Inner Loop and Outer Loop of the Beltway Meaning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Inner loop is closer to the city and outer loop is closer to the suburbs

This is obvious on a map but meaningless to me when driving. Luckily there is no reason for me to need to know which one I’m on.

If you listen to traffic report on the radio, you would need to know the terms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is knowing what is inside and what is outside the loops. You have to know landmarks and whether they are inside or outside.

What? If you're driving and DC is on your right then you're on the inner loop. If the suburbs are on your right then its the outerloop. In the US we drive on the right side so the thing you are driving around is on your right if you're going clockwise or left if you're going counterclockwise.

When you are driving how would you know which side DC is on? You would have to know landmarks and whether they are inside or outside the beltway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is knowing what is inside and what is outside the loops. You have to know landmarks and whether they are inside or outside.

What? If you're driving and DC is on your right then you're on the inner loop. If the suburbs are on your right then its the outerloop. In the US we drive on the right side so the thing you are driving around is on your right if you're going clockwise or left if you're going counterclockwise.

When you are driving how would you know which side DC is on? You would have to know landmarks and whether they are inside or outside the beltway.

I seriously don’t get the posters acting indignant about people not knowing when DC is on the right or left.

Sure, it’s obvious if you’re looking at a flat map, but it’s not easy to tell when you’re driving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But how can you be going on the outer loop if you are going from college park to Bethesda? That makes no sense!

You are focusing much too narrowly. Effectively, you are only thinking of about 1/8 of the entire beltway. Here's a picture:



The outer loop of the Beltway is the side of the highway that travels around the city counter-clockwise. It is further from the city center and is outside the inner loop.
The inner loop of the Beltway is the side of the highway that travels around the city clockwise. It is closer to the city center and is inside the outer loop.

So, the outer loop will go from College Park to Bethesda, to McLean, to Alexandria, to Camp Springs to Upper Marlboro and back to College Park.
The inner loop will go the other direction, from College Park to Upper Marlboro, Camp Springs, Alexandria, McLean, Bethesda and then back to College Park.

No that’s wrong. Don’t teach people incorrect things! when I drive from silver Spring to Bethesda, there are no cars or other roads to my right going the other way. So Yhats why I would be on the inner loop. You have to look at the other cars to figure out the loops.

Hopefully this helps you visualize why they are inner and outer loops.

[Anonymous]

DC Native. I never went to the suburbs growing up unless absolutely necessary, and then only to the ones inside the Beltway. Not everyone thinks of DC in terms of the beltway. It’s for far flung suburbanites. So stop acting snooty. If you want to be a snob, move to town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But how can you be going on the outer loop if you are going from college park to Bethesda? That makes no sense!

You are focusing much too narrowly. Effectively, you are only thinking of about 1/8 of the entire beltway. Here's a picture:



The outer loop of the Beltway is the side of the highway that travels around the city counter-clockwise. It is further from the city center and is outside the inner loop.
The inner loop of the Beltway is the side of the highway that travels around the city clockwise. It is closer to the city center and is inside the outer loop.

So, the outer loop will go from College Park to Bethesda, to McLean, to Alexandria, to Camp Springs to Upper Marlboro and back to College Park.
The inner loop will go the other direction, from College Park to Upper Marlboro, Camp Springs, Alexandria, McLean, Bethesda and then back to College Park.

Hopefully this helps you visualize why they are inner and outer loops.

No that’s wrong. Don’t teach people incorrect things! when I drive from silver Spring to Bethesda, there are no cars or other roads to my right going the other way. So Yhats why I would be on the inner loop. You have to look at the other cars to figure out the loops.

But you're the incorrect one. Period. NP

[Anonymous]

I miss Jay Leno

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is knowing what is inside and what is outside the loops. You have to know landmarks and whether they are inside or outside.

What? If you're driving and DC is on your right then you're on the inner loop. If the suburbs are on your right then its the outerloop. In the US we drive on the right side so the thing you are driving around is on your right if you're going clockwise or left if you're going counterclockwise.

