A Story From An Avoid-The-Beltway Bandit

I tried a new commuting route today, just to shake things up. I was operating under the advice of a co-worker, but the advice was mainly for the portion of the trip going across the river and into D.C. That left me trying out an alternative to I-66 for getting into the district. Today, I traversed Route 50, which runs through Fairfax, Falls Church, and Arlington - and has a ton of traffic lights. Since it's your typical four-lane highway-through-town, everybody wants to use it, so from here on out it is not my first choice of road to take. The two good things about taking this route are: first, it runs basically to my apartment (all I have to do is get as far as 123 and go up a few lights - the trick is getting that far), and second, the total trip time using 50 was about the same as if I'd taken the Metro. This is a good thing only in that it could have easily taken me longer than a Metro ride, at which point I would have broken down into fits of hysterical laughter and finished my commute a broken man.

The advice of my co-worker, however, which took me down Independence Avenue and helped me to largely avoid 395 and all the main congested routes, worked beautifully. So, the hunt begins for the best possible way to get over to D.C. I will say that I left a little later than I wanted to this morning, so I might still try 50 once more, this time a bit earlier in the morning. We'll see. As of now, making the drive made me appreciate the Metro even more. This evening alone, I saw more examples of rampant Northern Virginia bad driving than I care to repeat in a family setting.