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Hello! OK, frequent posters here know that we've been researching the area, asking all the questions about schools, weather, traffic, etc. We drove 8 hours through freezing rain to get to R-D on Sunday night. We ONLY stayed for a day and a half, so I KNOW we didn't see everything. That said, here are my impressions:
1. Checked out Durham to get a real idea of what it is like. We did not see any gangs or prostitutes on street corners, but weren't cruising the streets after dark, either. We stayed in a hotel in Durham, and we generally liked the city. We checked out North Gate Mall, just seemed to be a quiet neighborhood mall with the usual people. We liked the area around Duke, the usual college-type hangouts and the neighborhoods immediately around the university were nice with unique houses that were way out of our price range. We did wander into the "seedy" parts of town as we got on Wake Forest Hwy. The area around the Research Triangle Park (that we saw) seemed to be a little desolate and rundown.
Bottom line: If we didn't have children, we would be more inclined to invest in a nice house and take a chance that the neighborhoods would be improving with the rest of the city. I liked all the brick accents everywhere in Durham.
2. Traffic - Nonexistant! Ok, we were driving around at non-peak times, but seriously, there was no traffic! We were on the inner and outer belt-lines around 10 AM and 4 PM - nothing. It took about 18 minutes to go from Durham to Capital Ave (Hwy 1) on the eastern side of Raleigh! Compared to traffic in Atlanta and Marietta, GA, traffic is a non-issue as far as we're concerned in Raleigh! We also drove from Durham over to Wake Forest via 98, and saw very few cars. Then we went from Wake Forest down to Raleigh via Hwy 1, and didn't see any heavy traffic.
Some of the freeways are a little confusing to access, but we didn't have a big problem getting around. We did a big circle and went from Durham to Wake Forest to Raleigh to Cary and back to Durham in a day, including random tours through residential areas.
3. Activities. We saw a lot of parks, but didnt' have time to check out the Falls Lake area. We didn't see a lot of children's activities, but we know we couldn't see EVERYTHING! I need to see if the area has a big amusement park or water park. I think I saw a children's discovery museum in downtown Raleigh.
4. Housing. We're looking at the low end of the housing, so we know we're limited. Again, I know we didn't see everything. However, we liked Cary's neighborhoods and some in Durham and eastern Raleigh. We didn't get to explore the Leesville, Six Forks, Leadmine Rd. area in Raleigh, which was a big disappointment. Wake Forest was pretty isolated, too, despite the conveniences closer to Hwy 1.
ANYWAY, I know everyone is different, but I thought I would share my experience since I know there are a lot of people considering the area sight unseen. Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions.
Also, thanks to the realtors who have been so helpful on this board. We didn't have time to look anyone up while we were there. My husband and I (with our two children) just drove around for hours, and we weren't fit to socialize after bickering over directions and trying to figure out north and south by the path of the sun!
2. Traffic - Nonexistant! Ok, we were driving around at non-peak times, but seriously, there was no traffic! We were on the inner and outer belt-lines around 10 AM and 4 PM - nothing. It took about 18 minutes to go from Durham to Capital Ave (Hwy 1) on the eastern side of Raleigh! Compared to traffic in Atlanta and Marietta, GA, traffic is a non-issue as far as we're concerned in Raleigh! We also drove from Durham over to Wake Forest via 98, and saw very few cars. Then we went from Wake Forest down to Raleigh via Hwy 1, and didn't see any heavy traffic.
Some of the freeways are a little confusing to access, but we didn't have a big problem getting around. We did a big circle and went from Durham to Wake Forest to Raleigh to Cary and back to Durham in a day, including random tours through residential areas.
Try doing that same drive at 5pm on a weekday!! Haha
Marymel - thanks for your report. You sound like you could work for the weather channel driving through the freezing rain for hours to give us a report, so thank you again. Sound like you saw a lot for only being there a couple of days. I have just a couple of questions.
1. Did you see any tagging on building, signs etc. in any areas you drove through? This is a big problem where I am in CA.
2. After all the rain in Raleigh/Durham, did you notice any areas that seemed flooded?
I know from previous posts there is NO large amusement parks in the area, and there is NO zoo in town. Both of these places you have to drive 90 minutes to 2-3 hours to get to them. This is not an issue for me, since in CA you have to drive 1 - 3 hours to get to anything like that. Most amusement parks, water parks and zoos are in the Los Angeles or San Diego areas.
Thanks for the report and I am glad you made you trip through nasty weather safely.
1. Did you see any tagging on building, signs etc. in any areas you drove through? This is a big problem where I am in CA.
