Downtown to Johns Creek three days per week? (Doraville, Chamblee: lease, house)

[helena101]

Thoughts on a job located downtown that allows working from home two days per week with a commute from Johns Creek? Trying to decide between a job in Chamblee and a job downtown, both allow work from home two days per week, with the job downtown paying 10K more. We have small children so that's a consideration for commute times, and both salary levels are doable financially. I should also mention there's some flexibility on the schedule (7:30-4:00 is possible) Any opinions appreciated!

[Mattie]

Where in John's Creek? If it involves 400 and McGinnis Ferry, the traffic is never good.

[helena101]

Originally Posted by Mattie

Where in John's Creek? If it involves 400 and McGinnis Ferry, the traffic is never good.

Still house hunting so we could choose the best location for commute (thoughts?) but we would really like to be in Johns Creek for the housing and the schools.

[Fubarbundy]

Not sure if Medlock Bridge/Peachtree Industrial Blvd is any better, so choose Chamblee.

[helena101]

Originally Posted by Fubarbundy

Not sure if Medlock Bridge/Peachtree Industrial Blvd is any better, so choose Chamblee.

What kind of difference would you say there'd be in a typical day (working 7:30-4)? I've heard that Fridays are especially bad- that could be a work from home day.

[flamadiddle]

Both locations would be a painful commute. What you can do is look at the routes during rush hour on Google maps. Google takes traffic into consideration so you'll get a ballpark commute time.

[helena101]

Originally Posted by flamadiddle

Both locations would be a painful commute. What you can do is look at the routes during rush hour on Google maps. Google takes traffic into consideration so you'll get a ballpark commute time.

I've been checking the drive time on google maps for a couple of weeks now during the commute times, and it's saying 45 minutes from downtown and 25 minutes from Chamblee. Both of those don't sound too bad to me, but I know everyone says the traffic is a nightmare so I'm wondering if I'm missing something here.

[ATLTJL]

Hard to know without understanding the percentages involved. If it's $40k or $50k, I'd go downtown. If it's $90 or $100k, Chamblee.

[helena101]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Hard to know without understanding the percentages involved. If it's $40k or $50k, I'd go downtown. If it's $90 or $100k, Chamblee.

Thanks. It's closer to the second one. Thoughts on driving to the Doraville MARTA station and taking that downtown if job is very close to a MARTA station? Does that ease the commute some? What would you say the commute by car would be on a typical day (no bad weather or big accidents) to Chamblee and to downtown?

[ATLTJL]

Unfortunately, that isn't going to help you very much, if at all. Once you've gone through the trouble of getting in your car, diverting to the Doraville MARTA station, parking, then walking to the platform, waiting for the train, etc. is almost always going to cost you much more time than it saves you. If there's a tractor trailer overturned on the connector, you might save time by doing this. I would say, less than 1% of the time will this save you time (it may save frustration, but not time).

The big problem with this commute, you will find, is that I don't think there is really such thing as a typical day. Some days, it might be 35 minutes. Others, an hour and twenty. But on average? Probably 50 minutes, maybe an hour. That depends heavily on how far from the highway you live and what time you leave. There can be an enormous difference between leaving at 6:10a or 6:25am. Once 6:30a rolls around, you're basically screwed.

You can always do what I did -- lease an electric car as a commuter vehicle. That gives you the ability to ride in the toll lanes for free and the HOV lane by yourself. It doesn't make a huge difference, but it can cut out 10 minutes or so and it definitely eases the frustration factor.

But since your numbers are closer to the second range, honestly, I wouldn't even mess with it. Just go to Chamblee and call it a day.