Anonymous
Post 08/01/2013 14:32     Subject: Working in Baltimore
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I live in Howard County and work in DC. I agree with PP about staying south of 32. We live in Fulton and it is perfect since 29 isn't THAT bad - and it is before you lose a lane as you approach 32. But is is close enough to be near everything in Columbia.


What route do you use to get DC?

Sorry to hijack, OP. We are a "split commute" couple and also weighing our home-buying options.


I take North Capitol to New Hampshire and then either go up 29 or up 95 depending on traffic. 29 is congested off and on from 650 to 198 and then is free and clear to 216. If 29 looks bad and 95 looks good, I'll take it (it is slowish to 200, opens up to 198, and then gets heavy (but 216 is the exit after 198.) It takes 45 on a good day, an hour on most days.
Anonymous
Post 08/01/2013 13:07     Subject: Working in Baltimore
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My partner works in Baltimore. I work in D.C.

We live in Bowie, MD. Yes, it's PG. We love our neighborhood.

We looked into a number of options. Everyone suggested Columbia, but, frankly, it didn't work for us. And we actually prefer Bowie.

Most of the time, my partner alternates between taking the MARC train and driving into Baltimore.

I mostly drive into D.C., but sometimes I take Metro Bus to Metro.


How long does it take your partner to get to Baltimore.


It takes him 40 minutes by MARC train and about 40-45 minutes by car (and this is an honest assessment -- see below). He likes to take the train, because the trains are actually pretty empty going in that direction, so it's a comfortable ride. (It's crowded on MARC going in the other direction.)

I will add that he works downtown Baltimore, and most of the traffic (when he drives) is traffic downtown or on the highway into the city, and that's pretty much traffic you would face coming from any direction (unless you live in the city or in Baltimore County). So I would be cautious about the claims that you can commute to Baltimore from Silver Spring in 30 minutes. I wonder if that is someone who is actually working in the city.

There are multiple routes to drive from Bowie to Baltimore, which is nice because it gives options.

Best of luck. No matter where you decide to move, it's best not to take anyone's word on commute times. In my personal experience, I've often found people are way off. Either they aren't talking about rush hour or they're speed demons or they just are bad at approximating time. The best thing to do is to do some practice runs *during* rush hour. So basically, take a day off, and start out at the location you are considering, leave that starting point at the time you usually leave in the morning and drive to your work address. Time it. Do that a couple/three times and average them. That's the most accurate thing to go by.


I wanted to clarify, it takes him 40 minutes by train OR 40/45 minutes by car. not both It only takes him a few minutes to drive to the train station. There's little traffic and free parking.
Anonymous
Post 08/01/2013 13:05     Subject: Working in Baltimore
Anonymous wrote:It is pretty easy to get to Baltimore from most of the DC suburbs because you're reverse commuting.

If your partner works in DC, I wouldn't go too far north. You might want to look at Greenbelt, Hyattsville, University Park, Bowie. And Silver Spring close to 29 or MoCo in general close to the ICC.

Would not bother with HoCo if someone has to get to DC.


+1 I would add, though, that if you plan on using the ICC, factor in those commuting costs. It's not cheap.
Anonymous
Post 08/01/2013 13:03     Subject: Working in Baltimore
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:My partner works in Baltimore. I work in D.C.

We live in Bowie, MD. Yes, it's PG. We love our neighborhood.

We looked into a number of options. Everyone suggested Columbia, but, frankly, it didn't work for us. And we actually prefer Bowie.

Most of the time, my partner alternates between taking the MARC train and driving into Baltimore.

I mostly drive into D.C., but sometimes I take Metro Bus to Metro.


How long does it take your partner to get to Baltimore.


It takes him 40 minutes by MARC train and about 40-45 minutes by car (and this is an honest assessment -- see below). He likes to take the train, because the trains are actually pretty empty going in that direction, so it's a comfortable ride. (It's crowded on MARC going in the other direction.)

I will add that he works downtown Baltimore, and most of the traffic (when he drives) is traffic downtown or on the highway into the city, and that's pretty much traffic you would face coming from any direction (unless you live in the city or in Baltimore County). So I would be cautious about the claims that you can commute to Baltimore from Silver Spring in 30 minutes. I wonder if that is someone who is actually working in the city.

