Moving to DC area and need help, please!

[ack]

To get an idea of traffic, go to WWW.WTOP.COM and listen live to the radio; they do traffic reports every eight minutes. They also have a traffic map. In what other place is the top-rated radio station an all-news station? Yep, All the news, and it comes direct from the “glass-enclosed nerve center”.

And note how 75% of the traffic coverage on WTOP is about Northern VA, even though Northern VA is just one region out of many in the listening area. This gives you an idea of how bad traffic can get there, underscoring the importance of living near where you work and go to school…

 

[IrishAm]

I came here from Chicago six years ago and traffic is traffic is traffic. Not good anywhere – and the subject of complaints since Henry Ford invented the Model T!

I live near Springfield (in the Kingstowne area of Fairfax County, an Alexandria mailing address but not in the City of Alexandria – may be worth looking at; there are a lot of military families in the area) and work in DC. I take the Metro train every day and it is a great way to get around. There’s a station right at the Pentagon, if he would work there.

 

[PaulinVA]

And note how 75% of the traffic coverage on WTOP is about Northern VA, even though Northern VA is just one region out of many in the listening area. This gives you an idea of how bad traffic can get there, underscoring the importance of living near where you work and go to school…

Oh, that’s funny that you say that. I always thought that the preponderance of the traffic reports were about Maryland and the District.

Only a third of the Beltway is in Virginia. Other than the Beltway and 66, the traffic reports aren’t really much help in VA. They rarely help me.

 

[Ruthie]

I was born and raised in DC, but I haven’t lived there since 1972… (I wonder what the house I grew up in is worth today? It was near Wisconsin Ave and Porter St.)

Another thing to consider is taxes. If you live in the burbs, but work in DC, do you have to pay a DC income tax, as well as a VA tax?

I would second the idea of using the Metro to get to work. If housing and parking near the Metro station is prohibitive, then find out where and when the bus lines run and move to where the bus will be handy.

God bless you - and enjoy DC.

Ruthie

 

[PaulinVA]

I
Another thing to consider is taxes. If you live in the burbs, but work in DC, do you have to pay a DC income tax, as well as a VA tax?

You pay income tax to the state you live in - that’s why the District wants to impose a commuter tax.