Commuting to Georgetown from NoVa

February 14, 2008 10:07 AM

Help advise me on my work commute to Georgetown U from McLean,Va (I'm not close to metro).

I just got a new exciting job (my first library job!omg!) at Georgetown University. I am trying to figure out a way to commute there from my home in Mclean, VA, where we have no metro station nearby. I could just get a month parking pass and drive, but the Key Bridge is closed in the mornings, and the Canal Rd mess is not appealing. My work schedule will be different day to day, week to week, so I can't really rideshare. I will sometimes have to be there early in the morning and on other days to past 11pm. I have looked into parking in Rosslyn and taking the free shuttle, but they are all closed to new monthly parkers (in my budget range, or they close too early). The same applies to the lot at the W. Falls Church metro lot. If you have some ideas I haven't thought of or gave up on too early, let me know! HALP...

posted by wowbobwow to travel & transportation (16 comments total)

Could try to get to memorial bridge, get on 495 for a few moments, then Clara Barton Parkway to MacArthur Blvd. Stay on it. Don't get on Canal Rd.

Just a guess, but used a similar route against traffic back in the day when I lived in upper NW and worked in Reston.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:26 AM on February 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

Take the bus. The WMATA ride planner has its issues, but if you punch in your home address as your origin and "Rosslyn Metro Station" as your destination it'll give you a good plan for getting there.

You can try punching in "georgetown university" as a destination but it'll ignore things like the university shuttle in favor of their own buses.

You might find you don't care for its methods - I can catch the bus less than 500 feet from my home but have found that walking the mile to my metro stop is quicker over the whole trip - but it's a good place to start.
posted by phearlez at 10:38 AM on February 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

Sounds like you'll need a combo plan.

If you need flexibility of driving on some/most days, check this chart, which includes paid options for GU employee parking, including a scale based on salary. It also references (near the bottom) $12/day "visitor" parking at the Southwest garage off Canal Road. Probably too pricey for "everyday," but good to know if you're in a pinch for one of those long days.

Otherwise, when I was a grad student I found the walk from Rosslyn to the library is pretty easy, and often preferable to the cramped GUTS bus. Could you park at a metro lot somewhere out in VA and metro to Rosslyn?
posted by nkknkk at 10:50 AM on February 14, 2008

Key bridge is not the only way into Georgetown. You can take Memorial or Theodore Roosevelt bridge to Potomac River Freeway (past the Watergate) to either Whitehurst Freeway (which will spit you out at the DC side of Key Bridge) -- or to K street, then right on Wisconsin and left somewhere between Prospect and Reservoir, depending on where you want to enter the campus.

I used this route extensively in the late 80s, when Key Bridge was under constant construction. I continued up Foxhall road to Nebraska.
posted by toxic at 10:51 AM on February 14, 2008

phearlez has it. public transit around DC is eighty times better than driving anywhere daily through the always-terrible traffic; you get a ton of time for reading or knitting or whathaveyou, too. I used to do a Ballston<>Herndon loop every day, and that took hoooours, but it was still better than driving.
posted by soma lkzx at 10:52 AM on February 14, 2008

Oh wow, Ironmouth, I had never thought of that. Most excellent. Also, thanks to phearlez I now know a bus near me goes right to the Falls Church station.
posted by wowbobwow at 10:54 AM on February 14, 2008

oo knitting...I'm very behind on that. I could also catch up on that Tolstoy book I've been slacking on. Thanks everybody, once again.
posted by wowbobwow at 10:57 AM on February 14, 2008

Check out Arlington County's site as well. http://www.commuterpage.com/, for a great place to learn about various transit options you might have in.

I do second everyone else that bus -> Orange Line metro stop -> Rossyln Metro stop is the best way.
posted by waylaid at 11:19 AM on February 14, 2008

Hmm.. for driving if you get on the GW Parkway and then take either bridge into the city, if you take the memorial or roosevelt bridge to the Whitehurst freeway that is fast, then at the end you can go left for canal road and the turn up to campus.

Or.. would it be possible to take the chain bridge road across the bridge into the city at the start of Canal road, then immediately get off Canal road via Arizona Ave, then to Nebraska, then go straight down Foxhall.

There is a shuttle from Dupont to the university too so if by some means you can get to the red line, you could do that (I don't see that as being practical but you never know - maybe by chance there's monthly parking available at one of those stops?)

Finally.. there is the 38B metrobus that runs all down the orange line from Ballston to Clarendon, Courthouse, Rosslyn, past Foggy Bottom, if you could somehow drive and park near one of those bus stops, you could get that bus and either catch the shuttle from Rosslyn or just hop off the bus after it goes over the Key Bridge and walk up the Exorcist steps or another side street to campus.

that is a heck of a commute, though. I hate to say just drive it, but.. given there's not a lot of public transport in McLean, and not a lot in Georgetown.. you might wear yourself out trying to take a bus + metro + shuttle every day.
posted by citron at 11:42 AM on February 14, 2008

i'm puzzled as to your assertion that key bridge is closed in the mornings. i commute to georgetown university from nova, and i can assure you that key bridge is very much open in the mornings and afternoon.

i would also warn you against the guts shuttle service; it really sucks. the walk most of the year is way more pleasant from rosslyn metro and back (and even sometimes quicker than guts especially when heading toward rosslyn--all downhill ;-) ).
posted by iboxifoo at 11:59 AM on February 14, 2008

I believe Ironmouth means the American Legion Bridge to 495 which crosses the Potomac River from Va to Md. The first exit in Md - just across the bridge - is the Clara Barton Parkway which is a very quick commute. Clara Barton turns into Canal Road, right by the Chain Bridge, which you wrote you wanted to avoid. Ironmouth suggests to exit the Clara Barton to MacArthur Blvd which parallels Canal Rd.

MacArthur eventually runs into Foxhall Rd which then connects at in intersection with Canal and becomes M street. There is a new entrance to GU right off Canal Rd with a protected left turn.

Alternatively, you could take a left turn onto Reservoir Rd from MacArthur, pas Foxhall Rd. and there is another entrance to GU off Reservoir, by GU Hospital.

Finally, you could take the 23A bus toward Crystal City, get off at N Glebe and Washington and then catch the 38B bus toward Farragut.

I in between chain bridge and GU so mefi mail me if you like. i know this is pretty confusing.
posted by battlecj at 1:16 PM on February 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

I in = I live inbetween.
I = silly
posted by battlecj at 1:17 PM on February 14, 2008

I believe that Key Bridge isn't open if you're exiting from GW Parkway ONTO the Key Bridge. Crossing over on the Key Bridge from Rosslyn itself is fine.
posted by waylaid at 1:18 PM on February 14, 2008

must stop typing
posted by battlecj at 1:18 PM on February 14, 2008

waylaid has it right - the Key Bridge exit off the southbound Parkway is closed during morning rush. This GU page implies it re-opens at 9am (I'd thought 10) but that should be verified. However I would think the amount of available parking after 930a is going to be pretty dismal.

And a friend of mine who works at the U agress with iboxifoo - he walks across the bridge to campus and says on average it's not much slower for him (though he's then got to go to a satellite office north-east of campus so his calculus is a little different than yours...)
posted by phearlez at 2:11 PM on February 14, 2008

Your right I meant the American Legion Bridge. All that former soldier stuff gets me confused. The route should work, though. I used to go the opposite way to get to Reston, Mass ave to Macarthur to clara barton to 495 to the dulles toll road. The way back was that I would get off of 495 and get on to chain bridge and get on canal and go up nebraska ave.
posted by Ironmouth at 9:42 AM on February 15, 2008