My DH does school drop off since I am at work at 7 each morning. He drives to 14th and K and actually says the commute is pretty hellish. It usually takes him about 40 minutes to get into work after dropping our boys off at 8:40. That said, he worked in Clarendon for 3 years, so he is finding the adjustment to driving back into DC pretty hard. We live about a mile from Ballston.

Live by a East Falls Church and drive to Friendship
Heights via Chain Bridge. Takes about 35 min...

We live a bit north and west of Ballston, and DH walks to the Ballston metro, or he bikes to work, or he drives. Not a bad commute at all and 2/3 of the time he's getting his exercise in.

Better to live further out. The Arlington commuters to DC by Metro cram into the crowded trains in the AM. It's so demeaning and I feel so sorry for them invading each other's personal space with no qualms whatsoever.

I drop my kids off (one at day care and the other at Tuckahoe), park the car at home and then walk to the metro to head downtown. On the way home, door to door, the commute is 40 min. Easy.

Anonymous wrote:I live in Country Club/Yorktown and park at the Ballston Commons mall and metro to work at Gallery Place. It takes about a half an hour. I had hoped to live walking distance to Metro, but couldn't find anything in my range that was decent. So now I drive about 10 minutes to Metro and pay $1,200/year (pre-tax) to park, which is a lot less than I saved by buying a bit farther from metro.

we love our neighborhood, the schools are great, and we can walk to stuff. There are a ton of great neighborhoods here, and most are close to DC.

i did this for ~3 years until last year, but it was never 30-min - the total time spend on road/rail, maybe, but then you need to add on parking, walking, waiting for trains, transferring @ metro center, etc. still well under 1 hr though.

I live in Country Club/Yorktown and park at the Ballston Commons mall and metro to work at Gallery Place. It takes about a half an hour. I had hoped to live walking distance to Metro, but couldn't find anything in my range that was decent. So now I drive about 10 minutes to Metro and pay $1,200/year (pre-tax) to park, which is a lot less than I saved by buying a bit farther from metro.

we love our neighborhood, the schools are great, and we can walk to stuff. There are a ton of great neighborhoods here, and most are close to DC.

We live in the McKinley ES district but DS won't start until next year. On our block 1 mom commutes to DC, one mom commutes to DC and also teleworks 2 days/wk, one mom commutes to Maryland, one mom freelances and works from home, one works part-time on various contracts, and 2 are SAH moms. And, although we aren't there yet, I have a reverse commute into the suburbs.

I love near Ballston and also work near the WH.

We made sure we bought a house that was walking distance to the metro.

Much closer than a good chunk of DC.

I live in Clarendon work near the White House.

My commute time is shorter than when I lived in Georgetown. I now live near a Metro--but even driving can be quicker since I hit fewer lights and city intersections.

Hardy was our middle school in DC. So--yes--the move for schools was definitely worth it.

Anonymous wrote:Seems like many of the moms WAH like me.

I know a few that go into DC a few days and telework the other days.

DH works in Oldtown (reverse commute).

I know people that work in Arlington, Falls Church, loudon and even some in Silver Spring.

My neighbor bikes into DC.

this is similar to my neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:We're thinking about moving to North Arlington for the schools. Do most of the families commute into DC for work, or is it more typical that they're working in VA? If you do commute into DC, how have you made it work, and if your commute is long/not ideal, do you think it's worth it for the good schools?

We live in South Arlington, both commute downtown from Pentagon City (you can park at the mall or under Pentagon Row). From the south Arlington metro stops you can go in on either Blue or Yellow, depending on which part of the city you are commuting to. Husband takes kids to the bus at 8:40 and is at work by 9:15. I leave work at 5:00 pm and can pick up my kids by 5:40.

Lots of people in Arlington commute to DC. The smart ones go by bicycle.

Seems like many of the moms WAH like me.

I know a few that go into DC a few days and telework the other days.

DH works in Oldtown (reverse commute).

I know people that work in Arlington, Falls Church, loudon and even some in Silver Spring.

My neighbor bikes into DC.

We're thinking about moving to North Arlington for the schools. Do most of the families commute into DC for work, or is it more typical that they're working in VA? If you do commute into DC, how have you made it work, and if your commute is long/not ideal, do you think it's worth it for the good schools?