When you are driving how would you know which side DC is on? You would have to know landmarks and whether they are inside or outside the beltway.

I seriously don’t get the posters acting indignant about people not knowing when DC is on the right or left.

Sure, it’s obvious if you’re looking at a flat map, but it’s not easy to tell when you’re driving.

OMG seriously?? This is hopeless....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of people really have no spatial sense. Like, they can't tell which side of the loop DC is in.
Map reading is also a lost skill.

The fact some people clearly are still having trouble confirms this. Their sense of direction must just be very bad? Do you even need to know where DC is on relation to the road? Can't you just picture a circle and which direction you are going and that we drive on the right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is knowing what is inside and what is outside the loops. You have to know landmarks and whether they are inside or outside.

What? If you're driving and DC is on your right then you're on the inner loop. If the suburbs are on your right then its the outerloop. In the US we drive on the right side so the thing you are driving around is on your right if you're going clockwise or left if you're going counterclockwise.

When you are driving how would you know which side DC is on? You would have to know landmarks and whether they are inside or outside the beltway.

I seriously don’t get the posters acting indignant about people not knowing when DC is on the right or left.

Sure, it’s obvious if you’re looking at a flat map, but it’s not easy to tell when you’re driving.

OMG seriously?? This is hopeless....

Help me help you. What’s got you worked up about my response?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think a lot of people really have no spatial sense. Like, they can't tell which side of the loop DC is in.
Map reading is also a lost skill.

The fact some people clearly are still having trouble confirms this. Their sense of direction must just be very bad? Do you even need to know where DC is on relation to the road? Can't you just picture a circle and which direction you are going and that we drive on the right?

It doesn’t look like a circle while driving though. Looks straight in some places, winding on others. And the person who said if there are no cars or roads on the right of you, then you are going one way is not correct. That would be the case on both sides.

I know that I have very poor spatial sense. I read a fascinating article about a tribe in Africa where everyone speaks in the terms “north, south, east, west” rather than left or right. They have an internal compass that lets them know which direction they are talking about no matter where they are standing. So they don’t have to say “stage left” or something. Everyone knows what they’re talking about. It’s a cool skill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC Native. I never went to the suburbs growing up unless absolutely necessary, and then only to the ones inside the Beltway. Not everyone thinks of DC in terms of the beltway. It’s for far flung suburbanites. So stop acting snooty. If you want to be a snob, move to town.

“Far flung”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is knowing what is inside and what is outside the loops. You have to know landmarks and whether they are inside or outside.

What? If you're driving and DC is on your right then you're on the inner loop. If the suburbs are on your right then its the outerloop. In the US we drive on the right side so the thing you are driving around is on your right if you're going clockwise or left if you're going counterclockwise.

When you are driving how would you know which side DC is on? You would have to know landmarks and whether they are inside or outside the beltway.

I seriously don’t get the posters acting indignant about people not knowing when DC is on the right or left.

Sure, it’s obvious if you’re looking at a flat map, but it’s not easy to tell when you’re driving.

OMG seriously?? This is hopeless....

Help me help you. What’s got you worked up about my response?

NP. I wonder if that poster thinks everyone thinks with a picture of a map in their head. I have much of the local/NOVA map memorized and think about which roads/places are on which sides of me, but I have the impression there are a lot of other people who don't work this way. I'm always saying to my husband this road is N/E/S/W of that road or you know this is on that side of that and he has no clue. He can read a map and follows verbal directions way better than I do, but he drives by landmarks and having driven the same route before. If we to somewhere new in a roundabout way (like stopping other places first), he has no idea how to get home a more direct way because he doesn't really know where he is in relation to everything else. He only knows how he got there.

You certainly can't see DC the way you can see a restaurant or school.

[Anonymous]

Even to me, a DC Native, when I approach signs for the Beltway and one entrance says "Bethesda" and the other entrance says "College Park," I have no landmark clues as to which is the inner and which is the outer loop, Or which is North, South, East, or West

[Anonymous]

I just follow GPS directions. I was a mess before that.