What is a reasonable commute for Sacramento? (Roseville, Davis: neighborhoods, school)

[mstruth]

I am new to Sacramento and live downtown (6th & T). I have looking for a job for the past 2 months hoping to find something I could walk to and am having trouble.

I just got an opportunity, but the job is in Woodland. Is this a reasonable commute for this area? I've received other offers in Davis and Roseville as well. 20 + miles seems like a pretty long commute to me. What do you think is a reasonable commute here?

Thanks for your help!

[CityGirl72]

You live downtown and you think Davis is a long commute? It's not.

Woodland is doable too. And alot of people commute to Roseville.

You are in Sacramento, it's a commuter city - over 80% of people commute using their cars.

I lived in Midtown for nearly 10 years and I never once had a job I could walk to, I drove to each one.

[wburg]

Woodland is doable. Obviously being able to walk to work is very nice, and living in the central city, it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility--that's what I do, except when I have to transport people or large quantities of stuff. I have lived in the central city since 1993 and haven't had a job that was outside of walking radius (or at worst easy busing distance) since then. I only got a car (and a license) when I got a job where a car was a job requirement (not to get to work, but to meet the requirements of the job.)

Roseville is probably the worst commute of all three, but in any of those cases you're going against the flow of traffic so they wouldn't be too bad. Another thing to consider is transportation: Yolobus is fairly easy to catch from downtown to either Woodland or Davis, so you could probably still get by without a car if that is your intent. Roseville is the hardest with public transit, if only because their transit system is so much more limited, but it's not impossible either.

My advice would be to take a commute job if you need the cash, but keep looking for something you can walk to. Things are a bit rough right now, job-wise, but they're out there. And once you get that job you can stroll to, you'll wonder why that 80% of commuters allows themselves to be abused in such a base fashion.

[mstruth]

Thank you so much for the info. I am going on an interview tomorrow, and will see what the drive is like.

[ElleBebe]

Davis is only 10-20 minutes from Downtown Sac with no traffic; during rush hour it can get a bit backed up on the causeway but even then it's not that bad. I don't know what commuting on I-5 is like Woodland-Sac. Between Davis and Sac, Amtrak is also an option, then you could bring a bike with you to get around Davis.

[cityx]

My office is out in the Arden area but I live in South Land Park. Mileage wise it's only about 13 miles but the "average commute time" is about 35 to 45 minutes - closer to 45 minutes now that school is in session.
In the mornings, the main traffic clogged artery for me is I-5 north from 43rd avenue to the 50 eastbound transition. Man, that transition is something else! Northbound and southbound I-5 transitioning into two hokey lanes on to busy hwy 50. That never made sense to me. In the afternoon, the Autopia Freeway (A.K.A Business 80) is perpetually clogged all the way into the 99. I was kind of hoping that all that work they are doing included adding another lane - but unfortunately, they're just putting up a concrete median. Well, at least it'll look a little more attractive. Very similar to the highly touted, yet somewhat misunderstood "fix I-5" project. Same big mess, it just looks a little nicer.

[ky4444]

Is there a website that calculates the average commutes from downtown Sac to the various areas/neighborhoods?

[CityGirl72]

Commute or regular drive time? Cuz Mapquest does it when you look up "Driving Directions"...then tack on time from there depending on the time of day you might hit traffic