Braving the Tempest: Navigating Washington D.C.

[Palanan]

I'll be visiting D.C. for a conference in a couple of months, and I could use some advice on getting around the city and surviving in general.

This won't be my first visit, and in fact I worked in D.C. and Northern Virginia for a number of years. But that was several years ago, and evidently a lot of things have changed here lately. The Metro in particular looks incomprehensible now. I was a daily Metro commuter, and I was used to feeding cash into the machines for exact fare on reusable paper tickets. But now the system has apparently gone cashless and riders are forced to buy more in virtual fares than they actually need.

Beyond this, I'm also hearing that both the Metro and the Beltway are shambling disasters, so I'm not sure whether I should try driving into the city, flying into DCA or BWI, or trying to find a bus or a rail option. And since my hotel will be a number of blocks away from the conference site, I don't know how things stand as far as personal safety downtown, especially after dark.

So, can anyone give me some insight on D.C. for the traveler these days?

[Pyromancer999]

Metro isn't too bad, although I'd recommend not going on it if you have other options and would have to go on the Silver/Orange line(unlikely, but still).

It would seem that walking is your best option for travel. If that is no good, I'd recommend Uber, as I have friends that go into DC on the regular, and they say they enjoy the good pricing and convenience of it.

[Winter_Wolf]

I was in DC in September. Don't drive there. Just don't do it. Unless you have a compact, parking is physically a problem as well as a monetary issue, and when you hit traffic you're going to be in it for "a while"--Chicago has easier gridlock. On the plus side it's not as bad as Seattle or Manhatton. Plus the metro didn't seem that bad and we went on it with strollers and two small children during rush hour--the silver/orange line, no less. But I will say, my basis for comparison is the Shanghai subway/ light rail system, and a US city has to be doing something Really Wrong to be anywhere near that bad. Uber was so-so.

[Madcrafter]

Was just there in October. I'd second walking as a good choice for short distances, Uber if you need to go further. Only had issues with the traffic on one or two occasions.

Can't comment on the Metro as I never used it; there wasn't a stop particularly near where I was staying and for more then one person Uber is both cheaper and more convenient. I did look into it though, the SmarTrip cards they use look to be essentially the same as any other transit card I've seen. Buy one at a station, load it up with money and tap it to ride. One difference is that unlike others it doesn't seem to be returnable when you're done your visit, which is kind of unfortunate. Still might be worth the investment, maybe with a short pass, if it's convenient.

One other thing is the bike share system, which actually worked really well for medium-long distances (for tourism anyways). Might not be as great if there's snow/ice on the ground though. That said, if you expect to be hopping around from place to place and don't mind riding, you can buy a day pass for about $8, which gives unlimited rides shorter then 30min. If you need to go further/longer, you can just pop your bike into a rack en-route, and check it out again. It has a pretty good app that can tell you how many bikes/free spots there are at each station so you can plan it all out.

[Neftren]

I'll be visiting D.C. for a conference in a couple of months, and I could use some advice on getting around the city and surviving in general.

This won't be my first visit, and in fact I worked in D.C. and Northern Virginia for a number of years. But that was several years ago, and evidently a lot of things have changed here lately. The Metro in particular looks incomprehensible now. I was a daily Metro commuter, and I was used to feeding cash into the machines for exact fare on reusable paper tickets. But now the system has apparently gone cashless and riders are forced to buy more in virtual fares than they actually need.

Beyond this, I'm also hearing that both the Metro and the Beltway are shambling disasters, so I'm not sure whether I should try driving into the city, flying into DCA or BWI, or trying to find a bus or a rail option. And since my hotel will be a number of blocks away from the conference site, I don't know how things stand as far as personal safety downtown, especially after dark.

So, can anyone give me some insight on D.C. for the traveler these days?

You should absolutely buy a SmarTrip card. Paper tickets are so last-decade. They used to let you run negative balances (up to $5 below) but I think they've changed that in recent years? I typically feed $20 on mine at a time (obviously put less if you don't need to travel more than 8 trips, but make sure you don't feed it a $20 bill due to the bizarre way the machines give change).

Metro is absurdly unreliable at times due to track maintenance, single-tracking, freezing rain, and all other sorts of nonsense. I'd suggest adding an extra 20-30 minutes onto whatever you'd think the commute will take you.

Parking is usually a pain, but if you can get reimbursed for it, driving is actually probably the easiest and cheapest option (many may disagree with me though). Avoid 295/495 during rush hour, and unless you know the rules regarding Canal Road, Rock Creek Parkway, and the area around the Lincoln Memorial, don't drive there either.

Choice of airport is pretty much dependent on choice of airline (United = IAD or possibly BWI, Southwest = BWI, American/Delta = DCA). Personally I prefer to fly out of BWI, but that's mainly due to proximity and choice of airline. IAD is probably the most reliable airport given its size.

As for personal safety, you're pretty much fine downtown walking around. Northwest is very safe as well (well, short of running into Pizzagate conspiracy theorist crazy types).

The bus is usually ok as well. The Transit (https://transitapp.com) app (or similar) is incredibly useful for realtime bus schedules. If you need to visit the non-Metro accessible parts of the city (e.g. Georgetown) there's the DC Circulator bus. I think fare is something like $3?


Was just there in October. I'd second walking as a good choice for short distances, Uber if you need to go further. Only had issues with the traffic on one or two occasions.

Can't comment on the Metro as I never used it; there wasn't a stop particularly near where I was staying and for more then one person Uber is both cheaper and more convenient. I did look into it though, the SmarTrip cards they use look to be essentially the same as any other transit card I've seen. Buy one at a station, load it up with money and tap it to ride. One difference is that unlike others it doesn't seem to be returnable when you're done your visit, which is kind of unfortunate. Still might be worth the investment, maybe with a short pass, if it's convenient.

One other thing is the bike share system, which actually worked really well for medium-long distances (for tourism anyways). Might not be as great if there's snow/ice on the ground though. That said, if you expect to be hopping around from place to place and don't mind riding, you can buy a day pass for about $8, which gives unlimited rides shorter then 30min. If you need to go further/longer, you can just pop your bike into a rack en-route, and check it out again. It has a pretty good app that can tell you how many bikes/free spots there are at each station so you can plan it all out.

Uber can be kind of expensive, especially during rush hour (7am-10am, 4pm-8pm). +1 for bike share stations if you don't mind getting a little sweaty. Walking is usually okay downtown and in northwest provided you dress appropriately.