Fairfax resident Patricia Driscoll knows all about painful commutes. A few years ago, she drove every day from Baltimore to work in Alexandria, enduring a commute that could take up to two hours one way. Frustrated by all the time she spent on the road, Driscoll decided to move to Virginia.
"The irony is that, when I moved to Virginia, I was only 11 miles from my office -- but it still takes 45 minutes," she said.
Tens of thousands of commuters who drive on the Beltway or into the District of Columbia every day know Driscoll's pain. AAA Mid-Atlantic officially times the commute into the District from either Prince William County or Fairfax County at around 30 minutes, but "with all the construction going on, you can throw those times out the window," said spokesman John Townsend.
Angie Goff, WUSA9's traffic anchor, has provided her best estimates on just how long you can expect key rush-hour commutes in the Washington area to take:
» Fairfax County to D.C Interstate 66 and U.S. Route 50: one hour
» Fairfax County to Tysons Corner via Virginia Route 267, I-66, U.S. Routes 50 and 29: 30 to 45 minutes
» Prince William County to D.C. via I-95, 395, U.S. Route 1: one to 1.5 hours
» Prince William County to Tysons Corner via Fairfax County Parkway, I-495 and I-95: 45 minutes
» Silver Spring/Germantown to D.C. via I-270, I-495, Maryland Route 355, U.S. Route 29, and Georgia Avenue: 30 minutes to one hour
» Silver Spring/Germantown to Tysons Corner via I-495 and I-270: 45 minutes to one hour
Goff said the most common routes commuters use are the interstates, with most Fairfax commuters making use of I-66, the Beltway, Route 50, and Routes 7 and 123. Motorists coming in from Prince William tend to stick to I-95, I-395, the Beltway, and Virginia Routes 7 and 123 (when going into Tysons Corner). Maryland commuters come in on 1-270 and the Beltway, using Routes 7 and 123 into Tysons Corner and Georgia Avenue and 16th Street into the District. Shees for commuters are I-66, I-95 northbound from Dumfries and Woodbridge, and Germantown to the Beltway on I-270.
Just to gain some perspective on the amount of traffic D.C.-area roads must handle, Townsend points out that I-95 south of the Beltway sees 300,000 trips a day. "Not only is the drive itself brutal, but you have so much competition," he said.
So how far outside the Beltway is too far? Goff picked Fredericksburg and Annapolis as being too far away for daily commuters. Kris Sneed, WUSA9's traffic producer, chose Winchester and Manassas via I-66 as the worst.
Though Driscoll said she doesn't really mind driving since her work with Human Resources Inc. keeps her on the road a lot, she conceded that commuting from home to work and back isn't exactly fun. "At the end of the day, you just want to be home," she said, "and that makes even the smallest bottleneck annoying."
