Commuting to Suitland Federal Center (Baltimore, Frederick: condo, hotels, homes)

[sdinfjmale]

My wife and I are moving to the DC area in October, and I will be working at the Suitland Federal Center. We are looking at both Charles and Calvert Counties as we like suburban life. I was wanting to get an idea about commuting times from the following places: St.Charles/Waldorf, Indian Head, Charlotte Hall, Prince Frederick, and Chesapeake Beach. Thanks in advance for your advice

[slowlane]

You might also want to check this source for opinions/ advice: Southern Maryland Community Forums "Life in Southern Maryland". Also, each of the towns you named has different qualities. Waldorf/St. Charles is a city of nearly 80,000, with a 2-level shopping mall, on a national through-higway with a wide variety of housing types - parts of which are laid-out in a careful plan with paths and duck ponds, and many restaurants and entertainments. Waldorf also has a minor-league baseball team, an ice-rink, many Air-Force families, several hotels, and much racial diversity. Indian Head is a quiet town built beside a naval base, with only basic shopping, its area is also very racially diverse. Prince Frederick is a growing, bustling county-seat that's adding more stores and cafe's, it has a hospital and other facilities to serve the County - spy-novelist Tom Clancy lives nearby. The northern part of Calvert County (Dunkirk) has many giant luxury homes and an overall "manicured" and wealthy look, as its main highway is built to "bypass" the different villages. Chesapeake Beach is a small, very walkable town but is undergoing some growth, with a new spa-hotel, new condo's, and a new boardwalk. It has very minimal shopping - its residents sometimes shop in Dunkirk, or even Annapolis. There are community theater groups in Indian Head and Chesapeake Beach. A large community-college is just south of Waldorf, and a smaller one is just west of Prince Frederick.

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by sdinfjmale

My wife and I are moving to the DC area in October, and I will be working at the Suitland Federal Center. We are looking at both Charles and Calvert Counties as we like suburban life. I was wanting to get an idea about commuting times from the following places: St.Charles/Waldorf, Indian Head, Charlotte Hall, Prince Frederick, and Chesapeake Beach. Thanks in advance for your advice

To answer your question, St. Charles/Waldorf (St. Charles is a subdivision in Waldorf, so let's just call it Waldorf), Indian Head, and Charlotte Hall have one thing in common as far as commutes, poor travel times. Waldorf and Charlotte Hall both have US-301 traffic to deal with. There are a number of bedroom communities off of US-301 that slow down your commute with value, a number of traffic lights, and traffic for shopping in Waldorf and now Brandywine. There has been talk for years to create an expressway through Waldorf to lighten the commute time, but nothing has come up as of yet. If you can survive traffic through Waldorf then by the time you get to the US-301/MD-5 split, then you will have 3 more lights before you hit the expressway through Clinton and you will then be almost at the SFC. Bottom line, unless you like sitting in heavy volume for at least an hour every morning and evening, avoid Waldorf and Charlotte Hall.

Indian Head is the same issue except you would have to take Indian Hwy, which has high volume and lights too. It takes a long time to get to the beltway so your only way of avoiding the traffic is to learn the backroads but those can be very curvy and dangerous at times.

Prince Frederick and Chesapeake Beach are much more direct to the SFC and generally don't have the same traffic as the other places. MD-4 would be the road you would travel, it has few lights and doesn't get as backed up either. You can easily take MD-4 and turn on Silver Hill Road and be at the SFC in no time. Google maps says Chesapeake Beach takes 43 minutes and takes about 53 minutes, so you will be about the same distance away as the other towns but probably will encounter less traffic, making it a much more likable commute.

[eaglecommute]

Are there any options to commute to the Suitland Federal Center from the Maryland side, everything I have seen so far is from VA. I am looking for van pools from the Baltimore or Severn Maryland area.

[justtitans]

Originally Posted by eaglecommute

Are there any options to commute to the Suitland Federal Center from the Maryland side, everything I have seen so far is from VA. I am looking for van pools from the Baltimore or Severn Maryland area.

I'm not sure what part of the sfcc you will be working but the census has a commuter system set up. I know quite a few people whole take the commute bus from annapolis and my co-workers who live in baltimore take the marc train. I even have a few co-workers who do that and they live in towson so take that for what it is. If I were you I would get in contact with the transportation office because they would be able to better direct you and possibly get you into carpooling if there are others who make the same commute.