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My family is moving from Barrington, IL. Barrington is a small town in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago with excellent schools, great extracurricular programs and lots of family activities. One spouse will work near Penn's Landing and another in Conshohoken. What communities in NJ would provide the best commute for both parents? What communities in NJ will provide us with the small town life, great schools and excellent park districts? All of our kids are in elementary school; we want a neighborhood school within walking distance. All of our kids are on the chess team and the swim team and the tennis team the NASTAR team. All of our kids are boys so we need a back yard. We are active in the community but we are not social climbers. We are readers and talkers and doers. (We do not own a TV) We would rather spend money on travel than on material possessions. Husband is a former Airborne Ranger; now an artist. Wife is a former model; now a linguist. We can be shy but we are not snobs. We attended private schools but want our children to attend public school. We want to spend 300k to 500k on a house but we are not house proud. Any assistance would be appreciated.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by eastsiders
My family is moving from Barrington, IL. Barrington is a small town in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago with excellent schools, great extracurricular programs and lots of family activities. One spouse will work near Penn's Landing and another in Conshohoken. What communities in NJ would provide the best commute for both parents? What communities in NJ will provide us with the small town life, great schools and excellent park districts? All of our kids are in elementary school; we want a neighborhood school within walking distance. All of our kids are on the chess team and the swim team and the tennis team the NASTAR team. All of our kids are boys so we need a back yard. We are active in the community but we are not social climbers. We are readers and talkers and doers. (We do not own a TV) We would rather spend money on travel than on material possessions. Husband is a former Airborne Ranger; now an artist. Wife is a former model; now a linguist. We can be shy but we are not snobs. We attended private schools but want our children to attend public school. We want to spend 300k to 500k on a house but we are not house proud. Any assistance would be appreciated.
Look at Haddonfield, Moorestown, & Cherry Hill, in that order.
The commute from NJ to Conshohocken would likely be around 45 minutes on a good day (and I can't say that there are many of those unless you leave super early). I-76 backs up around the Conshohocken curb almost daily during rush hour. That stretch of I-76 can really be nightmarish.
Are you committed to NJ? There are excellent schools and neighborhoods on the PA side that could offer a decent commute for both of you. For instance neighborhoods in the Mainline (Bala Cynwyd, Merion Station, Wynnewood) have some of the best schools in the country and the neighborhoods are among the nicest in the Phila suburbs. The commute from these neighborhoods might be more equidistant for both of you (20-25 minutes). Havertown PA is also a nice neighborhood, with good schools that would provide a fairly equidistant commute to either Conshy or Penns Landing. (Havertown borders the main line).
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by templeu
The commute from NJ to Conshohocken would likely be around 45 minutes on a good day (and I can't say that there are many of those unless you leave super early). I-76 backs up around the Conshohocken curb almost daily during rush hour. That stretch of I-76 can really be nightmarish.
Are you committed to NJ? There are excellent schools and neighborhoods on the PA side that could offer a decent commute for both of you. For instance neighborhoods in the Mainline (Bala Cynwyd, Merion Station, Wynnewood) have some of the best schools in the country and the neighborhoods are among the nicest in the Phila suburbs. The commute from these neighborhoods might be more equidistant for both of you (20-25 minutes). Havertown PA is also a nice neighborhood, with good schools that would provide a fairly equidistant commute to either Conshy or Penns Landing. (Havertown borders the main line).
The person going to Penns Landing would be stuck in hellish traffic, 99% of the time. I know. I worked at 'CAU & 'PHL for many years & sometimes got stuck on overnights. Traffic going the other way is nothing in comparison.
I lived in Broomall (right next to Havertown) and drove to Temple, my Husband to Camden ...which would be past Penns Landing, and the traffic flowed, typically not too stressful. We moved to Chesnut Hill and my hubby had to commute from Camden home to Chestnut Hill (using 76, though he exited prior to Conshy) and it was stressful every day, and traffic was awful. We did these commutes just in the last year/ year and half. Personally, I just have to disagree with your assessment.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by templeu
I lived in Broomall (right next to Havertown) and drove to Temple, my Husband to Camden ...which would be past Penns Landing, and the traffic flowed, typically not too stressful. We moved to Chesnut Hill and my hubby had to commute from Camden home to Chestnut Hill (using 76, though he exited prior to Conshy) and it was stressful every day, and traffic was awful. We did these commutes just in the last year/ year and half. Personally, I just have to disagree with your assessment.
