Off to work, with my trusty e-scooter and backpack. The cat, unfortunately, had to stay home. Image by the author.
Transit Diaries is a series in which residents of Greater Washington track how they get around the region for a week, shedding light on what’s working well and not so well with our transportation systems. Read past Transit Diaries.
Hello! My name is Brian Strege, and welcome to my transit diary for the 2023 National Week Without Driving! I live with my wife, Jane — and our cat, Carmen — in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, DC. I’m an ANC Commissioner representing SMD 8F03, or the north-central section of the neighborhood (north of M Street, and east of New Jersey Avenue). Navy Yard has everything we need on a daily basis within a few blocks, so my wife and I generally get around our area on foot. We love visiting new restaurants and bars throughout the city, and when we do venture out of our neighborhood, we usually take Metro.
I have a lengthy commute for my day job; I’m a software engineer whose office is in Reston, and I need to be there three to four days per week. While Navy Yard has its own eponymous Metro station, I live about as far north in the neighborhood as you can get and I can also easily walk to the Capitol South station. I’ll generally head to Capitol South for trips to work since I’ll be able to catch a single-seat ride out to Reston from there on a Silver Line train. My office is in the middle of Reston Town Center, which is about a 15-minute walk from its new Metro station. Because of this, I bought a foldable e-scooter to reduce the time required to get to the office once I exit the station.
Day 1: Monday, October 2
Before moving to DC proper, I lived a few hundred feet over the DC/MD line in downtown Silver Spring for about seven years. Because of this, I still have some connections to the area, including a biweekly appointment at a fitness studio (shout out to Knox Power Company) located about two miles outside of downtown Silver Spring. I had an appointment there this evening at 6:00 pm, so I chose to work from home today; getting from Reston to Silver Spring via transit would be quite difficult.
I planned to take Metro up to the Silver Spring area to get to the appointment, and since it was a nice day outside, I brought my e-scooter to cut down on the time to and from the Metro. I left my apartment about 20 minutes earlier than I would have if I were driving, because I’m unsure how long the trip would take and whether or not I’d get lucky with the trains when transferring from the Green to Red lines. I chose to exit Metro at the Forest Glen station, which is one stop past the Silver Spring station and is a bit closer to my destination.
Typical 5:30 pm traffic on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring. Image by the author.
Once I got out at Forest Glen, I used a (rather lengthy) pedestrian bridge to cross the Capital Beltway, and then I used my scooter to cut through a residential neighborhood that sits between the Metro station and the fitness studio. I never had to cross Georgia Avenue, and I arrived about 15 minutes before my appointment.
Total distance traveled: 27.9 miles
- Walking: 0.6 miles
- E-Scooter: 2.5 miles
- Metro: 24.8 miles
Highlights & hitches:
While Navy Yard has plenty of bike lanes, some of them need to be repaved. The ones along New Jersey Avenue south of I (Eye) Street in particular are extremely bumpy.
I was pleasantly surprised at how quick the trip up to Forest Glen was via transit, and I probably didn’t need to leave as early as I did. It only took 54 minutes from end to end, so it was just barely longer than my usual drive would have been (during Monday evening rush hour).
I have a good backpack that I use for commuting to work, but my gym bag is an over-the-shoulder bag. Riding around on a scooter with the gym bag honestly felt kind of dangerous, because it kept sliding around on turns. I would not recommend this type of bag if you use a scooter regularly.
Day 2: Tuesday, October 3
Today was a commute to the office day, so I planned to do my usual Silver Line commute out to Reston. It was also, again, a nice day outside so I brought my scooter to make getting to and from the Metro a little faster.
Looks like I’m not the only one getting to Capitol South via e-scooter. Image by the author.
My Silver Line trip to work was 53 minutes from Capitol South to Reston Town Center. If you include getting to/from my apartment and waiting for a train, it was an hour-and-15-minute commute from home to the office. This is pretty standard; it’s a long commute, but since it’s on a train (as opposed to driving) I’m able to occasionally get some work done and/or respond to some ANC emails. Back before the Silver Line extension opened and I regularly drove to work, my commute could be as short as 30 minutes (no traffic) to as long as an hour and 45 minutes (extremely bad traffic). When I use Metro, my commute is probably longer on average, but it’s a more enjoyable trip.
My trip home was also pretty standard, and the train ride was 54 minutes long.
Total distance traveled: 49.4 miles
- E-Scooter: 2.4 miles
- Metro: 47.0 miles
Highlights & hitches:
The worst part of my commute, by far, is crossing Sunset Hills Road in Reston. It’s an extremely pedestrian-unfriendly roadway where a large volume of cars goes very fast, and you have to cross it to get from the Reston Town Center station to the actual Reston Town Center.
Also, one of the intersections (along Sunset Hills Road) that I pass every day only has a crosswalk for one of the four ways of crossing the intersection, so I’m forced to cross at least one road without using a crosswalk or having a pedestrian signal.
