Reston - airplane noise? local traffic? (Arlington, McLean: living in, shop, airport)

[kinjul]

Do people living in Reston hear lots of airplanes to/from Dulles airport?

During rush hour, are local Reston roads congested? For example, if I live in North Reston near leesburg pike and do shopping at the Whole Foods in late afternoon/early evening, would I be stuck in traffic returning home?

[MacUser85]

RE: plane noise

Quick answer: no, not really.

The arrival path for Dulles is one of two ways. 1) Descend over the western edge of Gaithersburg, Md. and cross the Potomac between Reston and Sterling and swing all the way down to the bottom of Fairfax and then turn northwest for a landing or of course just land from the north. 2) Come up from the south and simply land or come up and turn to land from the north. They try to use the western countryside as much as they can to make all their noise...lol.

National is the airport that gets MUCH more complaints about plane noise. The planes begin their descent from McLean and all throughout certain areas of Arlington you hear them landing. Me, I love planes and identifying the airline, model, etc., from my parking area so it doesn't bother me.

Re: Traffic

The best thing to do with Northern Virginia is to assume there will be traffic in most areas between 6am and 10am and 3:30pm and 7pm. Reston Parkway is wide in spots and traffic moves OK, but simple runs for errands in our whole area can be a trying task during the hours I mentioned. Best of luck to you.

[JfromReston]

I live in south Reston and do not get any bothersome airplane traffic. As the previousl poster said most of the traffic goes north & south and with Reston just east of the airport we don't get the take off & landing traffic. We do get a little bit of the higher up traffic but it is high enough not to be a bother.

As for traffic in the afternoon around Reston. There will definately be more in the afterwork hours than in the middle of the day but you don't generally find yourself "stuck" in traffic that is not moving. You may have to wait through an extra light cycle to pass through an intersection.

Hope this helps! Let us know if you have any other questions.