Another newbie looking for commute advice to Arlington from Southlake or Keller (Grand Prairie: buying a home, buying)

[homeagain1]

Hi all,
We are looking at buying a home in Southlake or Keller. Disregarding the other pros/cons of the area, which would be a better commute - getting to Arlington from central Southlake or from, say, Shady Grove Rd in Keller with a commute down Rufe Snow or Davis to 820 and then 30? Timewise it maps about the same, but trafficwise, which is better? I would not have to commute during rush hour most days.

We prefer homes in Keller in our price range, but Southlake seems more convenient. Any other comments welcome. Thanks in advance.

[ChristieP]

Both commutes will have a LOT of traffic. Southlake is awful during rush hours, and once the DFW Connector highway reconstruction begins (it will last 5 years) things will get worse. 820 and Davis are also jam-packed in rush hours. So, honestly, neither one is a good option for commuting to Arlington.

Have you considered Colleyville? If you can afford Southlake, you can afford Colleyville. It is south of all the bad traffic, and it will be a much easier commute to Arlington.

[homeagain1]

Thank you. Yes, we will and should consider Colleyville. I have found fewer homes that have interested me there, but I will keep looking. I have seen some that look nice but are close to what appear to be railroad tracks. I have heard living near the ones in Keller is not a good idea, but what about in Colleyville?

[DFWNewHomeSpecialist21]

Originally Posted by homeagain1

Hi all,
We are looking at buying a home in Southlake or Keller. Disregarding the other pros/cons of the area, which would be a better commute - getting to Arlington from central Southlake or from, say, Shady Grove Rd in Keller with a commute down Rufe Snow or Davis to 820 and then 30? Timewise it maps about the same, but trafficwise, which is better? I would not have to commute during rush hour most days.

We prefer homes in Keller in our price range, but Southlake seems more convenient. Any other comments welcome. Thanks in advance.

Where in Arlington is your job located?? Have you considered homes in Arlington, Grand Prairie, or Mansfield??

[homeagain1]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. The job is in central Arlington, at UTA. No we aren't looking in those areas and have decided to live north for schools, to be near the airport, and to be near some friends. Otherwise Mansfield would be a consideration. We were told not to buy in Arlington or Grand Prairie by some people.

[nsumner]

I think that Southlake gives you easier access to highway 360 that goes to Arlington. You may also want to check Coppell, the schools are fantastic.

Naima

[Eric S]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Have you considered Colleyville? If you can afford Southlake, you can afford Colleyville. It is south of all the bad traffic, and it will be a much easier commute to Arlington.

I would 2nd this recommendation. At least from parts of Colleyville you could consider using surface streets to UTA. I work just north of UTA on Lamar and have only used 121/183 to 360 once (because even from my short distance it was a disaster - timewise). Now we take Industrial straight to Lamar - much better.

With regards to Keller and Southlake. Keller has/had the buzz, similar to Mansfield (at one time considered the ideal place to live), but neigther of those towns did it for me. Mansfield was kind of yucky and Keller was too dang far on ALL the wrong roadways. Both presented much more of a drive and too much traffic for my liking, though with Mansfield you could take surface streets. Southlake was never a consideration, since I'm not made of money and really don't even want to go down that path - oh, and that Soutlake traffic is much worse didn't help things any. Life is too short to have to deal with that crap. Quality of life is very important to us.

Colleyville seems (to me) like a tremendous alternative to WAY OUT Keller, Southlake and (traffic-bound) Grapevine.

Social climbing aside, I have lots of coworkers who avoided ALL of the outer 'burb bulls#!t and just live in Arlington. I think that they are far happier, overall, and you never hear them complain about time or commute....

-Eric

[ChristieP]

Originally Posted by homeagain1

I have seen some that look nice but are close to what appear to be railroad tracks. I have heard living near the ones in Keller is not a good idea, but what about in Colleyville?

Keller's tracks get a LOT of freight traffic and are always very busy, even in the middle of the night. This is a well-known problem!! Colleyville's tracks are not as busy. They get very little freight traffic, and it's mostly the tourist trains between Grapevine and the Stockyards. When the light rail expands to Grapevine, the rail traffic will increase. There is still a LOT of debate whether Colleyville will get a rail station.