Day 3: Wednesday, October 4
Just like on Tuesday, I went to work out in Reston via the Silver Line, and the weather outside was nice so I brought my scooter. The train trip out to Reston took 56 minutes, and the train trip home took 54 minutes. Nothing much to add, except that my wife and I decided to grab a quick dinner out at a restaurant in the neighborhood once I got home from work. We walked!
Total distance traveled: 50.5 miles
- Walking: 1.1 miles
- E-Scooter: 2.4 miles
- Metro: 47.0 miles
Day 4: Thursday, October 5
Thursday was a pretty normal commute day as well, except that I got a later start than usual, so I wound up leaving for work about an hour later than on Tuesday or Wednesday. This put me on the train toward the end of the lunch hour, which evidently is prime time for trips to Dulles! It seemed like everyone on the train (except for me) had roller bags, and were quite obviously en route to the airport. The train trip out to Reston took 49 minutes, and the train trip home took 61 minutes.
Total distance traveled: 50.0 miles
- Walking: 0.6 miles
- E-Scooter: 2.4 miles
- Metro: 47.0 miles
Highlights & hitches:
I’m not sure why — there were no announcements for disabled trains or single tracking — but the train home seemed to run pretty slowly once we entered DC. I probably wouldn’t have noticed had I not been tracking my time, but it seems like there is a fair bit of variance in how fast Metro runs even when there are no obvious system issues.
Day 5: Friday, October 6
Another work-from-home day! I didn’t really go anywhere until after work, save for a quick walk across the street to a coffee shop in the morning. That seemed to make for a pretty boring transit diary entry, so I made a dinner reservation for my wife and me over at The Wharf, which is Navy Yard’s next-door neighborhood (at least as far as the Green Line is concerned).
We decided to take the DC Circulator over to The Wharf. The trip was comfortable and efficient. The Circulator is a fantastic bus service. It picks up right next to the east entrance of the Navy Yard station, and it drops off right at M Street and 7th, which is exactly where you want to be if you’re going to The Wharf. It’s more convenient than either of the nearby Metro stations, which are a few blocks away. Once we got back to Navy Yard, we walked over to an ice cream store before heading back to our apartment.
Total distance traveled: 3.6 miles
- Walking: 1.5 miles
- Bus: 2.1 miles
Highlights & hitches:
I love the DC Circulator! I am so glad that it survived its near-death experience with budget cuts earlier this year. It’s easily the best way to travel from Navy Yard to The Wharf.
My only complaint about the Circulator would be that the EM-LP line stops just a bit early (9:00 pm), but that was still plenty of time for us to hop back on it to head home after dinner.
One negative we experienced when picking up the Circulator was that the bus stop bench badly needed cleaning. Let’s just say something had been spilled all over it, and anyone who might really need the bench would have found themselves in a difficult situation. This bus stop is used not only by the DC Circulator but also by several Metrobus lines and MTA Commuter Bus service. Given the importance of this particular stop, making sure that it is clean should be a higher priority.
Day 6: Saturday, October 7
Ordinarily, on Saturday mornings, I’d be headed back to the fitness studio in Silver Spring, but today is a special occasion. A friend of mine just had a big round-number birthday (happy 30th, Nathan!) and we had planned to celebrate with some mutual friends on October 7th. He’s a big Baltimore Orioles fan, so we grabbed tickets to the playoff game. Off to Camden Yards!
Our friend group was going to meet up in the Federal Hill/South Baltimore area before the game, so I planned to take the first MARC train of the day to get from DC to Baltimore, which had a scheduled 9:57 am arrival time. The plan for after the game was more nebulous; I wasn’t sure how late I would be up in Baltimore afterward, so I made note of the departure times for the last MARC train of the day (9:15 pm) and the last Amtrak train of the day (11:50 pm) that could get me back to DC at the end of the night.
I used Metro to get to Union Station in the morning, which was a very quick trip; I made it to the MARC train waiting area just over 20 minutes after leaving my apartment. The boarding process for the MARC train was very straightforward, though we didn’t actually start boarding until one minute before the scheduled departure time. In the end, we still made it to Baltimore Penn Station within 10 minutes of our scheduled arrival time. To get from the train station down to Federal Hill (about three miles south), I took the Charm City Circulator. I made it to our designated meetup restaurant for breakfast just before 10:30 am, and I actually wound up beating my friends there by a few minutes.
What started out as a dreary morning, became a beautiful day at the ballpark. Image by the author.
We traveled from Federal Hill to the game on foot, and it was a fun day at the ballpark even though the home team lost. After the game, we decided to go up to the Old Goucher neighborhood (near Penn Station) for dinner and to play a few games at a board game bar, so we walked back to a Charm City Circulator stop to catch the bus.
