In the June 10 th edition of the Washington Post, columnist Marc Fisher wrote that "To get to a night game at Virginia's Ballpark, the proposed home of a new baseball team near Dulles Airport in Loudoun County, an office worker in Washington would have to fight through 77 minutes of stop-and-go traffic," and that he had "timed the haul to Virginia's leading stadium site on a typical late spring evening." Having driven to Dulles in the evening rush from various spots in the region, I knew that the trip from downtown Washington to the proposed ballpark site could easily be made in a much shorter period of time. This isn't to say that a trip from downtown DC to Dulles could never take as long as the time given; as we know, traffic jams can spring up and impact the commuting time throughout this area due to accidents, street closures, or inclement weather - which of course would delay the start of a baseball game until the weather had cleared up! But since Fisher had specifically described his drive time as clocked on a typical evening, I had cause to doubt his estimates. When a self-described longtime resident of Old Town resident [where I also happen to live and work] asserted in Fisher's Potomac Confidential chat July 1 st that a trip to the Dulles site would be impossibly long from Alexandria - and Fisher of course agreed, I became motivated to check the facts for myself. I thought the best way to do that was to find out definitively how long it would take to get to the Dulles site from the Washington Post building in rush hour on a typical evening. I also decided to time myself to the minute and track each leg of my trip in order to accurately represent specific times and routes in detail, which Fisher had not done in his column.

Having seen firsthand what a workable commute it is to Dulles on my previous trips during rush hour, I dared myself that I would not only be able to get to the Dulles ballpark site in rush hour from the Washington Post building but could even make it all the way back to my starting point in DC, and then make it back to the Dulles site AGAIN via another route before 7:35 p.m., which has been announced as the start time for games there. I also endeavored to not break any land speed records in the process and thus worked to travel with the flow of traffic. So on July 1 st [a Thursday evening], I left from outside the Washington Post building at 5:10 p.m., a reasonable time to depart for a ballgame. I hadn't settled on what route I'd try first, but I knew I had a lot of options. I decided to first try Route 29 [K Street] out of the city. I got to the split for I-66 and the Whitehurst Freeway at 5:14 p.m. Each route had an equal amount of traffic - which was moving well, but I opted to take the Whitehurst Freeway up to M Street. Once there, I could've headed across the Key Bridge and hooked up with the George Washington Parkway from there, but I decided to hang a left on M Street and take Canal Road, which I got onto at 5:17 p.m. That took me to the Chain Bridge by 5:21 p.m. I could've gone straight and taken the Clara Barton Parkway to I-495 right by the American Legion Bridge and crossed into Virginia from there, but I decided to cross at the Chain Bridge and take Chain Bridge Road up to the GW Parkway, which I got to at 5:23 p.m. A whopping 13 minutes had elapsed since I'd left Fisher's workplace in downtown Washington.

The GW Parkway was a breeze, and I got to the exit for I-495 at 5:28 p.m. I experienced my first minor slowdown getting from there to the exit for the Dulles Toll Road, which I reached at 5:36 p.m. I was driving alone and thus ineligible to use the HOV-2 lane (which most cars heading to the game would be able to use since most people driving to a ballgame travel with 2-4 people to a vehicle), but I didn't need it. As it had when I'd taken similar trips to Dulles at rush hour, traffic moved rapidly on the Toll Road, with cars moving at or above speed. I arrived at the exit for Route 28 at 5:48 p.m. That's right; while Marc Fisher said he was "fighting through 77 minutes of stop-and-go traffic" to get there on a typical evening, it took me a mere 38 minutes to accomplish, with no "fighting" or "stop-and-go traffic" involved in the trip whatsoever! I invite anyone from the Post or elsewhere to try the same routes. I'd go so far as to say that if a Post employee would like ride along with me to verify this (as well as any member of MLB's relocation committee), I'd be more than happy to accommodate them. (However, I do reserve the right to veto certain Post staff, as I don't know that I could resist spending most of the trip challenging Marc Fisher on several assertions he's made about the Northern Virginia baseball effort.) Anyway, I then headed back to DC, which turned out to be the longest part of the trip for me, facing occasionally thick traffic heading east towards I-66...

I made it back to the Washington Post building at 6:40 p.m. At that point, I could've taken 14 th Street down to I-395 [whose HOV lanes open to all traffic at 6 p.m., which means at least 5 lanes of traffic are headed south and out of the city at that point - two of those lanes becoming 65 MPH] and then down to I-495 and gotten to the Dulles Toll Road from there, making it a terrific option. I also could've taken the Memorial Bridge over to the George Washington Parkway as well. However, I decided to take I-66 from K Street. When I got across the Roosevelt Bridge, one of the electronic traffic signs said there were some delays ahead. I had plenty of time to get off at the Route 29 exit in Rosslyn, from which you can hop directly onto the GW Parkway, which I already knew was a breeze earlier and figured to be even more so later in the day. But I decided for the sake of the field research to stay on I-66. Sure enough, it did start to slow down at Glebe Road and we were generally under the speed limit until we got past Sycamore Street. After that, it picked up and there were no more incidents whatsoever. On the Dulles Toll Road, things were moving so well that for a decent stretch of the trip, almost every car not exiting passed me [as I was making sure to keep close to the speed limit]! I got to the Route 28 exit at 7:17 p.m., which would be 18 minutes before the National Anthem at the ballpark and 37 minutes after leaving the Washington Post building. Having made the trip in nearly an identical timeframe from two completely different routes confirmed my hypothesis, especially since I accomplished it twice in the same evening's rush hour period.

So what might account for the disparity totaling a whopping 40 minutes between two travelers leaving downtown DC on typical evenings for the Dulles ballpark site? Since Marc Fisher's article did not share the details of his trip, I'm forced to speculate that it might be attributable to the route Marc Fisher took [as yet unknown to us], which if it contributed to the disparity is understandable given his not working or living in Northern Virginia while I have lived and worked here all my life. Or it could be that he left at some time between 5:10 p.m. and 6:40 p.m. that traffic is particularly gridlocked [though I didn't see any indication of that on the other side of the roadways when I was traveling back into DC], which combined with his choice of route could account for the 40 minute gap, as well as any number of traffic mishaps that could had befallen his route on the night in question. Either way, I know that at least two routes from downtown DC worked well enough for me to have traveled to and from the Dulles stadium site TWICE in one rush hour period, so there's hope yet for Washington's office workers and residents who will want to get to games at Dulles! Hopefully, the routes I took and suggested as worth trying will calm their fears should MLB award the team to Northern Virginia. Also, it must be noted that the nearest Metrorail station to the Washington Post building - McPherson Square - is equidistant from the RFK Stadium Metro stop and the West Falls Church stop from which express shuttles down the Dulles Toll Road could run as they have successfully for concerts at Wolf Trap [9 stops each way]. Therefore, if Marc Fisher and other Washington-based residents and office workers are cowed by the prospect of driving to the Dulles ballpark site, they can always hop onto the Metro and leave the driving in more capable and experienced hands!

Bob Webster has been a member of Virginians For Baseball's Board of Directors since 1996.