Lincoln City to McMinnville commute (Seaside, Reedsport: homes, buy, casino)

[emmab8528]

I want to live on the coast, but cannot get a job there. Would it be feasible to commute from Lincoln City to McMinnville?
I would be leaving McMinnville by 7:30am.
I would be needing to arrive at McMinnville by 6:30pm.
It is hard to make decisions without knowing what the traffic flow is like, what the directionality of traffic is and if the roads are even passable all the time.
Also, if there is another town/area on or near the coast where a commute would be a little easier, please let me know.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

[Silverfall]

That sounds like a graveyard shift job? There are a lot of landslides in the coastal range in the winter time. Between logging trucks, farming tractors, casino traffic, and weather, I don't see it as a realistic commute, but you'd have to drive it on a regular basis to see what your tolerance for that commute is. It would take about an hour without any traffic or issues.

A commute won't be easy to any coastal cities because of the Coastal Range. The Oregon coast is cut off from the rest of the state by the Coastal Range. So you are either on the coast or about an hour away.

[bler144]

Unlike, say, the metro, there won't be a standard "traffic flow." As Silverfall mentions, the big concerns are trucks (and R/Vs or trailers, Sunday drivers, etc.), slides, and especially weather crossing over the coastal range. All of these are intermittent rather than constant or predictable.

In the winter in particular I'm not sure it's worth the risk.

Also, even while gas prices are low right now, you're likely to guzzle gas going up and over the range each way (10x a week) far beyond what the pure mileage would indicate.

[patches403]

Definitely do not recommend having to drive that route every day in either direction. It will take a lot longer than the actual miles indicate. The weather in the winter will frequently be bad with rain and often ice/snow. The weather in the summer is mostly dry, but then you'll be stuck behind big trucks and RVs the entire way. The elevation change is something like 2,000 or 3,000 feet so you'll burn a lot of gas.

Would recommend instead you live on the West side of McMinnville and just drive over to the coast on the weekend when you feel like seeing the beach. The weather year-round will also be a lot better in McMinnville than at the beach. The coast has a low permanent resident population because (1) few jobs (2) the weather is not very nice most of the time.

[wanderbygrace]

Also, if there is an accident anywhere on that route that restricts travel on the road, I can only imagine what the detour would be like. Yowzers!

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I've got a better suggestion. Get your job in McMinville and live in McMinville.. Buy yourself a cheap little place on the coast and spend your weekends there. Anything you want to do on the coast, you need daylight for. Why do all that driving to spend your dark sleeping hours there?

I just bought an inexpensive place on the coast, so I know for a fact they are all over the place.

There is a little subdivision called Willards that is all adorable park homes with fancy enclosed porches. You own the land and your association feeds are $100 a month and that includes your trash pick up, water, and electricity. That's right, electricity is included in the fee. There is locked RV storage.

I talked to the caretaker and learned that high speed internet was going in and that was going to be included at no increase in the fee. I didn't buy there because they have a 2 dog maximum and I own 3 dogs. But the places are adorable, comfortable, and the park is well maintained. Prices run about $70,000 for the newer units. My agent thought I could get a nice one for $60,000.

I looked at a couple nice places in Seaside for $60,000. I bought in Yachats for $65,000. Reedsport has great frame built cottages in good condition for that price, but that is a bit far from McMinville.

[scottinpdx]

Originally Posted by wanderbygrace

Also, if there is an accident anywhere on that route that restricts travel on the road, I can only imagine what the detour would be like. Yowzers!

I commute McMinnville to Grande Ronde and traffic can be hard to judge. From grande Ronde To Lincoln City is where the problems usually happen. (Accidents, Trees falling in the Road, Etc...)

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by wanderbygrace

Also, if there is an accident anywhere on that route that restricts travel on the road, I can only imagine what the detour would be like. Yowzers!

Using Google Maps it looks like the detour route could be as much as 2.5 hours. Either US-20 to the South or Highway 6 to the north. Some national forest roads could be a potential shorter detour route, but even those would be over two hours.

[patches403]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

Using Google Maps it looks like the detour route could be as much as 2.5 hours. Either US-20 to the South or Highway 6 to the north. Some national forest roads could be a potential shorter detour route, but even those would be over two hours.

That's one of the problems with being required to make that drive on a daily basis. Usually at least once a winter, there will be a landslide on one of the roads across the coast range and it will close the road for anywhere from a few hours to a few days. Having to take the next road north or south across the coast range will add at least 2 - 3 hours to an already long drive.

In the summer some of the forest service roads might be okay, in the winter many of them are likely impassable. People have died in the past after getting stuck when trying to use the forest service roads as a route across the coast range in the winter.