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I’ve already outlined my commute. The same commute is accessible to roughly 15,000/50,000 people in my town. Granted I can’t control where they chose to work in Manhattan just like I can’t chose where they buy their house but those numbers are hardly anecdotal. That aside, let’s forget the park and ride since that seems to be throwing you for a loop and causing what feels like anger, at least severe annoyance, from the way you wrote your response. There is another bus that goes through Wayne. The 197b. It goes down Black Oak Drive, down Ratzer and then down Valley, essentially starting in the northwest corner of Wayne and working it’s way down through to the southwest corner by the Home Depot on rt 46. It can stop almost every block before going expresss to city. That bus, which many residents( probably close to 10,000 could walk to in less than 10 minutes) picks up starting at 7:10 and is in Port Authority by 8:20. The NJT MyBus tracker tells you exactly where this bus is and when it will be at your stop, in real time. It takes roughly 15 minutes to get through Wayne on this bus. The Majority of people in Wayne will get picked up by this bus between 7:20 and 7:35. Is that anecdotdotal? Is that before 7am?
No anger here, just questioning the validity of using your door to desk commute times as the basis for what to expect for a daily commute into manhattan. OK So the absolute shortest commute for this bus you alluded to is 45min + 10min walk, not including wait time on line. That’s already 55min for someone who gets on the last stop on this bus before it heads into the city on a perfect day. Shoot it takes 5min just working your way off the bus (you’re also probably sitting in the back if you’re getting on at one of the last pickup spots), through the port authority and down to the street. I still stand by my view that a 1:10 “like clockwork” “door to desk” daily commute is not something one should bank on when considering a move into NJ.
No anger here, just questioning the validity of using your door to desk commute times as the basis for what to expect for a daily commute into manhattan. OK So the absolute shortest commute for this bus you alluded to is 45min + 10min walk, not including wait time on line. That’s already 55min for someone who gets on the last stop on this bus before it heads into the city on a perfect day. Shoot it takes 5min just working your way off the bus (you’re also probably sitting in the back if you’re getting on at one of the last pickup spots), through the port authority and down to the street. I still stand by my view that a 1:10 “like clockwork” “door to desk” daily commute is not something one should bank on when considering a move into NJ.
And my point is that a door to desk commute of that time or less(10 minutes is the max walk time to the bus not minimum) is absolutely doable in NJ even from a town as far out as Wayne with no direct rail service to the city. If you pick a closer town under an hour can easily be the norm. It just takes proper planning beginning with where,in any specific town, you choose to buy your house and of course where you choose to work(yes where you work will always be a choice even though the consequences of that choice may make it appear to be anything but). Most people don’t put a high enough priority on the commute to public transit access in their house search which is why my commute may be better than someone who lives in a town a lot closer according to the transit timetables. An extra 10 minutes each way a day = 4 extra days a year “in-transit”
Also the pie in the sky times are listed on the NJtransit bus schedules, the time estimates I'm giving are actual averages not to be dismissed as "best case" scenarios. For example: The 6pm bus out of Port Authority is scheduled to get to the fist stop in Wayne(actually on the border of totawa at the home depot) at 6:32. With traffic accidents or whatever, I'v found that time to actually be more like 6:45pm, getting to the northwest corner of Wayne(which would be the farthest point is scheduled at 6:51pm, in reality this is more like 7-7:05pm). So there is a 20 minute difference in commute time just based on where you chose to buy your house...in the same town.
There are no stones unturned around NYC, and all values are set relative to the larger market. We effectively traded value for commute, but just didn’t realize it until after we started commuting.
This is probably the most helpful thing I've read on all of the NYC/NJ/CT forums. Thank you!
The reality of commuting times has been very helpful for my family seeking to move to the NYC area; for my family personally, commute time is probably the most important factor so it looks like (if I'm reading it correctly) westchester is probably the place for us.
if commute time is most important AND you are considering towns in Westchester below Hawthorne than yes. If you are looking at Pleasantville or farther north, IMO you should absolutely consider NJ towns like Glen Ridge, Montclair, Maplewood, Short Hills/Millburn, etc.
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