You're forgetting that from Haddonfield to Conshy, it's a reverse commute on the Pennsy side, both ways. In the evening, while people pour out, which your husband was stuck in, far fewer were on the other side of the Sure-kill, going towards Center City. Feel free to disagree all you want, however, I did the South Jersey to City Line area & back commute, at all times of the day & night for many years. I am not wrong.
Last edited by southbound_295; 06-26-2010 at 11:51 AM..
Reason: typo
We'll have to agree to disagree. I just didn't find the traffic from Broomall to N. Phila to be that bad. I-95 N was usually a fairly easy commute.
It certainly won't hurt the OP to look at the areas I mentioned if they are open to the PA side of things. Mileage-wise they would be looking at about a 10ish mile commute to either destination from, say Havertown. However a Haddonfield to Conshy commute would be 25 miles (while the Haddonfield to Penn Landing would be about 10 miles - and I agree, fairly easy).
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,688,469 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by templeu
We'll have to agree to disagree. I just didn't find the traffic from Broomall to N. Phila to be that bad. I-95 N was usually a fairly easy commute.
It certainly won't hurt the OP to look at the areas I mentioned if they are open to the PA side of things. Mileage-wise they would be looking at about a 10ish mile commute to either destination from, say Havertown. However a Haddonfield to Conshy commute would be 25 miles (while the Haddonfield to Penn Landing would be about 10 miles - and I agree, fairly easy).
But neither of them would be driving to North Philly. The one commuting to Penns Landing would be on the Sure-kill in commuter hell. The same commuter hell that your husband drove to & from Camden, that you described. I drove that route in traffic & against traffic, depending on my schedule. Driving against the traffic is a breeze, unless there's an accident or road construction. From South Jersey, they are both in commuter traffic. The one going to Penn's landing get into cross town traffic after crossing the bridge. The other stays in commuter traffic on the Vine Street Expressway to 21st St, then gets on the merge onto 76, against traffic. It reverses coming home.
The only way it gets better is if they buy in Society Hill or Queen Village. Then one person walks to work & the other drives down to the expressway, again, against traffic. But, with Society Hill or Queen Village, they both pay City Wage tax.
If they both worked west of town, or if one went to North Philly & the other went west, your suggestion would be best.
There is no reverse commute on the Schuylkill anymore since a ton of people work in the Business Parks of King of Prussia, Malvern, Conshy, etc. Plan on AT LEAST an hour from NJ to Conshohocken each day with some days being much worse (i.e. Fridays).
That's a very tough commute to split. You almost need to pick which one of you is best to deal with the bad commute and base your decision from there.
Penn's Landing is easy from NJ, I made it to 9th and Sansom from Moorestown on a daily basis in 25 minutes by going up 38 and crossing at Ben Franklin. It was just as easy coming home. I also used to commute to Paoli from Collingswood and it was generally an hour and 15 minutes up the sure-kill, same thing coming back. Conshohocken is probably only about 20 minutes less than that and the traffic is heavy both ways.
Conshohocken will be much easier from the PA side, especially if you stay in that area and there are many great towns to choose from out there. However, the person going into Penn's Landing will be dealing with the hour plus commute.
Your decision really comes down to deciding who wants to eat the commute and then finding the best community in that area. The only place I can think of that really could split the commute time evenly would be something NE of the city where one person is taking 276 (PA Turnpike) to Conshohocken and the other is taking 95 south into the city. Of course, it just really screws both of you, which doesn't help anyone.
If I had to make this choice I think I would have to lean towards making the commute easier for whoever is the lead person on taking care of the kids. Make it so that they are more local and can get home easier. Also, if one of you has the ability to work outside traditional business hours, the commute can be a non-issue. The hour from NJ to Conshohocken during the rush becomes a 30 minute drive off-peak.
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