However, after about 10 minutes it became apparent that this was a bad idea; all of the northbound roads from the area – including Charles Street, which the Circulator uses – were completely jammed with post-game traffic. There were plenty of rental e-scooters in the area, so our group used them to travel the three miles up to Old Goucher. My ride took about 20 minutes.
We all wound up staying at the board game bar quite late, and once we wrapped up, I walked back to Penn Station. I got there just before 11:30 pm, so I assumed that I was going to have to grab the last Amtrak train of the day, which was scheduled to arrive at 11:50 pm. However, I got a bit lucky in that the second-to-last train of the day was running (very) late, so I was able to catch it within a few minutes of getting to the station.
Once on Amtrak, I planned to get off of the train home at New Carrollton rather than Union Station. This is because Metro closes at 1:00 am, and while I thought I could catch a Red Line train before the system closed, I was afraid that I’d miss the final Green Line connection of the night. After arriving at New Carrollton, I took what was evidently the second-to-last Orange Line train of the night to Capitol South. I walked home from there, and I wound up getting back to my apartment just before 1:00 am. Long day.
I briefly stepped out of the train at Landover to snap a picture of the “LastTrain” message on the monitor. Image by the author.
Total distance traveled: 94.2 miles
- Walking: 3.5 miles
- E-Scooter: 2.9 miles
- Bus: 2.1 miles
- Metro: 12.7 miles
- MARC/Amtrak: 73.0 miles
Highlights & hitches:
I wasn’t the only one using MARC to get to the Orioles game; I saw plenty of baseball jerseys on the ride up. It would be nice if the Camden Line ran on weekends, which would drop us off right by the ballpark instead of at Penn Station.
Much like the DC Circulator stop in Navy Yard, the Charm City Circulator stop by Penn Station also had a time-to-arrive screen. However, unlike in DC, the screen only showed data from the CityLink local buses (not the Circulator). This could be confusing to people unfamiliar with the bus system in Baltimore.
Renting e-scooters is fairly expensive, and might not be practical for many as a regular means of transportation. This gets even worse with large groups; my scooter rental was about $15, but our group of six collectively spent over $100 in e-scooter rental fees.
Due to a glitch in Amtrak’s ticketing system, I was never actually able to purchase a ticket for the train I took home. I called Amtrak the next business day and told them about the problem; as of writing this, I still have an active case number open.
Day 7: Sunday, October 8
My final day of the National Week Without Driving was a fairly simple one. My wife and I occasionally head up to Silver Spring on Sunday evenings to join some friends at Quarry House Tavern for bar trivia, and today was one of those days. We’ve typically driven to Quarry House for trivia nights, but this week we took Metro.
Much like my Monday trip to Silver Spring, we left about 20 minutes earlier than we usually would since we planned on taking Metro. Unlike on Monday, the extra time was necessary; once we had finished the short walk from the Metro station, we arrived at Quarry House right when we usually do. After trivia, we took the same trip in reverse to get home. That’s a wrap!
Final tally: 61 trips
| Mode | Number of Trips | Percent of the total number of trips (rounded to the nearest whole number) |
| Walking | 25 | 41% |
| E-Scooter | 19 | 31% |
| Metro | 12 | 20% |
| Bus | 3 | 5% |
| MARC/Amtrak | 2 | 3% |
| Total | 61 | 100% |
One insight I gained from this week without driving happened on the very first day. I love taking transit as my primary means of getting around, but I hadn’t realized that I’m generally choosing to use transit to arrive at things I can start immediately, rather than appointments with strict start times.
For example, if I take the train to work, I can start working as soon as I get there. In contrast, when I got to the fitness studio too early on Monday — because I left my apartment too early — I just wound up sitting there until my appointment’s start time. This made me think about those with no other option but to use transit; leaving extra time to travel by rail or bus will add up to a lot of wasted time for those who need transit to get to medical appointments, fitness classes, or even to work for those who have a more rigid schedule. The less reliable the transit system, the more “buffer time” you’ll add to avoid being late, and the more time you might waste arriving early. This is just another reason why it’s imperative that we have frequent and reliable transit service in our city.
Overall, I thought this was a fun and useful exercise, though that might be easy for me to say since I’m already a regular transit rider! Even though I’m quite familiar with DC’s various transit systems, I’m far less familiar with those in other cities, and that Saturday trip up to Baltimore for my friend’s birthday required a significant amount of planning. Digging through MARC and Amtrak timetables can be a pain.
It’s very nice to live in a city — and a region — that’s so easy to navigate via transit. I can’t imagine living in a place where I couldn’t get around via train or bus, the way I can here in DC. Back when my wife and I first moved to Navy Yard, we each had our own car that we brought with us. We’ve noticed that while we currently have two cars, we barely need one, and we’ll likely be downsizing to just one vehicle in the future. We wouldn’t be able to do that without reliable transit. We’ve got to maintain the transit systems that we have, improve them where we can, and hopefully expand them in the future.