There are isolated bits of it....but tagging is not near the problem here that I've seen in other areas...and it's very confined and most often cleaned up within days.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JustChar
2. After all the rain in Raleigh/Durham, did you notice any areas that seemed flooded?
I hadn't heard of any flooding from the last bit of rain....and unless we get the tail end of a hurricanne and you live by Crabtree creek...it's not an issue in most of the area really.
After all the rain in Raleigh/Durham, did you notice any areas that seemed flooded?
As I've noted in other threads, this is only a problem in two ways:
1- Catastrophic event that hardly ever happens or
2- Somebody is a big enough idiot to build something in a floodplain or wetland (like Crabtree Valley Mall).
wow, that's really awful, what I was EXPECTING. I knew it had to be somewhere, because we didn't encounter ANY gridlock driving between 8:30 AM and 6PM. I'm glad we missed it. So where is it really bad? Is 540 westbound really congested at peak hours?
As I've noted in other threads, this is only a problem in two ways:
1- Catastrophic event that hardly ever happens or
2- Somebody is a big enough idiot to build something in a floodplain or wetland (like Crabtree Valley Mall).
I still wonder how that ever got approved. Great location, that is true...but you'd think they might have noticed the floodplan thing!
Marymel - thanks for your report. You sound like you could work for the weather channel driving through the freezing rain for hours to give us a report, so thank you again. Sound like you saw a lot for only being there a couple of days. I have just a couple of questions.
1. Did you see any tagging on building, signs etc. in any areas you drove through? This is a big problem where I am in CA.
**The only spot we saw it was along the railroad tracks, probably in Durham AND Raleigh. No big deal.
2. After all the rain in Raleigh/Durham, did you notice any areas that seemed flooded?
**No flooding, but the trees all were coated in ice. It was really pretty, but then we noticed it looked scary when the branches broke. Anyone know how common ice storms are?
I know from previous posts there is NO large amusement parks in the area, and there is NO zoo in town. Both of these places you have to drive 90 minutes to 2-3 hours to get to them. This is not an issue for me, since in CA you have to drive 1 - 3 hours to get to anything like that. Most amusement parks, water parks and zoos are in the Los Angeles or San Diego areas.
**Thanks for that info. I guess I'm spoiled, living in between Chattanooga and Atlanta with their respective world-class aquariums.
Thanks for the report and I am glad you made you trip through nasty weather safely.
2. Traffic - Nonexistant! Ok, we were driving around at non-peak times, but seriously, there was no traffic! We were on the inner and outer belt-lines around 10 AM and 4 PM - nothing. It took about 18 minutes to go from Durham to Capital Ave (Hwy 1) on the eastern side of Raleigh! Compared to traffic in Atlanta and Marietta, GA, traffic is a non-issue as far as we're concerned in Raleigh! We also drove from Durham over to Wake Forest via 98, and saw very few cars. Then we went from Wake Forest down to Raleigh via Hwy 1, and didn't see any heavy traffic.
Some of the freeways are a little confusing to access, but we didn't have a big problem getting around. We did a big circle and went from Durham to Wake Forest to Raleigh to Cary and back to Durham in a day, including random tours through residential areas.
We recently visited RDU too and got the same impression. We drove around all day too and never encountered anything that seemed congested to us. We've lived in both Atlanta and CA. Atlanta's traffic is horrible but nothing compared to LA's.
Traffic - Nonexistant! Ok, we were driving around at non-peak times, but seriously, there was no traffic! We were on the inner and outer belt-lines around 10 AM and 4 PM - nothing.
If you have another opportunity I highly recommend driving routes to any future home locations during typical rush hour times (7:30am and 5-5:30 pm) to getter a better sense of what you might face daily with any commute. Many people think that traffic is only mild here compared to the larger metro areas they are used to, and they are right for the most part, but there are several areas that can get pretty backed up during rush hour. Traveling on I-40 in the middle of the afternoon is a breeze, but try it at 5pm and you wouln't think it is so much fun. The same can be said for a few of the smaller roads that feed into North Raleigh burbs. Falls of the Neuse comes to mind. Once you get past Durant Road and Falls of the Neuse Shrinks to a 2-lane road the traffic can get bumper to bumper as it snakes through the remainder of North Raleigh.
Don't get me wrong, on the whole I do not find traffic in the Raleigh Metro Area to be terrible, but depending on your personal situation and where you are commuting, you may find yourself exposed to one of these bad areas of traffic so you might as well check it out beforehand!
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and I 
(with our two children) just drove around for hours, and we weren't fit to socialize after bickering over directions and trying to figure out north and south by the path of the sun!
thanks
ah-ha, it does exist
