A New Destination: Gaithersburg

Tonight I'm dogsitting for a friend who lives in Gaithersburg off of Quince Orchard Road near the Kentlands.  This is the fourth time I've stayed with Sapphire and Tango, but the first time I've needed to get here without a car. 

Her house in Gaithersburg has always seemed so far away to me, despite the fact that it takes about the same or less time to get here than home to Silver Spring when driving.  Maybe it's because instead of heading east-west I'm heading north, in the opposite direction of DC, my starting point for judging whether things are "far away" or not.  It also reminds me a lot of Harrisburg, where I grew up: major four or six lane roads dissecting wide open space, seemingly needing a car to get from any Point A to any Point B. 

After taking RideOn Route 5 this morning from Silver Spring to White Flint and then riding my bike the rest of the way to Rockville, I had riding my bike as an option to make the trek up here after work.  But after glancing at the RideOn Route 56 schedule, I noticed that there were stops both right in front of my office and at the entrance to my friend's neighborhood, so I decided to go with that.  (I always wondered which stop it was that had people standing right in front of the entrance to my parking garage: turns out it's Routes 56 and 47.)

I got on the bus at 5:11, and rocked some Blueprint 3 in the earbuds up Shady Grove Road and then onto Darnestown Road.  I finally got off at the stop at the intersection of the too-similarly-named Quince Orchard Road and Orchard Ridge Road shortly before 6.  It was about a 15 minute walk to my friend's house from there.  While I was walking I was struck by something that I'm not normally conscious of:  at a little over an hour, this trip took a really long time. 

Normally, in getting from either Silver Spring or Van Ness to Rockville, I incorporate a 2-4 mile run or bike ride into the commute.  Between the biking or running and the RideOn bus, it takes about 80 minutes to make the trip, but it doesn't seem that long because I'm not only commuting but exercising as well.  But this trip, simply a RideOn bus, took about 50 minutes plus a 15 minute walk from the closest bus stop to my friend's house.  What I've figured out over the last three weeks is that I'm willing to accept a longer commute, as long as it means I've gotten some cardio in as well.  Not only that, but that a longer commute doesn't even feel "that long" if I've gotten some cardio in.  But anytime a bus ride alone pushes an hour, like this Route 56 or the Q2 Metro bus from Silver Spring to Rockville, that's where I have to draw the line between tolerable and intolerable.

Places: Jon's Apartment (For Now)

My boyfriend Jon moved to the DC Metro Area (I refuse to call it the DMV) about a year ago after graduating from college.  He settled in North Bethesda, across Rockville Pike from the White Flint metro.  He's been there for over a year now without a car - so the challenges of that lifestyle that I'll likely encounter in the next month are old news to him.  The area, I would say, has served him pretty well for the last year: the White Flint metro stop got him where he needed to go in the city, the mall was right there for shopping and movies (even during the Snowpocalypse) and he was able to work there part time while he slaved away as a Capitol Hill intern for free.  Jon and I have been dating for four months and he is the most caring, hilarious, intelligent, supportive person I know.

This endeavor in carlessness would have been a lot easier for me had I started several months ago.  That's because on Thursday, Jon moves to his new apartment in Van Ness.  He always wanted to move closer in to the city since he moved here - I have also, albeit in a more hypothetical way - and I'm really excited for him.  But until then, I have to figure out how I can get myself from Rockville to White Flint for a few days.  I've ruled out taking Metro Bus, because unlike trying to get from Silver Spring to Rockville, there is a RideOn route that makes the entire trip.  If I take RideOn Route 46 from the Rockville Metro, it's got a travel time of 24 minutes and a cost of $0 - as I mentioned before, County employees are fortunate enough to enjoy free RideOn service.  An alternative would be to run this distance - it's 3.6 miles, and of course would be free and take me about 35-40 minutes.  (Since I started running about nine months ago I've been able to cover a lot of ground, but never at more than about a 10 min/mile pace.)  But, as anyone who has ever walked any stretch of Rockville Pike knows, it's not very friendly for that purpose.  I actually have run this before, as dangerous as it is, as part of an eight-mile route around Rockville/North Bethesda I used while training for the Broad Street Run.  So, if it's not pouring tomorrow (or even if it's drizzling) I'll lace up the running shoes and meet Jon at Harris Teeter to grab some food to cook dinner.  As far as what I'll do when he moves to Van Ness, that will take a little more creativity for a later post...

Places: My Apartment

I live on the edge of Downtown Silver Spring, at Colesville Road and Spring Street. I just signed the lease for a third year at Colesville Towers with my roommate, a friend from high school who works in PG County. The location works well for us: she has a 20-25 minute commute east, and I have a 20-30 minute commute west. There are few other places I think we could live together and still have manageable commute times.

While I don't think it was ever her intention to use public transit to get to work, it definitely was for me. For the first week or so I took the bus, the Q2, from the Silver Spring Metro to the Rockville Metro. Shortly thereafter however, the bus stops were relocated all over Downtown Silver Spring (OK - they were moved to Dixon, Bonifant, and Wayne - but to someone who had lived in Silver Spring for all of 10 days, it left me slightly disoriented) to allow for construction to begin on the Silver Spring Transit Center. That was enough for me to get in my car and tolerate the gauntlet of red lights down Viers Mill, until I figured out that, despite my assumption to the contrary, it was actually quicker to take the Beltway to 270 to get to Rockville.

Living in Silver Spring, I have several options for getting to Rockville Town Center where my office is located. I have the recently-improved Q line if I want to use Metro Bus, at a cost of $1.50 (one way) and a door-to-door travel time of 55 minutes, give or take. Other than driving, I see this as the quickest way to work.

Another (laughable) option is taking the Red Line. This trip, door-to-door, has a travel time of 70 minutes, give or take, and an unbelievable cost of $5.20. It sounds ridiculous to imagine a daily commute costing $10.40 - and obviously the Red Line was not designed for east-west travel across Montgomery County. East-west travel across MoCo? That's a line of a different color (hopefully).

Probably the most likely option for me, which requires a much longer commute time but has other benefits as well, is using RideOn. RideOn does not have a route that travels all the way from Silver Spring to Rockville - the best I can do is Silver Spring to Twinbrook Metro. I could easily run to fill in the missing piece of this route - it's a distance of 2.4 miles. Since running is a part of my (almost) daily routine anyway, it makes sense to me to incorporate it into my commute to work. The best part of this option? While it's got a travel time of 85 minutes, approximately, the cost is $0 - County employees are fortunate enough to enjoy free RideOn service. Opportunities for dollar savings are a major motivating factor for me in taking on this endeavor, and I'll have more on that, as well as the logistical considerations like showering at work, in later posts.