sydneyracquelle

If I left my Rockville client at 5pm by uber to catch a 730pm flight from either BWI, DCA, or IAD which airport would be most convenient/quickest to get to and be in the opposite direction of traffic?

Analise

Maybe none of them. IAD would be the worst. You aren't accounting for crawling traffic at rush hour.

If you really want to catch a 7:30pm flight, your best bet is take the metro from Rockville to DCA changing at Gallery Pl and have TSA precheck. Waiting on non-TSA security lines probably will cause you to miss your flight.

yrs

The distance from Rockville to the airports (approximately) are as follows:
- DCA - 25 miles
- IAD - 25 miles
- BWI - 50 miles

Transportation options are:
- IAD - No public transport. Rent a car or uber/taxi
- DCA - Metro - served by the Yellow and blue lines. You would have to change to the red line to get to rockville (1 - 1.5 hrs travel time)
- BWI - Bus #201 from BWI to the Shady Grove Metro Station in Rockville. Fare is $5 one way. The bus uses the new Inter-County Corridor. Travel time about 40 minutes.

At 5 PM, I would not recommend BWI as all rush hour commuters are heading home from DC to Baltimore.
IAD - 270 South to the beltway should be OK (the rush is going north). Heavy traffic on the beltway from 270 to the Dulles Access Road. Dulles access road is for airport use only - 2 lanes with little traffic

DCA - Common route on 270 South, beltway west to the GW Parkway South. Goes straight to DCA. GW Parkway may have heavy traffic.

My personal opinion is that IAD might be best for you at 5 pm.

sydneyracquelle

Thanks for the advice! I have TSA precheck, Clear and no checked luggage. Just got a new client so I will be going to Rockville weekly from ATL and I am Diamond on Delta but could also take Southwest to BWI or United to IAD.

Polytonic

Southbound across the American Legion Bridge to Dulles Toll Road shouldn't be too bad at 5pm. It's northbound to 270 that gets really hairy.

Many trains will terminate at Grosvenor/Strathmore, so if you're catching the metro from Rockville or Twinbrook, you might have to wait a while for a southbound train to arrive.

I agree with this assessment (+IAD).

IAD also has the Silver Line Express Bus for transfer to metro which is great for morning arrivals, though likely unworkable for the hypothetical 5pm Rockville departure.

Analise

Congrats on the new client! If you will be leaving their office weekly at 5pm for a flight home, experience will guide you.

Here is the Red Line time table: https://www.wmata.com/schedules/timetables/index.cfm

Service between 3-7pm weekdays runs every 4-8 minutes including Rockville. The time it would take to grab a taxi or uber to the Grosvenor metro stop may not make much of a difference.

greggarious

I'd go for DCA, unless your employer will cover taxi/lyft then IAD is good too.

You can shave some time off by Transferring from the Red to Blue line at Farragut (it counts as a transfer even though you're walking across the square). I used to mobile order a breakfast sandwich from the Starbucks, eat it quickly, neck an iced coffee, then walk across the square

That being said where you're going is the most important consideration IMHO. DCA has really good coverage within the US (anywhere there's a congressman, there's a flight ), but very little international and less selection for long haul flights to the west coast. (It's a security thing, they don't want planes with huge fuel full fuel tanks taking off / landing so close to downtown)

DCA has a lot of international and longer haul nonstop flights (such as IAD -> SFO)

Honestly, I preferred DCA mainly because it's a known quantity.

BWI is an option, but dealing with Amtrak or MARC then metro is a long ride. I'd narrow it to IAD or DCA.

Also, I always found DCA just... smoother. Well polished. I didn't have precheck or anything but security was quick, whereas IAD I'd constantly get waylayed in line.

TLDR: IAD if you can cab or want good selection for long haul/international, DCA for national.
DCA also has a lot of flights to the major Canadian cities if that's a factor (Toronto, Ottawa)

sydneyracquelle

Greggarius thanks for the info. I live in ATL and will be commuting to Rockville weekly for the foreseeable future. When I leave the client’s Rockville office on Thursday or Friday around 5pm which of the 3 airports is most reasonable and easiest to get to to catch a 7:30pm flight home?

greggarious

Atlanta is a hub so all three should have a lot of flights. BWI is a pain to get to, transferring between multiple service providers (Metro to MARC or Amtrak), so I'd eliminate it just due to being farthest away and having the worst public transit options, leaving IAD or DCA,.

A car to IAD should take about 30 min BUT could be longer due to traffic, especially on a friday at 5pm. If you use Google Maps you can enter a departure time and they mine their data to give typical transit times. Google maps says its 30 minutes to 1 hour. I don't know about you, but I'd prefer knowing I have an approx 1 hour commute but it's consistent over an anxiety producing car ride. (There is a small but nonzero chance major congestion could make this longer)

Going to DCA from Rockville on the Metro takes about an hour. (About the same amount of time as a cab) and costs significantly less. Maybe you can get brownie points for being frugal?

Just be sure to transferr in Farragut Square. M-F You can walk straight out of Farragut North, across the street, and down into Farragut West - just be sure to obey the crosswalk since they have been stationing cops to hand out jaywalking tickets

There is often a large number of people who get off at Farragut, so in addition to saving a few minutes not doubling back from Metro center, you often can snag a seat for the second leg.

Since you have precheck, leaving at 5 and arriving at 6 for a 730 flight should be sufficient.

sydneyracquelle

Many thanks greggarious! How about flying into Rockville on a Monday morning around 10-11am? Which of the 3 airports would you recommend for the quickest arrival at the Rockville office by uber if I do not rent a car?

washingtonian_2017

since you are past the morning rush hour, either DCA or IAD wold take about 30-40 minutes to get to Rockville.

DeafFlyer

I missed this earlier. Traffic on 270 to 495 to Virginia is pretty bad at 5 pm. I used to commute that way. I'm glad I don't need to do that anymore. That's the only disagreement. Everything else I agree with.

greggarious

Yeah I'd just metro to DCA. The Farragut crossing trick works wonders, used it a lot when I was living in NW.