Originally Posted by
benjymessner
i live in upper NW so don't quite have to make it into MD, but have you tried getting off 267 onto 123 and taking chain bridge? that's my usual "fix" although never as fast as you want it to be. could get back on the outbound parkway if you make the U-turn on Arizona...
My CO office is in Falls Church right off of 495 and when leaving there (at 2:30 pm) I'll sometimes use 123 -> Balls Hill -> 193 to get back onto 495 but that seems to be a wash generally because of the stoplight traffic stacking. I haven't thought about taking it all the way down to cross Chain Bridge, as I haven't factored in a U turn at Arizona... lol. If there was a left turn onto Canal I would have definitely tried that already. I might get desperate enough eventually though - perhaps up Arizona and onto MacArthur backout.
That whole corridor is a mess. And once the toll lanes are done, I don't expect it's actually going to get that much better - it's just going to push the choke down a bit further.