Do you live inside a beltway? (new house, schools, to live in)
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Do you live inside a beltway (circular highway/freeway)? If so, can you hear the traffic noise from the beltway itself?
In your metro area, is it generally more desirable to live inside the beltway or outside of it?
Half-beltways also count (i.e. I-495 around Boston), since its impossible to have a full beltway around a coastal city.
I live inside the I-295 beltway of Jacksonville, FL. I can occasionally hear the highway noise even though it's about 1.6 miles away from me, especially during rush hours. I can even hear it when I'm inside the house.
Seattle's beltway would be I-405. I live around 9 miles from it at its closest point, so no I can't hear the noise from it. At night, I can sometimes hear the noise from I-5 which is much closer to me.
Hard to say which side of I-405 is considered to be more desirable. If you don't like cities at least, the outside is more desirable. It's more about the direction here: east is considered the best, south the worst, both inside and outside I-405.
The east sides of cities have historically been the more desirable sides, even when there are other factors, because wind most commonly carries pollution (and smells) from east to west. It's far less common for any place in the US to have pollution bad enough for this to matter anymore (inversions aside) but in the past this was a much bigger deal.
I live inside of E-470 and no, its nowhere near me. In Houston I lived outside of I-610 but inside of the Beltway and no, couldn't hear either. I would imagine most people will say no as most people here don't live within walking distance of one.
Also, its more desirable to live inside of it unless you live in the foothills or mountains.
Tyson’s/Reston and all out there are desirable suburbs. Potomac MD is nice.
If you value great schools, land, larger new houses, etc. it is probably more desirable outside of the beltway. If you’re looking for more urban, then inside the beltway is probably more desirable.
We lived for years right next to I-96 in the Metro Detroit area and no, it wasn't particularly noisy. The only time we heard any noise from the highway was when there was a police siren, ambulance siren, or so on. We did get woke up one night when there was a crash between two semi trucks very near our house on the highway but that was about it.
It was funny because when we moved from there it was hard to sleep the first few nights in the new location since we missed the sounds of the traffic driving by all night
I live inside the Beltway. I would say it's generally more desirable to live within the Beltway. The most prestigious areas are inside the Beltway and many of the less attractive are outside. Not to say it's an all or nothing proposition as there are both awful areas inside the Beltway (obviously) and some phenomenally wealthy areas outside such as Great Falls or Potomac.
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