Relocating no Northern VA

[kramerjb]

Hi All,
I am being relocated from Sleepy Central Florida to Crystal City. While FL can be an OK place for recreational riding. It is not conducive at all for bike commuting. So I'm used to a 18 mile and 25 minute commute from my garage to my office. It doesn't take a genius to recognize that those days are short lived for me.
I am very interested in bike commuting to and from work. It is just my wife and I. We haven't selected a neighborhood yet. This decision is pending my commute and my wife transferring to a job as a Speech & Language Pathologist in the suburbs. So I'm interested in an input from the biking community on what neighborhoods could be commuted fom and to Crystal City. As well as a nice place to relocate to. My plan is to rent for the 1st 6 months or so. So If anyone knows of a good short term lease I'm also interested.

[consularrider]

If you are going to be working in Crystal City, you have a broad range to choose from. There is a trail acess from the Mt Vernon Trail into Crystal City at about the 14 mile post. Also, it is easy to get there from the 4 Mile Run/W&OD Trails. That opens up a broad range of neighorhood options that are easily commutable by bike depending on what else you want in your living arrangements. When you talk about an 18 mile/25 minute commute, I have to assume you are talking about driving. How far are you willing to ride? Most of Arlington would be an easy commute as would much of Alexandria.

[Dirt]

Welcome to the area.

Crystal City is extremely accessible via bike path with a few connections on easily traveled roads. One of the great benefits of living in the DC area is that the bike commuting is, for the most part, quite easy. The Bike Arlington Maps page (http://www.bikearlington.com/pages/maps-rides/) gives you not only the Arlington County maps, but those of other local jurisdictions.

Consularrider mentioned a few of the mainstays of riding in the area. The Mount Vernon Trail heads from Rosslyn Virginia (a few miles North of Crystal City) south all the way to (of all places) Mount Vernon. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Tow Path (C&O) heads Northwest into Maryland along the Potomac river. The Capitol Crescent trail heads up around the North side of town. The Washington and Old Dominion Trail heads for 40 miles West of town. The Custis Trail connects things together in North Arlington. 4-Mile Run trail connects some things in the central/southern part of Arlington.

Those main trails can help pick a neighborhood. If you find something nearby the trail, you can use the maps linked above to find some back-street ways to get from home to the trails. Arlington, unlike Fairfax and parts of Alexandria, has relatively few... possibly no "dead zones" where it is really hard to find a safe route to one of the main bicycle arteries.

Picking a neighborhood is a very personal thing. You kinda have to get a feel for it yourself. We can help with identifying how to get from where you want to live to where you're going to be working.

[Joe Chapline]

You will have lots of options, and here are some more. Crystal City has a Metrorail (subway) station, served by the Blue and Yellow lines, and a Virginia Railway Express commuter rail station. If you want to consider a multimodal commute, you could look at neighborhoods in biking distance of a Metro or VRE station. Metro: www.wmata.com VRE: www.vre.org

[Joe Chapline]

You can also think of public transportation as backup options. If you lived in Alexandria, for example, you could bike to work most days, but be able to take the train when it's too icy to ride. There are also several Metrobus routes that serve Crystal City. There's more information about transit and bike options here: http://www.commuterpage.com/art/villages/crystalcity_tran.htm