[loves2read]

the train track going through Colleyville is used right now by the historic train in Grapevine that goes to the Stockyards--think it makes the round trip twice a day during the week now in summer and more often maybe on weekend...in the winter there is just one round trip in the week
BUT DART owns that line and that is the line that would be used if commuter rail ever gets off the ground through the Mid-Cities/Grapevine area into downtown FTW so the potential for much heavier rail traffic is possible...

the track in Keller is used by Burlington Northern I think and trains go into a huge switch yard at times and is truly a commercial rail line --- it gets some LONG trains that will at times stop and block the crossovers...can really slow down traffic and I know there is at least one morning train that bothers commuters...BUT I thought the city had petitioned to make the crossing silent ones with no whistle blowing now--don't know about that though since I don't live there
that being said--we know some people who live in Keller in Village of Woodland Hills and they are close to the tracks and say that it does not bother them once they acclimated to it...

Frankly if you plan on using 820 east/south to 30 to get to Arlington--that is just NOT the way to go...
820 North Loop east or west bound is one of the WORST sections of freeway traffic in the Metroplex and it will get worse because there is a plan to widen it to accomodate more traffic...

Colleyville, Grapevine, Coppell, even Flower Mound would be better than trying to use the 820 Loop--
that being said

IF you really like someplace along Shady Grove--the way to go is NOT down Davis to freeway--go EAST on Wautaga/cheek sparger first to 157
OR
Use Shady Grove to Sarah Brooks (school zone--be careful) and that is stop sign so gets backed up then EAST on N Tarrant Prkway--to Precinct Line SOUTH--
Then because of construction bail out to Glade or Mid-Cities (Cheek Sparger) traffic light on both intersections--go EAST--watch for police--at least one school zone on each

You can either hit 157/Industrial and go South to Arlington
or you can go EAST some more and hit 360 S if you need to go that far east in Arlington itself

If Precinct Line were not under construction from 26 to Airport Frwy, I would say you could go south on it to 30 but traffic is the pits on it right now in that area and I never go on it ...

You could even take Rufe Snow all the way south past the 820 loop and go east on Pipeline or Baker Blvd/Hwy 10 to 157 South--the worst part of that is probably the 820 interchange but if you are not in a turn lane and just going straight through your lane would move quickly--I don't know if there are school zones through there but could very well be some...it is usually a 3 lane north of 820 and then changes to 2 lane I think--been while since I was going that way...

the fact is there is not an EASY way to get to Arlington from either of those locations--
people write such bad things about 1709 in north Keller/Southlake--we have been in that area during the morning commute and while there are lots of cars, and there are lights, it seems to move fairly quickly--the north/south bound roads are much worse IMO
I know that the interchange over 114 is pretty bad but you can go north on couple of streets before it and not wait until 1709 crosses 114...

[hypocore]

Some of what's been written is good advice. However, until you actually drive it, it's only speculation.
There are all kinds of factors that play a part.

What time of day would you be traveling?
I drove to UTA for a couple of years and unless there was an accident, it was much easier and usually faster to drive the freeways than to drive the surface roads. There are no straight shots to UTA from the Rufe Snow, Davis, and Precinct Line area to UTA besides the 820/30 route. Taking back roads takes you a much longer route that has stop signs, red lights, construction zones and school zones that all slow you down quite a bit. Yes, there are numerous school zones on Precinct, Davis and Rufe Snow. So if you are traveling 7:00-8:30 AM or 2:00-4:00 PM, you will indeed be dealing with them.

If you were to be coming from a bit further east, then you have a better shot at getting there from straighter paths like 157 or 360, but you still will deal with the same type traffic as 820 and 30.

Also, especially in the summer, traffic getting to the tourist areas increases largely around there. Six Flags, Hurricane Harbor, Ripley's all tie up traffic around 10 AM on 360, 30 and the nearby roads, so coming in from that direction can be challenging during that time of day. Then there's the added traffic when there are Rangers baseball games, concerts at the new Cowboy's stadium and soon the games there as well that will clog up Collins, Cooper, Randol Mill and affect traffic in late afternoons. Trust me that getting from that area to go west on 30 during that time of day can be a nightmare. (I had many a parent trying to get to their kids in child care that were often 20-30 minutes late due to getting caught in that traffic unknowingly!)

The trick is to learn the alternate routes and pay attention to the traffic reports. That way you can plan to take one route but know how to bail on it and take a different one when it's a better option. Sometimes it's just better to stick it out, knowing that the traffic will lighten up once you pass a certain point.