Meet halfway in Washington DC
For a group meeting in Washington DC, the fairest points are usually Metro Center, L'Enfant Plaza, Gallery Place-Chinatown or Rosslyn - Metrorail stations where three to five lines meet. Which one is fairest depends on where everyone starts: togather times each person door to door and finds the spots where nobody is stuck with a much longer trip.
- Metrorail
- Metrobus
- Capital Bikeshare
- Car
- Cycling
- Walking
Where groups actually meet in Washington DC
Interchanges that work as a fair midpoint for most groups. togather will not always land on one of these - it answers for your actual starting points - but they are the ones that come up again and again.
Metro Center
Red, Orange, Blue and Silver lines
The downtown crossing of the Red line with the Orange, Blue and Silver trunk, so most of the District and the Virginia suburbs reach it with one change at most.
L'Enfant Plaza
Orange, Blue, Silver, Green and Yellow lines
Five lines in one station, which makes it the fair answer for a group split between Virginia, the Green line in Maryland and the waterfront in the south-west.
Gallery Place-Chinatown
Red, Green and Yellow lines
Where the Red line meets the Green and Yellow lines, next to Capital One Arena and Penn Quarter, so there is somewhere to go the moment everyone arrives.
Rosslyn
Orange, Blue and Silver lines
The first stop across the Potomac, and fairer than downtown for a group weighted towards Arlington, Tysons or anywhere along the Orange and Silver lines in Virginia.
Union Station
Red line, MARC, VRE and Amtrak
The rail hub, and the fair pick when someone is coming in by commuter train from Maryland or Virginia rather than on the Metro.
Fort Totten
Red and Green lines
The northern crossing of the Red and Green lines, so it keeps a group living in Takoma, Brookland or Prince George's County out of the centre entirely.
Pentagon
Blue and Yellow lines
A Virginia-side junction where the Blue and Yellow lines split, and a good middle for a group spread between Alexandria, Crystal City and Arlington.
How to pick a fair meeting point in Washington DC
The map of Washington makes the National Mall look like the natural middle of everything. For a group it rarely is. The Metro is a set of lines that cross in a handful of downtown stations, and the river and the Beltway split the region into pieces that do not join up the way the map suggests. Two friends in Bethesda and Silver Spring live on the same Red line yet ride a long U through downtown to reach each other.
So look at the transfer stations first. Metro Center and L’Enfant Plaza between them carry all six lines, and Gallery Place-Chinatown is the third point of that downtown triangle. Across the river, Rosslyn gathers the Orange, Blue and Silver lines before they dive under the Potomac.
Virginia groups save the river crossing at Rosslyn
A group weighted towards Virginia is usually better off at Rosslyn or Pentagon than in the centre, since every rider from Arlington or Alexandria saves the river crossing both ways. Up north, Fort Totten does the same job for Takoma, Brookland and the Maryland side of the Green line, and Union Station suits anyone arriving on MARC or VRE.
The Potomac bridges are the local factor. If one person drives in from Virginia at rush hour, the choice of crossing can matter more than the distance. togather times every journey door to door, by Metro, car or on foot, and suggests spots where the trip times sit close together, so the Virginia driver and the Red line rider are compared on equal terms. Add each starting point and how each person gets there.
Meeting halfway in Washington DC - questions
- Where is a fair place to meet halfway in Washington DC?
- Usually a Metro transfer station rather than the middle of the map - Metro Center and L'Enfant Plaza join the most lines, and Rosslyn, Gallery Place or Fort Totten can be fairer depending on where the group lives. togather works out which.
- What if some of us drive in from Maryland or Virginia?
- Set the mode per person. A driver is timed by road and a Metro rider by Metro, so someone crossing a Potomac bridge by car is not averaged in with a friend who is two stops away on the Red line.
- Can someone cycle on Capital Bikeshare?
- Yes. Pick bike for that person and their trip is timed as a ride. Across the flat core of the District a bike is often quicker than a Metro trip with a change, which can shift which station is actually fairest.
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