DCA writer

Beyond all the reports here--and that of a friend of mine who lives two blocks from the Herndon-Monroe lot--see this FAQ from Fairfax County's site:
I also found this brochure from the Fairfax County Department of Transportation (PDF). It spells out that:
By contrast, here's its next sentence:
Fairfax did ban overnight parking at the garage when they had to close the top floor to repair it, from 2007 to 2008.

Hope that clears things up.

rjpjr

I just received a response to my query on overnight parking at the Herndon lot. I take back every bad thought about VA civil servants..... I have copied directly from the e-mail:

------------------------------------
Mr. (name deleted for privacy),

My name is (name deleted for privacy), Park and Ride Coordinator for the Fairfax County
Department of Transportation.

I received you email below and would like to address the overnight
parking issues that you are referring to.

In a brochure dated year 2003, it was stated the you could get a VDOT
permit for parking but that was only in their lot, which they do not
allow any longer. We, Fairfax County, do not issue parking permits for
parking in our Park and Ride Lots. As far as the Herndon P&R, you are
allowed to park overnight but you are parking at your own risk and
Fairfax County is not responsible for any damages that may occur to your
vehicle.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me.
----------------------------------------

I guess it is now "open season" I've chickened out on trying this for my upcoming five-nighter only because my wife is going with me and she would have a heart attack if something happened to the car despite the official policy articulated above. Being right and getting my costs reimbursed if the car is towed will not bring her back to life However, I will do this when the opportunity is right.

Tarpie

I left my car there Thursday night to Monday night at the beginning of November and had no problems. $12 for parking versus the $50 it would have been for economy parking was worth it. Heck, the 5A comes on a schedule so you don't have to wait for 12 buses for other economy lots to pass before the right color shows up. Yeah, I'm still smarting from watching four blue and two green buses show up last night in the 15 minutes it took the gold bus to show up. Didn't use the park and ride this past trip since I was returning at 1am.

DCA writer

The meter on our cab showed $12 as we rolled through Herndon-Monroe last night. That's exactly what we would have paid on the 5A... except there was no question of taking all our luggage plus our baby, her car seat and her stroller on the bus. Not having to deal with that was well worth the extra cost of the tip.

(We didn't stop at the park and ride because we'd parked at our friends' house two blocks away. That turned out to be a good call on our part: Our car's aging battery had run down after a week in the cold, so we needed a jump start to get home.)

chrisnva2002

Hey guys, thanks for all the good information on this lot. Whats the latest on Herndon Monroe, still ok to park overnight for long periods of time? Any recent experiences would be appreciated!

chrisw

I parked at the Herndon Monroe park and ride for 10 nights in mid-april. No problems at all.

kmfdm91

Great updates - these are very nice to know...I still keep thinking that I'll have an issue if I ever do it, but this is good to know for my next trip out to Dulles!

-jeremy

Michilander

Anyone know, if I take the Metro Bus to the Herndon Park & Ride, am I likely to find a taxi there? Have a meeting coming up in the area and if I could take a taxi from the park and ride, I could go by public transit.

chrisw

I reccommend calling a taxi from the bus when you're 10 minutes away from the park and ride. I routinely do this with Red Top Cab (703-333-3333). The dispatcher knows where the park & ride is, and the cabs usually take 10 mintes to show up.

I have never seen cabs waiting at the park & ride, although I suppose you could get lucky and catch one who is dropping someone off (not too frequent, though). Safer just to call -- there's no extra charge for calling.

Michilander

Great! This will work. Thanks a ton for the pointer, chrisw.

Tarpie

Taking a bus from the airport to the park and ride just to catch a taxi seems like more trouble than it's worth since taxis are always available at the airport and you will be paying for a taxi anyway. You might be surprised how fast your trip to Herndon will be in a washington flyer taxi...the driver will make death defying maneuvers to ensure he is back at IAD in under 45 minutes.

If you have a smart phone, taxi magic is a nice app for getting taxis. I just punch in my address (no chance of a clerical error) and a red top cab shows up ASAP. I can see where it is on a map. Very nice. And you can pay for the ride with your phone.

GoingAway

Check your travel times on this one, if you just miss a bus, the wait for the next one can be considerably more expensive than adding the extra ten dollars or so in cab fare (and since the bus is already $6, the savings is really small).

Michilander

I will actually be coming from the other direction. Will be coming into Union via MARC. Figured to take the bus from the Rosslyn Metro station. If I were landing at IAD, I would indeed just take a taxi from there. In fact, I figured that if picking up a taxi at the park and ride was not feasible, I could just take the bus to IAD and get a taxi there.

DCA writer

Ah. You might find it's cheaper still, and maybe faster in rush-hour traffic, to take Metro to West Falls Church and then get on one of the local Fairfax Connector routes to wherever you're going in the Herndon/Reston area.

Tarpie

WMATA is now on google transit, so you can get bus/rail/walk directions anywhere in the region.

Actually, you can do a transit search from Fairfax to Fenway and get interesting combinations of Metro buses/trains, Amtrak, Boltbus, and the Boston T/bus to get there.

Also useful to be able to specify "I want to be at IAD by 2:00" and have it tell you which 5A bus to get on without you having to manually look it up in a timetable.