles in Richmond etc- at least that way I'd be against the rush??

Thanks again all.

[novanwbie]

It would be preferable to avoid 95 in general, it's horrible much of the time now. It truly can't handle the volume. If you need to live in Stafford look for options for easy commuting -- where can you get to on the train? I'd go into DC before Richmond, b/c you can let Amtrak or the VRE handle the stress for you. Look for mass transit or ride sharing -- van pools are also common. Hopefully that will help.