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I'm curious as to traffic issues in some of these cities. Is it possible to get around without using the major freeways? Is it congested even in mall and shopping areas or is it fairly easy to get around?
I'm looking for info on these states/cities:
Arizona - Chandler & Phoenix
Hawaii - Honolulu/Oahu
Texas - Austin & Dallas or Allen
I come from a middle size town and lots of fast moving traffic stresses me out.
I would also be curious to know things such as parking lot sizes - are they old and hard for an SUV to get in/out or are they newer and more spacious? Is everything a parkade or curbside parking or are there actually spaces?
You won't have problems parking, people park SUVs in New York. I'm sure Dallas will stress you out but it only takes a couple months to get used to it.
The phoenix metro is very easy to get around - but also very big
Most people use the freeway as part of their drive ..... even if you are going down a couple exits and you could take a surface street, it's not uncommon to just hop on the freeway
Roads are clean, wide and easy to navigate
System is laid out like a grid and is pretty intuitive once you get a couple of the basic coordinates down
Parking is never really and issue - there are some places that are more popular than their location would dictate and those can be difficult ..... frequently those places will try and force "complimentary valet" on you and move your car to their overflow lot
Malls are pretty easy to find spaces in unless it's the holidays and they are packed
Plenty of trucks/SUVs/mini vans, etc ....... no issue with them
While it's very easy to move around, distances aren't all that compact - so that is the trade off
ATLANTA! Ha ha ... Ahem. Just kidding. Considering its absolutely BRILLIANT urban grid was designed 280 years ago, HISTORIC DOWNTOWN SAVANNAH GA remains one of the most easily navigable cities IN THE WORLD for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic! Outside the historic district, not so much.
This is great. Just what I'm looking for. Phoenix sounds nice traffic wise. I love cities with the grid pattern. I was really thinking Phoenix might be a finalist as to a moveable location but got a little freaked out by Valley Fever. Hmm....
Any more Texas people out there?
How about Atlanta? Not sure about humidity though as I'm used to dry summers.
I wouldn't worry much about Valley Fever (and it's not unique to the phoenix metro) ....... it's out here, but not that wide spread ..... you can search the phoenix forum for those words and get a wide variety of sometimes heated discussion
traffic can get backed up out here, gridlock does happen and there are a lot of cars that can find themselves within close proximity during rush hour ........ but things are still laid out better than most places and it's possible to get around incidents
it really is a simple grid ..... some streets run as long as 40+ miles and for the most part they are straight & flat
the joke out here is that everything is always 5-15 minutes away, so while it's easy to get to almost anything & anywhere ... you do often cover a bit of distance and spend some time in your car
I really don't understand the affinity for strict "grid" cities. Yes in the downtown core makes sense and things easy to find and get around, but residential areas designed on a hard grid pattern are just very unattractive, sterile, cold and ... UGLY! One of the things I LOVE about Atlanta is that the residential streets follow the lay of the land -- they rise and fall and curve and give so many glorious possibilities for building beautiful homes with great vistas vs blah tract housing. It's no different than what you see in LA with the homes in the Hollywood Hills vs tract housing in the valleys. Why would anybody want to go thru life ""10 blocks N, right turn left" at 90 degree angles?
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Give me More!
I was really thinking Phoenix might be a finalist as to a moveable location but got a little freaked out by Valley Fever. Hmm....
