Anonymous wrote:I've been on DCUM so long that I know this has already been a long thread. Maybe in 2011?

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/141474.page#1245531

I've been on DCUM so long that I know this has already been a long thread. Maybe in 2011?

Outer Counter.

Easy.

Are people for real?

In case they are, from a bird’s eye view of the beltway, with NSEW being where they should be (Silver Spring/College Park N, Mixing bowl bottom S, Tysons west, Fed ex field East): literally the inner loop is the interior loop, goes clockwise and outer loop is outside loop goes counter clockwise.

I’m floored people don’t understand. It’s a beltway, makes a loop like a belt.

Anonymous wrote:But 495 is North/South.... so doesn't that affect which loop you are in?

It's N/S in parts and East/West in other parts, so the direction of the beltway is affected by where you are in the loop.

How do you know which loop you are in?

Anonymous wrote:LOL you can't be serious

So helpful!

But 495 is North/South.... so doesn't that affect which loop you are in?

Inner loop goes clockwise. Closer to DC.
Outer loop goes counter clockwise.

Anonymous wrote:I have lived here since 2002 and I don't understand which is which either.

imagine you are DC and wearing a belt (i.e., beltway). the part that touches your body is the inner loop, the part facing away from you is the outer loop

I have lived here since 2002 and I don't understand which is which either.

LOL you can't be serious

495 goes in two directions -- some cars go clockwise, others go counterclockwise.

when you imagine looking at 495 from above, you would see an outer circle (cars going counterclockwise) and an inner circle (cars going clockwise).

Outerloop and Inner loop. Once it clicks you won't be able to unsee it.

(unlike a highway that goes east-west or north-south, circular highways can only be described as outer-inner)

Imagine 495 as a circle around DC. When you are driving in the lane that is the outside of the circle (counter clockwise), that’s the outer loop.

When I lived in Chicago I would listen to NPR in the morning and they would always talk about the “Twoey” on the traffic report. I didn’t have a car at the time so it took several years before I understood that Twoey was actually “2E” or “EE” for Eisenhower Expressway.

I have lived here since 2011 and I still don't understand which is what. TYIA