Baltimore Travel Forum

I'll be commuting to Johns Hopkins Hospital from Bethesda for the next year (one year only). I'll need to be there by 7:30a-8a (get on the road between 6:30a-7a) and I will be leaving from between 5p-6:30p. It won't be a fun commute, but I'd like to minimize the pain for a year. The other caveat is that my wife needs to be within walking distance of the metro. The two areas my wife and I are considering living in are:

1) Grovesnor area of North Bethesda: I'll have easy access to 495 and my wife will be able to walk to the metro.
2) Downtown Bethesda: My wife will still be able to walk to the metro. However, I'll have a little more difficulty getting onto 495. The best option would seem to be head onto the East-Side Highway and then head north on Connecticut Ave to 495.

I'm wondering if anyone has insight into the commute overall from Bethesda during those hours, and the commute from Downtown Bethesda to 495. I'm worried that the latter will be troublesome, however we would prefer to live in downtown Bethesda for its amenities.

Thanks in advance.

I495 is NOT the place to be driving on during the rush hour, and basically every hour is the rush hour as that road is carrying much more traffic than is reasonable. It would be better IMHO to live closer to Hopkins and for your wife to take the MARC train to DC and then the metro, or else to live somewhere that you could commute by some other means than via I-95 or I-495 or even I-695.

Take a look at the northernmost metro stations or MARC train lines (on lines that run those hours - not all of them do). You might be able to take a MARC train to Penn Station and then take the light rail or subway to Hopkins - I'm not that familiar with that commute. I think you could live somewhere like Laurel or Linthicum and both of you commute by train to work.

Try if you can to do a reverse commute - that is go the opposite direction of most other commuters if going by car.