Folks, I have just spent a week attempting to commute around Washington DC while both working and visiting family, and can vouch for the fact that rush hour driving, especially for more than 5 or 10 miles can easily take five times longer than even veterans of Chicago's insane commuter wars anticipate.
Suburban Washington area drivers pick up slugs! That's what they call you - a "slug" - if you stand at certain locations on entrance ramps or parking lots and are willing to let someone else drive you to work. In exchange for this, the driver gets to use the high occupancy vehicle lanes, which require at least 3 people in the car. The freeways are jammed to the point where the term "parking lot" is totally inadequate. There are lines of people standing in line at freeway park and ride lots. The conference hotel is on the northern Virginia side of the Potomac, and it does have free shuttle service every 30 minutes from Reagan National airport (Washington has three major regional airports: Reagan, Dulles and Baltimore. These are 4, 40 and 50 miles away respectively). The airport can be reached by the DC Metro trains, which are crowded at rush hour but this does open up a few commuting possibilities. Most of the places the trains go will be nearer to the central part of Washington, which will be more expensive. Center of power and all that :-) The last time there was a RUG in DC I stayed with family in northern Virginia. I love my kids, but this time NO WAY! We left the house at 4:30 AM to be downtown by the time sessions started. Exhausting! Dan's point about the cost of the hotel vs. cost of commuting from somewhere else is well taken, but i think of this in terms of time, not money. Think about the WWRUG experience as how much you learn per hour spent with your colleagues. Knowledge that I've picked up atvthat rate, useful tips and tricks and techniques, in the social context and hallways and evenings with engineers has been far more valuable than I ever could have saved by going off campus. Overall, DC is indeed in the expensive side. Sigh. Your tax dollars at work :-). But you would really have to go pretty far away from the hotel before the drive costs begin to make sense. But by then you're an hour away, twice each day. Not worth missing that much of the fun! Doug -- Doug Blair +1 224-558-5462 Sent from my iPad2 Any typographic errors or misspellings are Steve Jobs' fault :-) On May 3, 2011, at 1:49 PM, Joe Martin D'Souza <[email protected]> wrote: > Yes you are right there.. Depending on where you are coming from you could > get a lot of traffic and if the conference as Dan pointed out starts at 7:30 > AM you could well miss an hour of it everyday if traffic holds you back.. > > Which hotel is it at this year? > > Joe > > -----Original Message----- From: pritch > Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 2:21 PM Newsgroups: public.remedy.arsystem.general > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: WWWRUG 11 - Hotel Expense > > 20 minutes ? During rush hour that would equate to about a 45-60 minute > drive. > > On Mon, 2 May 2011 15:58:49 -0400, Joe Martin D'Souza <[email protected]> > wrote: > You may also want to check out options a little outside the DC area in > Virginia, which may be about 20 minutes driving distance from the hotel. > Some of those hotels may even have a shuttle service into DC if you do not > feel comfortable renting a car and driving one here considering that you > would be used to right hand drives in London. Taxi’s in most places in > Virginia run by meter instead of higher flat rates so that may be a > relatively cheap option too – not cheaper than a car rental but relatively > cheap.. > > Joe > > > From: Warren R. Baltimore II > Sent: Monday, May 02, 2011 3:41 PM > Newsgroups: public.remedy.arsystem.general > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: WWWRUG 11 - Hotel Expense > > ** > Peter, > > While DC is in no way as expensive as say London, it still isn't cheap. You > might want to take a look at Hotels.com or priceline. You may be able to > find something a bit less pricey. > > Maybe I should rent out space in my basement! I could make a fortune.... > > The only problem is getting everyone to and from my house in Maryland... > especially after a happy hours! > > Good luck! > > > On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 3:31 PM, Peter Romain > <[email protected]> wrote: > > ** > For anyone knowing the area of the conference centre that the RUG is being > held in, is there a cheaper hotel option? > > The conference is £1250, flight from the UK ~ $950 but the hotel is $1311! > > As I’m paying myself I’d be happy with a Days Inn or other cheap and cheerful > chain. However, I don’t intend getting a car so walking distance would be > good. > > I’ve done some searching and the conference centre is a bit out of the way so > maybe that’s why the hotel can charge this much. > > Cheers > > -- > Warren R. Baltimore II > Remedy Developer > 410-533-5367 > _attend WWRUG11 www.wwrug.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are"_ > _______________________________________________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org > attend wwrug11 www.wwrug.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are" > _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug11 www.wwrug.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"
