What to check out if you visit & are thinking about moving (Phoenix: places, drivers)

[locolife]

Originally Posted by wannabeaTexan

We'll be in rush hour traffic morning and evening driving to & from the airport. Does that count?

I probably won't like the traffic or even find it tolerable based on what I've read, but I'm in the same situation in Dallas. Depending on other factors, that might be a wash.

I’m willing to go out on a limb here and say Dallas likely has much worse congestion than you will see here.

[YAZ]

Originally Posted by locolife

I’m willing to go out on a limb here and say Dallas likely has much worse congestion than you will see here.

Yeah.

We're spoiled. An extra fifteen minutes tends to irk us in 110 degree summertime. While I don't envy the commuters on I-10, I'll take it any day over the Beltway, Perimeter, Edens, and the spokes of Detroit. I consider traffic a non-issue in Feeniks.

With a dozen or so different kinda Mexican cuisine choices and bartenders that make world class Margaritas.....who cares about drive time?

[wannabeaTexan]

Originally Posted by locolife

I’m willing to go out on a limb here and say Dallas likely has much worse congestion than you will see here.

Good to know. But what about the drivers? Texas has jerk drivers...my commute is usually the worst part of the day.

[wase4711]

Originally Posted by wannabeaTexan

Good to know. But what about the drivers? Texas has jerk drivers...my commute is usually the worst part of the day.

as someone who has driven millions of miles in my lifetime, I can say without a doubt, more speeders and tailgaters in the Phoenix area than ANY other place I have lived or driven around..

[wannabeaTexan]

Originally Posted by wase4711

as someone who has driven millions of miles in my lifetime, I can say without a doubt, more speeders and tailgaters in the Phoenix area than ANY other place I have lived or driven around..

OK...I'll definitely take notice. That is my biggest issue driving in TX. "Going 85 in rush hour traffic? Not good enough...I will get over then speed up to pass you & cut you off. Even though there's a car a few car lengths ahead of us, so I'm not getting anywhere anyway. And if I'm really in a hurry, I'll just use the shoulder to bypass several cars because I really need to get where I'm going more than y'all do." LOL This is my experience every day.

There was a big difference last December when I went home to WA, and I was in L.A. a couple months ago, and the drivers there were polite compared to here. Surprising.

I hope Phoenix is different from Dallas, but since there are so many transplants there and I think those are the problem children in Dallas too...I think my expectations are realistic. Again, could be a wash in that area, even though ideally I'd like to have a better commute!

[wase4711]

I havent seen any shoulder passers, yet, only lived here 2 months now, but, lots of drivers flying past me, then cutting in front of me to get to the red light one car length ahead of me, and, even doing 10-15 over the limit on surface streets in the right lane isnt fast enough most of the time; someone here had commented that since Phoenix is so loaded with transplants, they're the ones driving like morons, and he may be right, but, just be aware that this is how it is here...then, supposedly in a few weeks when the snowbirds invade the area, just the opposite occurs, where they sit in the left lane doing 10-20mph UNDER the speed limit..I'll be watching out for that too!

[wannabeaTexan]

I think it it probably is the transplants (not this transplant, lol). Native Texans swear it isn't them and I don't have a reason to doubt that. Well at least I'm used to it, even if I hate it. I'll keep my eyes open in AZ, but it likely wouldn't be a deal breaker for relocating.

Curious...what are your opinions overall having been there a couple months?

[wase4711]

I've come here many times over the years for business, and my wife and I always hoped we could move here eventually..
We feel like we are on vacation every day, if that tells you anything about how we feel!
There is a great "live and let live" attitude in this area, and we love that more than anything else..

The people are great, the weather is incredible, the prices and the availability of everything we need and want is wonderful, we live in a foothills area with mountain views all around us, and the cost of living for us is about 1/2 of what is was in suburban Chicago..

Needless to say, aside from the oppressive heat in july/august, we haven't had a single complaint about any part of our lives out here so far, although the price of license plates for our cars was sort of a shocker, but we knew ahead of time what that would be. and as far as the heat is concerned, considering we don't have to be out and about during the hottest parts of the day if we dont choose to be, even that isnt much of an issue to us; it might be if you have to be outside during those hours of the day, but frankly, once the monsoon faded away, and the humidity disappeared, its actually been nice to be out side when its 100 degrees with 8% humidity!

The growth in housing and commercial expansion in many parts of phoenix now is explosive, at least in the northwest part of the metro area that we live in, so in my mind, the economic future looks really great

[wannabeaTexan]

Thanks...good to know! I hate cold weather and it would be good to keep the heat & lose some of the humidity here. I never understood complaining about heat if you can easily stay out of it most of the time. My only actual complaint is hat the A/C is usually turned up way too high indoors to compensate & then I freeze inside.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by wannabeaTexan

OK...I'll definitely take notice. That is my biggest issue driving in TX. "Going 85 in rush hour traffic? Not good enough...I will get over then speed up to pass you & cut you off. Even though there's a car a few car lengths ahead of us, so I'm not getting anywhere anyway. And if I'm really in a hurry, I'll just use the shoulder to bypass several cars because I really need to get where I'm going more than y'all do." LOL This is my experience every day.

There was a big difference last December when I went home to WA, and I was in L.A. a couple months ago, and the drivers there were polite compared to here. Surprising.

I hope Phoenix is different from Dallas, but since there are so many transplants there and I think those are the problem children in Dallas too...I think my expectations are realistic. Again, could be a wash in that area, even though ideally I'd like to have a better commute!

Personally, I think the traffic in Dallas is MUCH worse than Phoenix traffic.

Most drivers I've encountered here are ok, although I suspect there may be a lot of NY transplants here who have no idea HTH to drive. But I've driven in places with far worse drivers than PHX.