Question re commute times

[Anonymous]

I'll be moving to the area soon, and have only visited a little. My new job will be near the Metro Center metro stop.

When I enter metro commute times on the metro website, I see that from Ballston or Courthouse it's around a 17 to 14 minute commute time once you are on the train.

The commute times from East Falls Church is 21 minutes, 32 minutes from Vienna/Fairfax, 24 minutes from West Falls Church, 28 minutes from McLean, etc.

It seems that there are lots of (pricey) apartments/houses near the metro stops in Arlington ... but is this not the case in the areas outside of Arlington? The only area I have visited so far is Arlington, but I was told that the commute time to get TO the non-Arlington metro stops can be longer, thus lengthening one's overall commute time.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Exactly what is your question?

[Anonymous]

Live on the red line. Don't live in VA

[Anonymous]

OP here ...

Sorry I did not word my question very well.

It seems that in Arlington it is possible to easily live walking distance (less than 1/2 mile) from the metro stops. Is it possible to also live walking distance from the metro stops on the orange and silver line that are outside of Arlington? Or are those stops all in areas that are not easily accessible by foot and require a car to get to?

I'm not interested in living on the red line, but thanks for the suggestion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here ...

Sorry I did not word my question very well.

It seems that in Arlington it is possible to easily live walking distance (less than 1/2 mile) from the metro stops. Is it possible to also live walking distance from the metro stops on the orange and silver line that are outside of Arlington? Or are those stops all in areas that are not easily accessible by foot and require a car to get to?

I'm not interested in living on the red line, but thanks for the suggestion

Move to Tysons
You’ll have Mclean, Tysons, Greensboro and Springhill with walkable apartments

To metro center 30min

[Anonymous]

Yes, you can live in a townhouse or condo/apartment near any of the Orange Line stops in VA. I'm less familiar with Silver Line but at least some stops have walkable housing.

The Orange Line stops west of Ballston have parking, which leads people to live farther away and drive to Metro. However, they do that to live in a larger or less expensive home, not because there's an absence of homes near Metro.

[Anonymous]

The main difference is that in Arlington, the metro stops are underground, so apartments & townhouses can be built right next to the entrances. In Fairfax County, the orange line metro stations are in the middle of Interstate 66. So you can't have apartment buildings as close to the orange line stations in Fairfax as in Arlington because you've first got to walk over 3 lanes of I-66 in either direction to merely exit the station. There are walkable apartments, but at a minimum it takes more time to get to the metro there.

The silver line is a bit different and there are some options out there now very close to the metros, but for a long time Tysons was a place where no one lived. That's changing.