I-480 Commute plus Suburb Q's (Cleveland, Akron: apartments, low crime, houses)

[shotgun]

Hello - I've been browsing these forums to help with a coming relocation to the Cleveland area. Recently, I was in town doing some apartment hunting on both the West and the East sides to get a feel for the city. I am writing the forum hoping to get a better understanding of the commute on I-480 in the mornings. It seems like it's not a nice commute. But, my experience is that it depends on one's frame of reference. I have lived and commuted in Chicago and Milwaukee. I'm familiar with Minneapolis commutes, as well.

If one were to commute from, say, the airport (Hopkins) (or Berea / Brook Park) to south Beachwood, how long would that take, knowing that Google maps says it should be ~31 minutes? One person I met this weekend said that the commute on 480 headed west is worse than if one is headed east in the mornings. Is this true? Does that mean a Beachwood to downtown commute would be painful? I can say that at 10AM on Friday it was pretty easy...but that's not rush hour.

How is I-271 in rush hour? Northbound versus Southbound? I ask because I've looked at places in both Sagamore Hills and in Willoughby Hills.

Are there good traffic cams I can check out?

Finally, does anyone have any feelings towards Berea? Willoughby Hills? Sagamore Hills? Middleburg Heights? Brook Park? These are areas I've looked at but couldn't get much feel for...but I think I've got a good understanding of the Westlake / Rocky River, and the Beachwood / Mayfield / Shaker areas.

Thanks for any help!

[MABCle]

Hello and welcome to Cleveland.


In one word yes, the commute east from the West on 480 is worse because you have the sunlight right in everbody's faces so they slow down. Not to mention 480 is a big feeder road for commuters trying to get to 77 for work in Akron or Cleveland.

The commute from Beachwood to Downtown is bad due to lack of freeway access and a huge portion of people from the middle east side 'burbs all take the surface roads (chock full of red lights) to downtown. When its off peak its not too bad, but on peak it can be.

The portion of 271 that's the worst is south of 480 coming up from Akron because most of the folks coming from there eventually get on 480 to get to DT Cleveland and other employment centers.

When you get North of 271 it usually isn't that bad because the freeway is 10 lanes wide, but sometimes it can slow up due ot an accident or just volume, usually its a few exits that back things up like Cedar road and Mayfield road.

Check out http://www.wkyc.com/ and click on one of the interstate symbols and you should be able to see cams of the freeways.

Hope this helps.

[Pinipeanut]

Hi! Im not a morning person so I cant comment on rush hour, but I can help with the citites. Berea, Brookpark, and Middleburg Hts are all in the same area. I like them! Do you have kids? Berea schools have some sign on the school saying best test scores, so they are good! All 3 of them are very good cities. I would recommend all 3 of them, it is basically where ever you can find the best price of place to live. Willoughby Hts, I lived there for a year and had to come back to the West side. It is a very elderly town. EVERYTHING closes at 9, so if you get off work after 9 and are hungary, you are out of luck. Sagamore Hills, I havent been there in a while but last time I was there it was a developing city. They were still building houses and stores. I believe it is very pricey.

[shotgun]

Thanks for the responses!

My fiancee and I do not have kids and probably won't for some time, so the school system is not a worry right now, aside from the generally strong correlation between good schools and low crime, and vice versa. I'll be working downtown, and my fiancee's work is yet to be determined but she's mostly looked at jobs in the Mayfield Heights / Beachwood area. From the places we've looked at, we'll both have some commute...it's just a matter of whose commute is longer. Willoughby Hills / northeast side seems to be the best from a commute standpoint, but of course, apartments up there are either more expensive or not as nice as what we found elsewhere - especially in Berea and Beachwood (Westlake, also, but that commute would be a killer).

What hours of the day is the I-480 rush hour bad? And, by BAD, what does that mean? 30 minutes of delays? 5 minutes? To me, a slowdown to 30 miles an hour for a bit each day is not that big of a deal. Sitting on the freeway stopped for 30 minutes is.

[MABCle]

Cleveland RH is not bad compared to most cities. 480 and 77 slows down, but rarely completely stops, its more stop 'n go. some days you can drive @ 50 mph with a heavy volume of cars and not stop at all, sometimes you will stop, but rarely more than 5 minutes. Of note is that the intersection of 77 and 480 is undergoing major reconstruction, the bridge carrying I90 over the Cuyahoga river as well as the entire Cleveland innerbelt is currently being redesigned so in the future this will be a major hassle. Additionally the west shore way will go from a 50 mph freeway to a 35 mph bouleard I guess you should take all this in consideration especially if you at some point plan to buy a house. Do you all use mass transit? Cleveland has a fairly good system of buses, trains and soon Bus-rapid transit.

[shotgun]

Well, we use mass transit in chicago, dc, nyc and boston. Aside from that, rarely.

Thanks for the reply. Looks like it's berea or beachwood.