Commute time from Victoria to other suburbs. (Minneapolis, Eden Prairie: catholic schools, college)

[ellysbelly]

We're hoping to relocate to Victoria over the summer. My husband is a hockey coach and is interviewing with a number of hockey associations (mostly in the southwestern and northwestern suburbs of Minneapolis)-- he also hopes to provide private lessons both before and after school, as well as hopefully running clinics through the associations in the evenings and on weekends. I work from home, so my commute is a non-issue. We have three school aged children, so both schools and a sense of community are important to us.

We are considering living in or around Victoria because the housing stock seems to offer a pretty good 'bang for buck', they have excellent schools (as do 99% of the options we've considered) and we are truly suburbanites at this stage of the game-- we even have the minivan to prove it, sigh. The other reason Victoria is our current top choice is because I have a very close friend of 20+ years who lives there and as we know no one else, it would be lovely to have a close friend around the corner; especially a friend that I know would do everything in her power to ensure that we felt welcome and would introduce us to anyone and everyone-- she's a total social butterfly-- and her two kids are similar in age to my two younger children, as well.

Back to the commuting question: most mornings, my husband will likely be coaching in Eden Prairie, Edina or Victoria (usually practices run from 6am-8:30 or 9am in those rinks)-- is there traffic from Victoria to EP or Edina in the very early mornings? And am I correct that returning from EP and Edina to Victoria at 8:30 or 9am will be a reverse commute?

He might also be working at times as far north as Elk River and/or Rogers, mostly in the evenings and on weekends. From looking at a map, we know that Victoria is quite far from Elk River but as we aren't at all familiar with traffic patterns, we don't know how long it would take him to travel if he had to be up there for a clinic that starts at 6 or 6:30pm on a weeknight (I assume that during the weekends that traffic is a non-issue-- but please correct me if I'm wrong).

We've also considered (and haven't ruled out) living somewhere more central to both Elk River and Victoria such as Maple Grove-- but I wonder whether he'd have to deal with traffic daily at 8:30 or 9am coming back from Edina and EP to Maple Grove.

Any and all suggestions are welcomed-- thank you for reading my novel

[golfgal]

If he can not be on the road between about 7:30 and 8:30 am, he will be fine. Rush hour is very short here. In the evening it's more like 4:30-6:15 or so. Anything outside of that he will have little to no traffic to deal with. If he leaves the rink at 9:00 am, he will be fine. Going to Elk River or Rogers in the evening will be a little more of a hassle but if he doesn't have any other commitments and can go earlier than 6:00--I would assume he would be there an hour before anyway or so, right? He will be fine then too.

We have friends in Victoria and they LOVE it. They send their kids to Holy Family though.

[ellysbelly]

Thanks, golfgal-- would the traffic be bad both ways (EP or Edina to Victoria as well as from Victoria to Edina or EP) between 7:30 and 8:30am or just one or the other.

Yes, he generally gets to the rink at least 30, if not 45-60 minutes before he begins any clinics to for warm ups, to chat with his players and their parents, etc-- he also hopes that he'll be able to schedule private lessons either immediately before and/or after the clinics to make the commute up there more worthwhile, too.

Glad to hear that your friends also LOVE Victoria-- I trust my friend totally and we have similar taste in most things-- but I also know that she's dying to get us up there, too, so she might be glossing over anything that she's less than enamored with in the area, LOL. She is very happy with the elementary school in the area.. do you know whether your friends send their kids to Holy Family for religious reasons or because they aren't happy with an aspect of the public school system? Thanks again!

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by ellysbelly

Thanks, golfgal-- would the traffic be bad both ways (EP or Edina to Victoria as well as from Victoria to Edina or EP) between 7:30 and 8:30am or just one or the other.

Yes, he generally gets to the rink at least 30, if not 45-60 minutes before he begins any clinics to for warm ups, to chat with his players and their parents, etc-- he also hopes that he'll be able to schedule private lessons either immediately before and/or after the clinics to make the commute up there more worthwhile, too.

Glad to hear that your friends also LOVE Victoria-- I trust my friend totally and we have similar taste in most things-- but I also know that she's dying to get us up there, too, so she might be glossing over anything that she's less than enamored with in the area, LOL. She is very happy with the elementary school in the area.. do you know whether your friends send their kids to Holy Family for religious reasons or because they aren't happy with an aspect of the public school system? Thanks again!

Religious reasons mostly but also their oldest liked the smaller school when they moved up there. They attended Catholic schools until they moved there and she's at a Catholic College too . The Chaska/Chanhassen schools are very good--no worries there.

In the morning traffic from EP to Victoria will be nothing after practice--might catch the tail end on 62 from Edina but it wan't be bad and it won't be for long--past 169 there won't be any to speak of. Going to won't be bad because he will be leaving early enough. Sometimes even 5 minutes makes a difference--he'll figure out what works best.