traffic

A driving lesson for Northern Virginia home buyers

An essential part of your housing search in Northern Virginia is a clear strategy for dealing with the traffic that you will encounter on a daily basis. I have to confess; I hear many things from clients but virtually everyone who visits here comments about the volume of cars they see on the roads all day long.

We need to discuss where you are going to work, if you have kids in soccer or who take piano lessons, local schools, where you like to go to the grocery store, and your willingness to get in the car and drive. Keep in mind that most of Northern Virginia’s master plan was designed using a classic 1960’s suburban design formula.

And the one constant in that Northern Virginia formula is the automobile.

Many of the roads have been improved over the past decade, like Beulah Road in Vienna or Braddock Road in Fairfax. The Wilson Bridge and Mixing Bowl projects are done, and the Fairfax County Parkway is ever closer to completion.

But bottlenecks still abound and that is why having a discussion about you lifestyle is essential. Again, living in Fairfax requires a car even if you take the Orange Line from Dunn Loring to D.C. like one of my neighbors does every day. She needs to get rolling by 7:15 to get to the parking lot or it will be filled. So it is essential to know that the Vienna Metro has two large parking garages, and Dunn Loring has a parking lot.

Interstate 66 has issues to and from the Beltway to Route 50 because they have not replaced the 1960’s overpasses at Route 123 and Jermantown Roads. This is a daily nightmare in either direction due to a predictable, documented high accident zone… so you need to get a handle on alternate routes.

The Dulles Toll Road will be a construction zone for the next three years, The Dulles Greenway is super-expensive, and the Capital Beltway or 495 from Tyson’s Corner in McLean to Braddock Road in Springfield will also be under the shovel.

And I hear stories from my clients about co-workers who overlooked this step when buying their “bargain” homes, and they pay the price everyday.

Fear not home shoppers… there are ways around the chaos!

Your success simply will require a little strategic planning when picking the right house.

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• Dude, Where’s My Car? (online.wsj.com)

traffic

Vienna Traffic Alert – Halloween Parade 10-28-2009

In case you missed the memo, if you commute through Vienna, Virginia on Route 123, please note that Route 123 or Maple Avenue will be CLOSED from East Street to Lawyers Road from 6:30 to 10.

Traffic will be detoured onto Church Street… good luck!

traffic

Closing the Capital Beltway on Friday night?

Dealing with traffic is a fact of life in Northern Virginia and there is one intersection on the Capital Beltway that is the heart of three major projects. It is the Tysons Corner interchange in McLean where I495 meets Route 123… which is the heart or nucleus of the area.

The construction of the HOT lanes, Metro Silver Line, and widening of the Capital Beltway that involves extensive bridge work, fly-overs, and an elevated rail line intersect at this one spot. Plus, we have 14-hour a day commuter traffic and 7-hours a day of rush hour!

If you want more specific details, look at this VDOT map.

They are closing the Beltway for half-hour intervals overnight on September 25th!

But please keep in mind that the future vision is clear and the Tyson’s Corner area is in full economic swing. On the Tyson’s Corner “big business” side, SAIC has just announced that it is moving its headquarters from San Diego, California to McLean, and Hilton Worldwide (formerly Hilton Hotels) just relocated here from Beverly Hills, California. So, compared to California, this traffic  is going to be easy.

On the real estate side, one of the nicest new luxury condo buildings that I have ever sold a home in is literally on-sale in Tysons Corner. A spectacular 18 story tower with views in all directions including Washington D.C. Spectacular 16′th floor club room and roof top pool, underground parking, soaring ceilings, penthouse homes, and all within a one minute walk to Starbucks or a gourmet Harris Teeter. Contact me now for details!

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A Tyson’s Corner driving strategy?

Anyone traveling around Tyson’s Corner has seen the rebuilding of much of the infrastructure first hand. There will be a new Metro-rail line which includes a short tunnel from International Drive to Route 7, the reconfiguration of the beltway to include HOT lanes, and the underground utility realignments. Any change this big generates growing pains, and the one they can never seem to get a handle on is gridlock.

According to a report that I heard today on WTOP from the Washington Business Journal, the construction mess in Tyson’s motivated one business to move back to Bethesda. Danielson Associates, a firm that has been researching, consulting and investment banking for community banks since 1978 considered the traffic mess to be inconvenient for accessing many DC clients. One down for Virginia; one up for Maryland.

There was an amazing story from one of the utility contractors who was digging a trench and snapped a cable not identified on any utility map. As he pondered what to do, three Chevy Suburban’s with U.S. Government plates pulled up within 5 minutes to say “you snapped our cable”. The contractor mentioned that it usually takes days to determine who owns a cable.

These projects should help with our constant traffic and gridlock issues that have been growing pains of Tyson’s Corner since the 1980’s. Having a driving strategy has been an objective of most clients over the past ten years that influenced where they decide to live, but real estate appraisers overlook this “X-factor”. Commuting time remains a huge factor in maintaining values of real estate in Arlington, McLean, and Vienna.

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