Wilmington - 40 min commutes? (Smyrna, New Castle: salary, work, homes)

[mczabe]

We are possibly coming to join y'all in Delaware, with my husband working in Wilmington. He's one of those guys who really doesn't mind a 30+ minute commute, but for family-time's sake, I'd like to keep it close to that.

Since each area's traffic is different, I don't know what that translates into as far as boundaries for looking at homes.

Could someone give me a rough idea of towns/areas north,south, west (guess east isn't really an option ) on the 30-45 minute commuting boundary? Does that make sense....I'd like to kinda draw a mental circle on the map, so I don't waste my time looking at an area that's going to be farther out than that.

Thanks so much!

[rdlr]

Where, in Wilmington, will he be working? Not...the exact place, but will he be in North/West'South Wilmington? In some areas of Wilmington, it takes 30 minutes to get out of the City.

[mczabe]

He would be near the Dupont Country Club...so is that North Wilmington?

[Rachlyn]

Can anyone help me with the following information regarding commuting?

So far the only things that I can't seem to find out are...

1. the commuting time from Smyrna or Kent County to Philadelphia by car
2. is it better to drive to Wilmington and take the train from there?
(I understand that by Amtrak it's about 15 minutes)
3. are there buses that commute from Wilmington to Philadelphia; and
4. is there an express bus from Kenty County or New Castle County to
Philadelphia.

Thanks in Advance!

[elizamary]

Hi Rachlyn,
Unfortunately, transportation is not that great in Kent county. We we are, you need transportation to transportation.
There are bus's but not many. I hardly ever see a bus but I'm told they are there.
coming from Philly, there is no comparison. Where we lived, you had access to transportation at your finger tip.

My daughter doesn't have a car and has visited by public transportation. her experiences were not that great and long and gruling.
Now if she can't get a ride, she'll take amtrak and we pick her up at wilmington. That is about an hour from where we live in magnolia, Kent county.

[Rachlyn]

Elizamary, thank you so much for that information! That really helps!.. I think Answer/Option #2 would be the best bet for us. For the last three years I've been driving into the city from the Island (Long Island) and it is roughly a 90 minute ride but sooo worth it in regards to not having to ride on the subway! or transferring (3x) on the Long Island RailRoad! So, I am used to a long commute but 90 minutes is my limit!! and actually most NYers are used to long commutes average an hour to 2 hours!

[movn2del]

Originally Posted by Rachlyn

Elizamary, thank you so much for that information! That really helps!.. I think Answer/Option #2 would be the best bet for us. For the last three years I've been driving into the city from the Island (Long Island) and it is roughly a 90 minute ride but sooo worth it in regards to not having to ride on the subway! or transferring (3x) on the Long Island RailRoad! So, I am used to a long commute but 90 minutes is my limit!! and actually most NYers are used to long commutes average an hour to 2 hours!

I don't think that NYers are used to long commutes. I think they do it so they can go where the money is. I did that commute for 16 years. Yuck! Very happy not to have to do it anymore. Once I stopped, I would never do it again. Good luck to you Rachlyn. I'm movn2del to slow down a bit.

[Rachlyn]

Hi Movn2del - You are absolutely right! the money is the only reason why NYers take on such a long commute. My sister and I were talking about the Mayor of NY trying to lessen the congestion in the city by adding hefty tolls basically to toll-free areas up to a certain point of the city but Thank God it didn't go through! My sister (who works on Long Island) told me that she's wondered how I've done the City commute for 18 years and why others do it and what could really resolve the issue. I suggested that if corporations would relocate to the other boroughs and keep the salaries close to that of the city it would attract people elsewhere and severely cut down on the congestion.. just a suggestion from one of the little people...

[movn2del]

Hi again Rachlyn. I wish you the very best of luck finding someplace you enjoy. You might even want to consider shortening your commute time a little so you can enjoy more of Delaware.

[Rachlyn]

Hi Movn2del!

I would love to have a shorter commute! but the salaries for my field in DE are low and it seems there aren't many openings... when we first started to consider moving to DE, I started looking online for positions and the few that came up were not "good"... needless to say, I was very disappointed because that meant a long commute again.. so I started looking into Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington (my company has a DC location also - thought about transferring but commute is over 2 hours!)... so Philly seemed the best bet - "many openings, "close" and better salary... and Philly reminds me of a smaller NY -only cleaner!