As far as the commuting goes, my husband leaves every morning by 5 a.m. to miss the traffic, and he tries to leave from work before the peak time. It is a smart thing to do. When he has had to drive during peak hours he has been stuck for 3 hours at times driving from DC area to Howard County/Columbia, so the commute can be miserable if you have to drive at bad hours...with that said Howard County truly is a great place to live. We know several people that live in Elkridge and they are happy with the area. As far as crime goes I would recommend going to the Howard County Police Department website and finding the page where you can enter in a specific home address and read the recent crime logs for that particular area. If you are looking for a realtor I would also recommend going to
www.yournewhomeinmaryland.com we used them when we bought our place. also you will find if you do a property search on their website you will be able to get an exact address (if I remember correctly), so that you can enter it into the crime stats on the website below.
http://maps.howardcountymd.gov/Publi...Statistics.asp
you can also find access to sex offenders in the area and where they live on the HCPD website.
Overall this area is great there are many, many activities and events and places to keep you busy and entertained on the weekend as I'm sure you can imagine, being close to the nation's capital. Howard county offers great amenities as well, good health clubs and a variety of shopping choices.
good luck, hope that helped.
One thing that might take some getting used to is the difference in the cultures of the people from west to east coast.
Overall though I think the area is great.