Commute and...., (Pittsburgh, York, Aliquippa: neighborhood, construction, university)

[tonyahunting]

Just curious how bad the commute would be if i lived in mt.lebanon and worked in Aliquippa? mapquest says it takes 39 minutes, is this accurate, how bad is traffic(I am from L.A!)?

Also, curious to hear about people who recently moved to pittsburgh from other states, specifically California. Do you like it, why or why not? How long did it take to adjust? thanks for any info.....

[jcsinpgh]

Not sure if I exactly fill the bill, but I grew up here, lived in southern CA for five years, and have been back here for another five years. The big differences I've noticed are weather (obviously) and housing prices (also obviously). To my eye, and I did grow up here, both regions have their fair share of natural beauty, although it's very different. The terrain also takes some getting used to--I lived about two hours north of LA, and there it was totally flat except for the mountains, if that makes sense. Here it is genuinely hilly and that could be strange.

Pittsburghers, in my experience, are much more outgoing than southern Californians. This is good and bad--you will likely know your neighbors better here and make much more small talk with people in stores and so forth, but they will also not hesitate to give their opinions on you and your life choices. I feel much more of a sense of community here than I did there, so I like it, but not everyone does. If you grew up in California, I think it'll seem very different for a while--it took me a good year or two to adjust to California, so I think it'd be similar going the other way. You should also expect a fair amount of incredulousness that you would ever leave California to come here--as others have noted, Pittsburghers have a sort of inferiority complex about their city sometimes. Oh, and prepare to pay more for an avocado than you ever have before. That is one thing I still really miss about CA.

And I don't know about the commute. I have never found anything around here that even approaches LA traffic, but I don't know the route you'd be traveling very well.

Good luck as you decide!

[tonyahunting]

thank you so much for your reply. I have lived in other places in my life, born in Jersey, lived in Colorado, but never for very long, and it was as a child. I was not the one in Colorado who had to shuffle snow, or manuever the icey roads!!!!

[By~Tor]

Well, I moved here from New York City only a fe months ago, and so far, I've found Pittsburgh to be VERRRRRRRRRRRRY welcoming and the people, more friendly than usual, even compared to parts of the midwest...

Your commute will be based almost entirely, on two factors:

* Construction in your path and the amount of delay involved.....

* Your ability to get a Garmin and find alternate routes, via the back roads...

You'll be able to make that commute in relatively good time, but add 15 minutes each way for good measure and then do invest in the GPS device, because PGH is NOT on a "grid" system, due to its own topography. The locals all use the back roads, most of which are two-lane, curvy and hilly things that test your driving ability like Mario Andretti in a Grand Prix race...

And one more thing--they tend to drive 5mph UNDER the limits here, and view anyone who passes them at or above the posted limits as someone who is in pretty much of a hurry..... so, be advised, you whippersnapper, you!!! LOL!!!

[jcsinpgh]

You're welcome!

Something else that you might find interesting are the neighborhood profiles done by Pitt's University Center for Social and Urban Research:

Socio

Since you are looking at communities outside the city proper, you would look at "Allegheny County Municipalities." Of course statistics can only tell you so much, but you could compare, for example, the % of people in each community who weren't living in Pittsburgh five years earlier, to get an idea of what communities seem to have more newcomers.

And I agree with By~Tor about the speeds sort of, but there are definitely places where the convention is to drive 20 miles above the speed limit (Boulevard of the Allies, for example). Pittsburgh seems to have unwritten speed laws that correspond not at all to what's on the signs...