PDS COMET DATA REVIEW

The PDS Fall 2005 Comet Data Review will take place at the College Park campus of the University of Maryland (UMCP), located north of the District of Columbia, just inside the Washington Beltway (Rte. 495 & 95). The review will begin at 10:30am in room 2316 of the Computer and Space Sciences Building. Following are links to information about the campus, local amenities and meeting logistics.

Meeting Logistics

• Agenda

• Local Contacts:
  • Anne Raugh, CSS Room 2336, 301-405-6855
  • Mike A'Hearn, CSS Room 2337A
  • Ludmilla Kolokolova, CSS Room 2337D

Campus & Vicinty

• The University maintains a general on-line Visitors site.

• Here is a collection of directions for finding us, by car, shuttle, and/or foot.

• Here's a campus map. The Computer and Space Sciences building (number 224) is located in the northwest quadrant, at about E-7 in this map.

• A list of area hotels

• Nearby restaurants (note that, particularly for on-campus establishments, schedules may vary drastically during finals week or between semesters):
  • Off campus
  • On campus

Notes for Drivers

• Rush Hour: Rush hour around the Capitol Beltway (I-495 and I-95) is well underway by 6:00am and lasts until 9:30-10am. In the area of campus it affects the outer (westbound) beltway and southbound surface roads in the morning and the inner (eastbound)Beltway and northbound surface roads in the evening. Evening rush begins at about 3:30-4pm and lasts until about 7pm. Classes will be in session during the review days. We have tried to make allowances for this in the review schedule to avoid peak student travel times, but please bear in mind that there will be about 30,000 people trying to get onto campus between 7:30-9:00am in the morning, and an equal or greater number trying to leave campus between 3:30-5:00pm in the afternoon. Plan accordingly.

• Traffic Reports: Radio station WTOP (a CBS affiliate all-news station) provides traffic reports for the DC, Beltway, and Northen Virginia areas every 10 minutes starting 8 minutes past the hour, 24 hours a day. They are at 1500AM (DC and suburbs), 820AM (Western Maryland), 107.7FM (Maryland DC suburbs), 104.3 (Northern Virginia DC suburbs) and http://www.wtopnews.com.

• Class Schedules: Attempting to drive onto campus in a reasonable amount of time during morning class rush is doomed to failure, so it is worth noting the predominant class schedule for the day on which you arrive:
  • Monday, Wednesday and Friday: Classes are on the hour, every hour, starting at 8am. Classes let out at 10 minutes before the hour.
  • Tuesday and Thursday: Classes start every 90 minutes, beginning at 8am (8am, 9:30am, 11am, etc.). Classes let out 15 minutes before the next class.

  The worst traffic comes in the 20 minutes preceeding the start of the first two classes of the day.

• Parking will be available at the Regents/PG2 Parking garage which is located directly across from the Computer and Space Sciences Building on Stadium Drive. Parking is available only on the ground level of this garage in the area marked "RR". You must contact Anne Raugh for a hang tag by two weeks prior to the meeting and provide a postal address for mailing of the permit to allow parking in this garage. General parking is also available at the Visitor's Lot located on Paint Branch Drive and the Visitor's lot located further up Stadium Drive just past Byrd Stadium on your left. Payment is collected upon departure from these lots. There are some meters distributed around campus, but these are generally filled by students whenever classes are in session.

  Never park at a meter unless you are prepared to deposit a quarter immediately. Never, ever park at a meter that has a red-colored top, even with a meter permit or a fist full of change. Red-topped meters are for courier use only and require a special courier permit. Meters and handicapped parking restrictions are always enforced regardless of holidays, snow days or class schedules.

• Local Road Lingo:
  • Baltimore Ave = Baltimore Blvd = Route 1. The main entrance to campus is located at about the 7600 block of Baltimore Ave.
  • University Blvd = Greenbelt Road. It's called "University Blvd" west of Route 1 and "Greenbelt Rd" east of Route 1. The Stadium Drive entrance to campus is on University Blvd.
  • The Washington, D.C. Beltway is a circular road comprised of routes 495 and 95. It runs around Washington, through Maryland and Virgina, crossing the Potomac River at two points. The "Outer Loop" of the Beltway is those lanes of traffic which travel counter-clockwise around D.C.; the "Inner Loop" is the lanes that travel clockwise around D.C. The Inner and Outer loops are just the two sets of travel lanes of the same road - the Beltway.
  • Baltimore also has a Beltway, but its route number is 695. Traffic reports on WTOP seldom mention the Baltimore Beltway, and when they do they always identify it as "the Baltimore Beltway," frequently adding "Route 695."

• ASCII character map of the area.

Last update: 21 November 2005, ACR