Commuting from Buffalo to Rochester (Monroe, Batavia: rent, house, to live in)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hello,
I recently accepted a position in Rochester and live in Buffalo. My wife and I just moved into our first house in July and do not want to move. Does anyone else do this commute? If so how long have you been doing it and how bad of a toll has it taken on your car? Thanks!
It's going to be an hour+ commute every single day and a $2.00+ toll on top of that if you take the thruway. It can be done, in fact it is not too uncommon in other metro areas. I'm not going to lie to you though, you'll get sick of it very quickly.
If you don't want to move because you really love the house that is one thing. If you don't want to move because you like the buffalo area then you could look at moving a bit east so you are still fairly close to buffalo but reduce your rochester commute.
I've actually been doing it for a week now. I'm in marketing (not cold call sales) more along the lines of digital marketing, creating brochures, marketing materials and whatnot. I lost my marketing job a week before I got married but fortunately already had this Rochester job cooking. While interviewing I still looked for other jobs in Buffalo and there was just nothing, especially considering I graduated in June 2011 and started a job right away so I only have a little over a year experience. This job is really decent pay, minus tolls and gas, and is exactly what I want to do so it seemed like a no-brainer.
If it is rented, I would figure out the commute for 3 mos. and think about whether it is worth it. If owned? 6 mos.
Unless you have a car great on gas mileage, this is going to get pricy. Alternatives are to take the regular roads, if you aren't into the Thruway driving ( it puts me to sleep -- droning on) . Rt 20 will get you to the 390 into Rochester. There are many alternatives, esp. in nicer weather. Thruway for really bad weather -- but have a few mapped out, in case they close the Thruway.
According to the Census about 20,000 people commute between Erie County and Monroe County and vise versa each day. Possibly you can find someone to carpool with.
I can't think of anything worse than waking up every day and facing the prospect of 2+ hours in the car just getting to and from work. Where in Rochester is the job? I guess if it's on the west side it's not horrible. But if it's downtown or east side, that really stinks.
I would never do it, and would look to move to Rochester. But that's me. Good luck.
How tied are you to Buffalo and how good of a job prospect is this job in Rochester? Does your wife work?
If you are the sole breadwinner, and you own the home you just moved to and/or are very tied to Buffalo (family lives there, it's where you really want to live etc) I'd say take the job and just commute for now hoping to eventually find something closer to home.
If you are only renting now and/or not heavily tied to Buffalo....I'd say move to Rochester for the job. Just no sense in commuting that long, especially during winter, if you don't really have to.
If both you and your wife work...and her job is presumably in Buffalo; consider a halfway point like Batavia.
The other thing to consider is this...if you are tied to Buffalo because of family/friends/social life (and you do not own a home, because that would make this point a little less stringent). How often would you be seeing them anyways? If you are commuting 2 hours round trip every day are you really going to have that much time throughout the week to spend with relatives/friends? If you were to live in Rochester; you'd have the shorter every-day commute and then the relatively short "day trip" distance to Buffalo on the weekends. You could spend the day or the whole weekend in Buffalo spending time with the folks you have there, and then be able to have a much more manageable daily commute to your job from a home in Rochester.
Again if you just BOUGHT your first house in Buffalo this makes things different.
Sounds like a good situation to negotiate for some occasional work at home (WAH) time...here in Maryland, a lot of employers are fairly flexible about this. Some allow WAH on Fridays, or as needed for bad weather, family medical etc.
What I would hate about the commute is those Thruway drivers...why do left lane drivers pass you, and then immediately cut into the right lane forcing you to brake?? I haven't seen that anywhere else as much as on the Buf-Roc thruway stretch.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
