ian74
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Thanks everyone, this is a lot of very useful advice!
@lordofthemark 190106 wrote:
So I assume you will be commuting by transit (since you are locating next to the VRE station) and the transit commute will be Burke->VRE->UnionStation->Marc->Bethesda? I guess you could take a folding bike and get off the MARC early and ride the rest of the way (I guess easier than riding the folding bike to a closer in VRE station?) Ride the folding bike, or a CaBi around Union Station between rail legs?
@DrP 190108 wrote:
The VRE does allow bikes on some of the trains (last three of the morning and last three of the evening), although there are limits in the number of bikes allowed. You would need to talk to folks who do that to see how truly viable it is. You can then VRE to Crystal City or Union Station and bike from those locations (or find somewhere near those places with bike parking you can use? Not sure how possible that is).
There is a parking lot in Reston along the W&OD for commuters. A former coworker drives there and either takes the bus to Crystal City or bikes (frequently it is bike one way and bus the other). That lot expects you to be there all day (and he has returned after the metro closed too). Reston Station, I think. That is a long ride to Bethesda, however. Depending on how multimodal you want, you could drive there, bus to Pentagon, Crystal City or wherever else they have the buses go to (Rossyln?) and then bike – they allow the bikes on the buses in some manner (it might be underneath). The metro is near there too and that is now an option. There are other lots too for metro, so perhaps drive to one and take your bike.I hadn’t really considered that VRE even though it is close primarily due to the daily cost. I also go in super early, and I would have to go buy a folding bike because the early ones have no full size bikes allowed. I mean, I COULD consider a folding bike…..
@semperiden 190115 wrote:
I have seen someone who commutes from Burke and parks on the w&od at merrifield. He parks here. I believe it is totally legal.
This is definitely a candidate for parking and this mode of moving. I’m won’t be far from Merrifield
@n18 190119 wrote:
Parking along the W&OD:
http://www.wodfriends.org/accessibility/parking/
If you want to park at Metro, West Falls Church Metro is the last metro station to park at to avoid HOV-2, as far as I know.
Thanks for these links! I was also looking at the heatmap earlier in the week. Interestingly I started thinking, I saw saw routes that are ‘warm’ but then I wonder how many ride have to happen along a route to give it the warm indication. If it’s rarely traveled by bike, and maybe 2-3 brave souls use it a month (on a weekend perhaps) how much does this skew the heatmap to perhaps give a false sense of safety/usage.
@trailrunner 190128 wrote:
Welcome to Fairfax County, where the biking infrastructure is poor. I live in Springfield and have likewise struggled to find good commuting routes.
One multi-modal option is to take a bus to the Pentagon (maybe the 17x or 18x, depending on your exact location) and riding from there. I often do something similar. Another bus option is the Fairfax Connector buses.
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I’m looking into the buses. I did see that it takes about 50 minutes from Burke to Pentagon, then form there to Bethesda would be close to another hour. It might be a lot of time, but definitely a useful option. Thanks!!
@Sunyata 190164 wrote:
Not the shortest, quickest, or most comfortable route, but I can get you from Burke Center to Brandymore Castle (East Falls Church) without too much traffic. If you are confident taking the lane, this route should be fine (I ride from my house to Wakefield park all the time, so am familiar with the roads from Annandale to Falls Church). https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29846643
I am not sure where in Bethesda you are, but the quickest way there is through Chain Bridge, which from EFC Metro is about 5.5 miles. From there, the Bethesda Metro is about 6.5 miles. So all in all, you are looking at about a 26 mile one-way commute. (Eek! Perhaps that e-bike is not such a bad idea.)
If you wanted to shorten your commute, there are a few streets in Falls Church that are not timed or permit-based parking. In fact, my street is one of them.
@huskerdont 190166 wrote:
I second Steve O’s suggestion to you personally, Ian, because you are cool, but I’m a bit bitter he pointed it out in public. It’s been my go to spot for years for when I wasn’t up to the whole ride (e.g., 3 days after my knee surgery).
@dasgeh 190170 wrote:
Lots of good suggestions. I’ll just add that in Arlington, unless there are signs, parking is free all day (I think technically they can tow a car if it’s been there 48 hours, but I think that is very rare).
For example, in my neighborhood (Cherrydale, just west of Spout Run/Kirkwood & Lee), most of the parking is totally unrestricted. The exceptions are along Lee and sometimes one block in, and near the HS and ES. But in almost all cases where there’s restricted parking, there’s also unrestricted parking within a block. And most of it is unused. The Custis Trail runs along the southern border of our neighborhood, and Quincy, which becomes Military and eventually gets you to Chain Bridge, runs right through it. Though, you can park for free much closer to Chain Bridge.
All of these points, and Steve-O indicated this to me as well, is that you don’t have resident parking restrictions in Arlington. This is HUGE. In Alexandria, you definitely have city regulations that discourage all day parking on city residen streets. Parking along the route is something I’m leaning towards. You’re cool too huskerdont!! Thanks! Also, thanks Sunyata for the Ride With GPS link!!!! That will come in handy!
@mstone 190171 wrote:
Yeah, you’re in a pretty horrible spot in fairfax county for anything bikey. For recreational off-road riding you’re not too far from the cross county trail, but that’s close to useless as a commuting route, and there are actually a number of trails for local errand-running trips/kids, but those tend to be pretty slow and annoying if you have to go any distance. Even in the moderate-long-term plans you’re going to be pretty far from any high speed/long distance infrastructure.
This is good to know, I see the CCT on the map, I thought it was a paved route. That’s disappointing.
Thanks again for all the suggestions everyone. I’m sure I can work something out!
