Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think west Windsor or plainsboro is good option with excellent school, diversity and less than 90 min of commute
Which train stop? If you mean via Princeton Junction, that's at least 50 minutes not accounting for time to get to the park and ride and time from PENN to midtown east.
And the occasional drive to NYC, Queens, Long Island are all well over an hour.
Here is our short list. The first number is the NJ Monthly 2012 school ranking. With the requirement of commuting by train and avoiding bus (or by car - long drive), the second is the approximate shortest train time to PENN station, accounting for any transfers (Embark NJ is a good smartphone app for this):
4 Glen Rock 36 min
20 Ridgewood 40 min
8 Millburn 35 min
15 Summit 41 min*
47 SO/Maplewood 31 min
104 (was 27 in 2010) River Edge/Oradell 36 min
12 Glen Ridge 34 min
Welcoming your thoughts.
All those times are way off. Embark is not good for anything involving a connection.
The fastest Ridgewood train is supposed to make it in 45 minutes( rarely does it actually accomplish this feat with transferring at secaucus)
Here are the actual train times you will be facing from Bergen County
Ridgewood: 55 Minutes
Glen Rock: 50 Minutes
When you factor in parking at the station (which at both of those towns is an additional 5 minutes you are at about an hour from arriving at the station to getting into Penn. Door to desk from Ridgewood or Glen Rock to midtown east is 1.25-1.5 hours everyday all day. Unless you happen to live across the street from the train station.
All those times are way off. Embark is not good for anything involving a connection.
The fastest Ridgewood train is supposed to make it in 45 minutes( rarely does it actually accomplish this feat with transferring at secaucus)
Here are the actual train times you will be facing from Bergen County
Ridgewood: 55 Minutes
Glen Rock: 50 Minutes
When you factor in parking at the station (which at both of those towns is an additional 5 minutes you are at about an hour from arriving at the station to getting into Penn. Door to desk from Ridgewood or Glen Rock to midtown east is 1.25-1.5 hours everyday all day. Unless you happen to live across the street from the train station.
Have to start somewhere and perhaps it is starting with the shortest train rides via any measure - which means GR, RW, maybe Millburn / Glen Ridge.
Have to start somewhere and perhaps it is starting with the shortest train rides via any measure - which means GR, RW, maybe Millburn / Glen Ridge.
The absolute shortest time from Ridgewood is 45 minutes. The shortest from Glen Rock is 41, I can tell you from 4 years of taking that train that you will hardly ever make it in those times even on those 2 trains that claim to make and more likely your train time wil be around 50 minutes to 1 hr. Reality is the best place to start when factoring commute time.
It's absolutely crazy in my mind how people can do 3 hour round trip daily commutes. That's 17% of your life gone assuming 17hr awake time.
To the OP, i would suggest fort lee, good school and the commute to the city will be much easier. Only thing it wont have is white fences and big back yards, as it's more urban.
The absolute shortest time from Ridgewood is 45 minutes. The shortest from Glen Rock is 41, I can tell you from 4 years of taking that train that you will hardly ever make it in those times even on those 2 trains that claim to make and more likely your train time wil be around 50 minutes to 1 hr. Reality is the best place to start when factoring commute time.
But the key to OP was stated goal of keeping total commute under 90 minutes. If they can leave home 10 minutes before train, have a 50 minute ride and take 20 minutes from Penn to desk, they've met the goal.
I agree they need to add some cushion to times from Embark, but those times are a good starting place rather than trying to poll everyone on the "real" time from every station.
The absolute shortest time from Ridgewood is 45 minutes. The shortest from Glen Rock is 41, I can tell you from 4 years of taking that train that you will hardly ever make it in those times even on those 2 trains that claim to make and more likely your train time wil be around 50 minutes to 1 hr. Reality is the best place to start when factoring commute time.
Understood, but if the time to GR is 35 minutes on one site, and 45 on another, and 50 in reality, my basis for a starting point is to use the shortest of any of these measures to pick a town (not to assess the commute time which does vary).
So let's just place them in order of shortest commutes irrespective of times, together with school rank, and that still begets a top 5 list as a basis.
Knowing full well that if one desires a top 20 school, that realistically it will fluctuate between less than 1.5 on good days and perhaps more on bad days, one needs to look at the average.
Lastly, the point of the exercise is to produce a list that certainly eliminates towns with train commutes that puts the commute to over 1.5 (whose trains are probably over 60 minutes to start)[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]
It's absolutely crazy in my mind how people can do 3 hour round trip daily commutes. That's 17% of your life gone assuming 17hr awake time.
To the OP, i would suggest fort lee, good school and the commute to the city will be much easier. Only thing it wont have is white fences and big back yards, as it's more urban.
Hi - appreciated.
Fort Lee (ranked 97 in 2012, 72 in 2010) was eliminate in the same context as Tenafly (actually top 3 school ranking), the context being it would be a bus or a drive, which we wanted to avoid (we have explicit evidence of folks that moved to Tenafly and can't stand the bus, so they drive to the ferry and their total trip is unpredictable but at times does take 1.5 regardless!.)
[SIZE=3] [/SIZE]
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
