Pray for snow. Even an inch will keep the malls empty until afternoon.

Park at the farthest end of the lot and walk. You probably need the exercise, and it's not worth the frustration of trying to find a "good" space.

Better option: Stay at home and do your shopping online.

There are few reasons to physically visit a store in the Internet age.

I second the suggestion to shop on weekday evenings. Monday night, when most people are still recovering from the weekend, is especially quiet.

However, the best kept secret is (well, was) Sundays. Most malls open at 9 or 10 in the morning and stay open until 9-10 at night - even on Sundays. The malls are a hectic from 12 -6 (typical Sunday hours) but are relatively quiet before noon and after 6.

Check the malls' websites for expanded holiday hours - and shop during those hours!

In regards to Ballston, most people enter from Glebe Road, from there the easy lvls to get to are all even numbered... If you go up to level 6 and come down to 5 or go to 4 and come down to 3 there are usually many fewer people parked, and in the case of level 5... you don't have to wait for the really slow elevators. (Level 6 is the first level that doesn't have a direct mall staircase)

"Park at the farthest end of the lot and walk. You probably need the exercise, and it's not worth the frustration of trying to find a "good" space."

Not a good idea, unless you're young and agile.

Two years ago, they followed my brother to his vehicle (it was new and he parked far away to avoid dings) at Tysons Mall during the holidays. They knocked him down, went through his pockets, and took some of his packages.

Be careful.

Not a shopping tip, but a followon to the last post in today's chat: I ALWAYS drive with my lights on, regardless of the time of day (or night). I've adopted the philosophy of "lights on for safety" so that I stick out better in the eyes of others.

I used to do Columbia Mall as soon as they opened on Saturdays. I think it was around 8am. I'd go in, know exactly what I was getting, and be out in 2 hours. Last year, I took a vacation day on a Tuesday and went out during the morning. It was the best shopping experience I've had during the holidays.

Per the online discussion earlier today, if I had $50 billion to fix the area's transportation problems, one thing I would definitely do is build a large new bus station at L'enfant Plaza similar to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The location of our current bus station and our train station are very stupid.

Next, I would expand Union Station into both a train station and a regional bus station with express access from New York Avenue/US-50/BW Parkway.

Next, I would build a shuttle subway line running from Union Station to L'enfant Plaza, similar to the S-train linking Port Authority and Grand Central.

Once this was accomplished, I would massively expand commuter bus service and create bus lanes on all major arteries into the city, similar to what New York City does on their bridges and tunnels.

At this point, anyone taking a commuter bus or train would arrive at either Union Station or L'enfant Plaza and have easy access to the Red, Yellow, Orange, Green and Blue line.

Then I would take the rest of the money and pay down Metro's debt burden so that Metro prices would be more reasonable.

The only community that wouldn't really benefit from this plan would be Montgomery County, which has no major arteries into the city, but they're all either Red Line commuters or too rich to use public transport, so who cares?

This isn't rocket science.

To Lavar Walt Clark,

What about the roads, or must anyone who can't use transit just "eat cake"?

I'm a little tired of the juvenile nonsense like "who cares? about people who are too rich to take public transit".

Where is written that all public money must be spent on transit while drivers fend for themselves?

From your comments, I suspect you're either too young or too rich to commute. And too dense to have a clue.

If I had $50 billion to expand transportation, I'd build a new line to link the following stations in an inner Metro loop to provide better connections to busy stations and between lines:
1) Pentagon to
2) Navy Yard (for the stadium) to
3) Stadium-Armory (assuming further development at that station) to
4) Union Station to
5) Mount Vernon Square/Convention Center to
6) Metro Center to
7) Pentagon.
Note: new stations could be built in between, although that would slow down connections. For instance, if a new soccer stadium is built along the Anacostia, that could get a stop.