relocating to jacksonville, need commute info to determine an area to settle (Mayo: rental)

[engineer104]

relocating to jacksonville in feb 2009. would like to rent a place at one of the beach communities before i decide to buy. how long of a commute to nas jax am and pm? my wife is a catscan (xray tech) what would be the best hospital to look for employment? any recommendations greatly appreciated.

[riveree]

Long!

I don't make that commute personally, but my guess would be 45 minutes-1 hour each way. You're going clear across the entire county and you'll have to use the Buckman Bridge which just about everyone has to use if they want to cross the river...lots of commuter griping centers around the Buckman Bridge.

Your wife on the other hand might have an easier time of it. There are plenty of good hospitals to chose from that are east of the river so she won't have to travel far. She can look into names like Memorial, Baptist, Mayo...

[projectmaximus]

try to transfer to NAS Mayport if you want to live at the beach. It's just like Riv said.

[Joe 4520832257]

Ouch. That's a bad potential commute.

You're looking at 30 miles each way. Once you factor in traffic on JTB and 295 ... honestly, I think an hour might be optimistic in the middle of rush hour.

Overall, traffic in Jax isn't all that bad, but just by coincidence that trip would take you through several of the bad spots regardless of which route you choose. JTB has bad rush hour traffic. JTB at 95 can be a disaster. 95 South to 295 can get slow. And the 295 exit at NAS can be backed up too.

[palmtree7]

Your looking at least an hour each way thru some ugly areas

[engineer104]

thanks for the responses. My work schedule will be report at 0700 and get off usually around 3:30 to 4:30 are those times still very busy?

[Joe 4520832257]

Yeah, those times are still going to be somewhat busy. Not like rush hour, but not pleasant either.

It's just that it's a 30 mile drive through some populated suburbs. I'd bet your absolute best-case scenario would be 45 minutes on a good day.

[mawipafl]

If you can give up living by the beach there are many nice areas on the same side of the St Johns River as NAS so that you could avoid the Buckman Bridge. Although most of the hospitals and medical facilities are concentrated on the other side of the river, there are some facilities on the NAS side.

However, since you plan to rent before you buy, you can experiment with living near the beach and with the commute. You didn't mention if your rental would be short-term or a year's lease type of thing or a month-to-month. Maybe you personally wouldn't be bothered by the commute or maybe it would get old fast. You could then start looking at other parts of our area, doing lots of driving around to get the feel.

To give perspective .... we live about 10 miles south of NAS, and during non-rush hour traffic I can be at the beach in about 40 minutes or less, but if we travel during commuting hours (about 4pm to 6:30pm with the worst, IMHO, between 5:30 and 6:30), the trip to the beach can take between an hour and an hour and a half. Most of the congestion is a moving crawl, but there are a couple of dead-stop pockets here and there (such as where I-95 and 9A/295 converge and at the exits off I-295 to Hwy 17 (where NAS is) and Blanding Blvd.)