Porterdale Mill Lofts / Covington Commute (Atlanta, Savannah: bus, moving, commuting)

[AtlantaOrBust]

My boyfriend are seriously thinking of moving from Savannah to the Mill Lofts in Porterdale, GA. We love the idea of the mill and the area, but I am very concerned about the long commute to downtown Atlanta. Has anyone done this commute, or does anyone have any advice about the Porterdale/Covington area?

[FromCLTtoATL]

Those Mill Lofts look great, don't they? I have to tell you I ruled it out because of the commute. As nice as they seem to be, I just wouldn't want to be stuck on I-20 for so long each day.

[PT 3000]

What is the difference between commuting from lets say Buford and Covington, now their both about 35 miles from downtown Atlanta but I would take the commute from Covington over Buford anyday, for starters the traffic is 5 times as worse in Gwinnett than it is in Newton County and I think accessing downtown Atlanta from a congested I-20 is easier than accessing it from a congested I-85 while I-20 does get congested it just doesn't do it at the I-75 or I-85 level

[saharaga]

The Porterdale lofts are nice but you are correct that it is not going to be an easy commute. Depending on how far into Atlanta you're going, the commute will be at least 40 to 45 minutes each way. You'll be stuck in bumper to bumper traffic from around the Evans Mill and/or Turner Hill Rd. exits until you get past I-285. You'll hit traffic again when you get downtown around the I-75/85 merge. You can always look into carpooling, vanpooling, and the GRTA express bus as commuting options but you're still going to have to get up awfully early just to deal with the traffic. I commuted from Covington to downtown Atlanta for about 5 years...4 of them in a vanpool...the commute still wore me down and some days it was just plain nightmarish.