Ha, right, that’d be a disaster.

I use it a lot and yeah that can happen, but you can mitigate the risk by checking for empty docks at your destination before you set out.

I've had such bad luck getting to DCA from DC on several occasions in the early morning, like 4:30 or 5am.

A couple of times there were no Ubers or Lyfts available at all.

Then the one one time I tried Curb, it failed me miserably. They contacted me just before the scheduled pick-up to say they couldn't find an available cab to send. I got the impression talking to the Curb dispatcher that they're NYC based and call down to DC to get you a cab. Given that experience I decided not to use them again and schedule directly with a DC cab company.

Not understanding why this was downvoted. There's a Capital Bikeshare dock right at DCA. If OP lives within a reasonable distance -- and better yet snags one of the e-assist bikes -- this is a good option.

Whichever you choose, one benefit of living on the East Coast is the nearness of the cities. There are 4+ hours buses and 3+ hour trains between DC and NYC so it's totally easy to spend weekends in one if you're living in the other. And definitely don't overlook Philadelphia in between.