Work in Wilmington, live in Newark?? (New Castle, Greenville: apartments, to rent, home)

[newtous]

I have just found a job at downtown Wilmington. After reading the threads at this forum, I benifited a lot in learning where is safer to live and where to avoid, and also learned a lot more about the city.
Now I am planning to rent an apartment at Newark and communte to work every day. But my concern is: if I use I95, traffic during peak hours might be horrible. Any suggestion regarding commuting to work from Newark?

Thx.

[SXMGirl]

It really depends on where you live in Newark and where you work in Wilmington. Check Route 13 if you work downtown. Route 2 has lots of traffic lights, and Route 4 has less. You probably won't have as much traffic going to work as you will coming home. However, if you leave work after 3:30 p.m., you will experience traffic everywhere.

[newtous]

Thank you for the reply. I will work at downtown Wilmington of North Walnut street. I will probably live close to UDEL - I haven't finalized my apartment but should be very close to the campus.
Thanks again for the information.

[holo21]

There's no good way around it but traffice on I95, Rt 141 and Rt 13 are heavily congested. One way to work in normal traffic from Newark UDEL area to Wilmington would be around 45 minutes. Rainy and bad traffic days (Friday's coming out of Wilmington to Newark are horrible) you can estimate 1 hour + minimum each way. If this is a big concern, you should really consider moving closer to your job. Decent apartments on the outskirts of the city, Pennsylvania Ave to Greenville area. Can also try Concord Pike Rt 202 area. Both are much closer to Wilmington. Even New Castle's a possiblity. Hope this is helpful.

[newtous]

Looks like there's no way to bypass the traffic. Maybe the only solution is to leave home early to avoid the traffic. When might be a "good" time to beat the traffic then? 7am or 6:30am? I will move to Newark in about 2 weeks.

[Tralfaz]

Originally Posted by newtous

Looks like there's no way to bypass the traffic. Maybe the only solution is to leave home early to avoid the traffic. When might be a "good" time to beat the traffic then? 7am or 6:30am? I will move to Newark in about 2 weeks.

I have been doing the Newark->Downtown Wilmington commute for nearly a year. Compared to my previous commutes, it is a breeze. 35m door to door on average, though on occasion due to unexpected problems (typically accidents, broken-down vehicles, weather or emergency construction) it can push past 1hr. I just take I-95 from exit 1 to the Delaware Av. offramp.

There is also SEPTA rail service and DART municipal bus routes (At least the 6) which require you to schedule your life around them and may take longer, but cost less than fuel and wear&tear on your vehicle.

It will shortly be motorcycle season, maybe I can shave 5-10m off my commute since my parking garage has an area set aside for bikes...

[cconn64]

Originally Posted by newtous

Looks like there's no way to bypass the traffic. Maybe the only solution is to leave home early to avoid the traffic. When might be a "good" time to beat the traffic then? 7am or 6:30am? I will move to Newark in about 2 weeks.

Almost religiously, I-95 around Churchman's Marsh slows down to a snails pace (literally 5-10 MPH in comparison to the 55 MPH that you're legally allowed to drive there) as you're heading from Wilmington to Newark around 4:00-4:30, until about 6:30-7:00 at night. Also it sometimes drags on a little bit up to Route 1. Most of that is due to the fact that 4 major roads (I-95, I-295, I-495, 141) meet in a very short distance.
Likewise, I-95 from Newark to Wilmington slows down around Route 1 (which is where Christiana Mall/Christiana Hospital are), on the commute home.

Route 2 (Kirkwood Highway) has something like 10,000 red-lights that aren't in sync (OK, that's a little exaggeration, but there is probably a red-light about every 1/2 mile - 1 mile along the road.

Personally, I think you should look into getting a place on the outskirts of the city itself to make the commute much shorter and much less hectic.