There are multiple routes to drive from Bowie to Baltimore, which is nice because it gives options.

Best of luck. No matter where you decide to move, it's best not to take anyone's word on commute times. In my personal experience, I've often found people are way off. Either they aren't talking about rush hour or they're speed demons or they just are bad at approximating time. The best thing to do is to do some practice runs *during* rush hour. So basically, take a day off, and start out at the location you are considering, leave that starting point at the time you usually leave in the morning and drive to your work address. Time it. Do that a couple/three times and average them. That's the most accurate thing to go by.
Anonymous
Post 08/01/2013 12:53     Subject: Working in Baltimore
Anonymous wrote:How are the schools in Bowie? Any decent public (this is directed at pp, not pg haters)?


There are a couple elementary schools that are rated 9 and 10. I've talked to neighbors with kids in elementary and middle and I talked to a couple recent HS grads. They all were happy with the schools. I will add that the HS grads were in the gifted program, so maybe that makes a difference.

I don't have children yet, but I did look into that before we bought a house there. PG county school locator will let you know exactly which schools and address feeds to.

Of course, there are some haters. Some people move out before even trying the schools because they get freaked out by all of the negativity. But in my experience, especially with Bowie, all of the negativity I have read has been by people who actually never had kids in Bowie schools and don't have any direct experience. It's all from hearsay. I prefer to get information from people who actually have experience with the schools. And the information I have gotten from those people has been, on the whole, positive.

That's my honest assessment.
Anonymous
Post 08/01/2013 12:46     Subject: Working in Baltimore
Anonymous wrote:I live in Howard County and work in DC. I agree with PP about staying south of 32. We live in Fulton and it is perfect since 29 isn't THAT bad - and it is before you lose a lane as you approach 32. But is is close enough to be near everything in Columbia.


What route do you use to get DC?

Sorry to hijack, OP. We are a "split commute" couple and also weighing our home-buying options.
Anonymous
Post 08/01/2013 12:43     Subject: Working in Baltimore
I live in Howard County and work in DC. I agree with PP about staying south of 32. We live in Fulton and it is perfect since 29 isn't THAT bad - and it is before you lose a lane as you approach 32. But is is close enough to be near everything in Columbia.
Anonymous
Post 08/01/2013 12:10     Subject: Working in Baltimore
It is pretty easy to get to Baltimore from most of the DC suburbs because you're reverse commuting.

If your partner works in DC, I wouldn't go too far north. You might want to look at Greenbelt, Hyattsville, University Park, Bowie. And Silver Spring close to 29 or MoCo in general close to the ICC.

Would not bother with HoCo if someone has to get to DC.
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2013 23:08     Subject: Working in Baltimore
Anonymous wrote:21146

That's severna park? Not halfway between DC and baltimore
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2013 23:04     Subject: Working in Baltimore
Anonymous wrote:Silver Spring is about an hour from Baltimore, not a good commute


That's downtown Silver Spring. But in outer northeast Silver Spring, you are about equal distant between DC and Baltimore. Check out the 20905 zipcode.
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2013 21:45     Subject: Working in Baltimore
I commuted to Baltimore for one summer for work - I live in Friendship Heights. It usually only took me 45 minutes to get there or home, I believe because I was going against the general flow of traffic. Traffic is really not that bad.
Anonymous
Post 07/31/2013 21:42     Subject: Working in Baltimore
Anonymous wrote:I recommend trying to stay south of Broken Land Parkway (as it intersects with Route 29). There is a big bottleneck on 95 and 29 going into Ellicott City that worsens after you pass 216 on either road. I think there are a lot of people who work in Columbia who commute home to Baltimore and then you add on top of that the people who work in DC and live in Ellicott City and its nuts. FWIW, Ellicott City is lovely, but I think commuting to DC from EC is craziness.

The DC commuter will not have a great commute, but Baltimore from Columbia or Howard County part of Laurel is a breeze. Its odd - the Baltimore commute home often has less traffic than people headed to Baltimore at 5pm.

You could also check out Maple Lawn in Fulton, Fulton, Highland or Clarksville. Be careful about going out too far on Rt. 32 (I wouldn't pass 108) b/c there are bottlenecks there consistently every day- 32 goes to one lane, and Carroll County has a lot of people commuting there.

Good luck.


+1 This PP knows Howard county