how long is the commute from dc to baltimore on a tuesda

hey everyone. so far, the information i've gleaned from you has been very accurate. i'm hoping you can, once again, help me out…

my girlfriend and i are hoping to get to the feist / rogue wave show at ram's head in baltimore on tuesday. however, we can't leave until after she's done with work and, for several reasons, she can't quite leave early.

so, my question is: honestly, what is a reasonable amount of time i would expect to travel to get from dc to baltimore on a tuesday night?

thanks, yo.

it depends on what part of dc that you are in.

sorry, i meant dc as in "the dc area". let's say…the tysons corner.

when does the traffic peak? when does it slake?

show is at 8, doors are at 7. i, of course, would like to make it by 8.

could be bad. you got 95n or bw pkwy. listen to 103.5fm on the 8's. if one road is bad bail to the other. 95n has more lanes and a faster speed limit. bw pkwy is closer to dc and goes straight to pratt st. but the bwp backs up for no good reason just past 495 + several other x's on the way to balt starting about 2:30pm. if you take bwp i would avoid ny ave. that can be a nightmare.

i wouldnt leave any later than 5:30 if you really wanted to be there by 8pm. and if you luck out and get there at 7:15 or so, have a beer and relax. :)

oh and i'd take 295 but hop off at 695 and grab 95 as 295 is one lane coming into Baltimore and can be quite a mess in the evening…

If time is tight, you may want to consider driving to Union Station then taking Amtrak and a cab to the show. It's a lot of running around, and not cheap, but you'll make it to Baltimore in about 40 minutes regardless of what traffic is doing. If you can't drive to Union Station, take a cab; don't rely on Metro, it will probably be closed by the time you make it back to Union Station.

Pretty much what Sonick just said. Once 295 turns into Russell St. (same road), you'll have to ride over a battle scarred pothole pitted shrunken down road full of construction.

You should also check to see if anything is going on at Merriweather that night and either of the stadiums in Baltimore as all will slow up traffic in their respective areas.

Like Sonic, I live in Baltimore but have many times fought rush hour traffic home from DC. I use to work in Bethesda which is closer to your area. It would usually take me (from Hunt Valley) about 1 hour 15/20 minutes to get to work but almost always 2 hours or more to get home.

Coming from the West side, I'd take 95 instead of 295. (When I'm going and coming from within the District itself, I then take 295 instead.) Something to do with the angle of the road cuts about 7 miles off your commute but definitely check the traffic first for any extra crap you might have to deal with.

As another time reference, whenever I go into Arlington, it always takes me a good solid 2 hours regardless of the day or time. (Yet a good solid hour and a half coming home which is usually in the wee hours.) Maybe shave about 25 minutes off early evenings for the difference between Ram's Head and my place.

Either way, get your ass out of Dodge ASAP and concentrate on getting there. There's plenty there to occupy any extra time you may have if all works in your favor. Just hope we don't get any of the rain coming up or you know that will add to your time.

Im going to see Gogol Bordello on a tuesday and it's basically the same times, I'm either gonna leave really early or really late.

this is why i don't go to baltimore for shows

Going from Northern Virginia to Baltimore on a weeknight sucks, in my experience.

Plan on two hours and hope for the best.

The Orioles are playing a home game at 7PM Tuesday night. But since the Red Sox or Yankees aren't the opponent traffic shouldn't be much of a problem.

i worked in tyson's at one point and tried this a couple of times. i'd say closer to 3 hours than 2 :(

I concur - from No. VA, I've determined it's always about 3 - leave by 3/3:30 or after 7/7:30.
From Tyson's never leave exactly at 5 or 5:30. (Even the half hour in between there is a lull. Beware of the toll road at 5 / 6 pm it's a clusterf*ck). It's why I don't go to shows in B'more either!

Is it really worth a three hour drive in traffic (and then another hour home) to see Feist and Rogue Wave? Both of those acts seem to be in DC constantly. Best thing to do seems to be sell the tickets or eat the probably relatively low cost, don't you think?

Originally posted by bikerchickdc:
If time is tight, you may want to consider driving to Union Station then taking Amtrak and a cab to the show. It's a lot of running around, and not cheap, but you'll make it to Baltimore in about 40 minutes regardless of what traffic is doing. If you can't drive to Union Station, take a cab; don't rely on Metro, it will probably be closed by the time you make it back to Union Station.

You can take MARC there to save $, but Amtrak or greyhound is the only way back to Union Station

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
Is it really worth a three hour drive in traffic (and then another hour home) to see Feist and Rogue Wave? Both of those acts seem to be in DC constantly. Best thing to do seems to be sell the tickets or eat the probably relatively low cost, don't you think?

i didn't buy the tickets yet. i've never seen feist and i've seen rogue wave once. granted, they come through town a lot (i even have tickets to RW's november show at the black cat) but i'd like to see them together.

You can try taking 495 North to 270 North to 28 East to 97 North to 70 East. Then follow the directions from Frederick on their website. It got me to a Ravens game when 95 was backed up.

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
Is it really worth a three hour drive in traffic (and then another hour home) to see Feist and Rogue Wave? Both of those acts seem to be in DC constantly. Best thing to do seems to be sell the tickets or eat the probably relatively low cost, don't you think?

heres a funny thought: what if everyone started living their life and making their decisions the way Rhett did?

Originally posted by le sonick:
heres a funny thought: what if everyone started living their life and making their decisions the way Rhett did?

The Era of Terrible Haircuts would commence?

Originally posted by bnyced0:

Originally posted by bikerchickdc:
If time is tight, you may want to consider driving to Union Station then taking Amtrak and a cab to the show. It's a lot of running around, and not cheap, but you'll make it to Baltimore in about 40 minutes regardless of what traffic is doing. If you can't drive to Union Station, take a cab; don't rely on Metro, it will probably be closed by the time you make it back to Union Station.

You can take MARC there to save $, but Amtrak or greyhound is the only way back to Union Station

When I go to Baltimore for shows, this is what I usually do. I'm going to the Feist show tomorrow via MARC train in the evening and planning on taking the 11:35 train back to DC, which will be a $14 fare (pretty reasonable in my mind).

I would just suggest making sure to have the phone number of a Baltimore cab company and calling for a cab well in advance to make sure you can get to the train station on time. I've had consistently bad luck trying to hail cabs from venues in Baltimore, and once, I didn't call for a cab early enough, it came late, and I ended up missing the last train back to DC for the night. Just be aware of timing factors, and it's a pretty simple process.