Commute from Downtown Milwaukee to West Bend in Feb/March. (Fond du Lac: home, living in)

[vdy1985]

What is the commute like? My significant other has been given the option to commute from home (downtown Milwaukee) to West Bend for a 6 week period or live/work in Steven's Point for that same 6 week period.

Housing will be provided for no cost if she stays in Steven's Point. But she knows nobody there and rather not be alone for 6 weeks, with maybe just a visit or two back to MKE or me visiting her once or twice during those 6 weeks.

So it seems we are leaning more towards her doing the MKE to West Bend commute. What are the roads like in late winter? How long can she expect it to take? Anyone else do this commute?

[brian571]

It's definitely not the easiest commute. I'm assuming she'd be traveling during rush hour? On the way out in the morning, you're probably looking at 45 minutes to an hour from downtown. I-94 out to Hwy 45 will be slow, but it should be pretty clear after that. The ride home is going to be a different story. Hwy 45 southbound is one of the most congested rush hour routes and the Zoo Interchange (45 and I94) is the busiest junction in the State of Wisconsin. Realistically, traffic is going to be backed up from Burleigh until you get to 94 almost every day. It'll be an easy 15 minutes just to get through that segment. 94 east will be a little better, but there is still enough commuter traffic from people that work on the west side and live on the North Shore to slow it down. I'd estimate it's going to take around an hour and 15 to get back downtown at night. It's a long commute distance wise and the only way to get there from downtown is to deal with some of the busiest roads in the region. Weather in February can still be pretty dicey and Washington County (where West Bend is located) typically gets more snow in a given storm than downtown Milwaukee does. March usually isn't too bad for snow, but there is still the occasional storm to deal with. The good part is that she would be taking well traveled routes that are kept as clear as possible during storms.

An alternative to driving is the WCCE (Washington County Commuter Express). It's a bus service that runs from downtown to Washington County and West Bend. I have a friend that used it to commute from West Bend to downtown. Check out their website to see if it works for you... ridewcce.com.

Given the choice, I would definitely live in Milwaukee and commute to West Bend versus living in Steven's Point, especially if she doesn't know anyone up there and it's only temporary.

Any questions, just let me know. Good luck!

[vdy1985]

Thank you.

[rso092]

Take Fond du Lac, not 94/45.

It's shorter in distance, and at least has the potential of being quicker. You're only dealing with city traffic from 68th St on into downtown; 145 northwest of 68th is a freeway and is pretty much deserted.

Worst case scenario, FdL takes the same amount of time as the freeway, but you're still saving several miles.

And FWIW, I'd take the commute. It's only temporary, and isn't that horrible of a drive.

[Milwaukee City]

As someone who has done this exact commute year round it's a coin flip. Keep in mind that I drive faster than the average Wisconsin blue back turtle. So here is my experience, in summer it was great. I enjoy some down time after work to unwind and listen to some music on my way home and I could be home in 30-40min in summer even with summerfest traffic. However I was coming into downtown around 8pm so no traffic.

Winter, I would not do this drive and I hated it in winter. It took me 2hrs to get home one night. So I would not want to do this drive but if it was only temporary I wouldn't have any problem commuting.