How long do you think this commute will be? (Phoenix: rental, house)

[Rick Lee]

My wife and I pulled the trigger today on renting a place near where Carefree Hwy. meets I-17. I think the neighborhood is called Taranto or something like that. The construction at that intersection of Carefree and I-17 is a concern, but it's probably temporary and we haven't figured out what kind of alt. route going east on Carefree would be. Anyway, my wife is close to landing a job near the Fashion Sq. Mall in Scottsdale. Assuming she gets it, what is her commute looking like? Under an hour?

[JoePAz]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

My wife and I pulled the trigger today on renting a place near where Carefree Hwy. meets I-17. I think the neighborhood is called Taranto or something like that. The construction at that intersection of Carefree and I-17 is a concern, but it's probably temporary and we haven't figured out what kind of alt. route going east on Carefree would be. Anyway, my wife is close to landing a job near the Fashion Sq. Mall in Scottsdale. Assuming she gets it, what is her commute looking like? Under an hour?

I live in Anthem just up the road. You are in Tramanto about 3 minutes south of me.

Fashion sq Mall is franly pretty far away. It can be 45 mintues no traffic or ALOT longer with traffic. What are her work times? If you go during the peak rush hour traffic will back up. BTW.. that construction is due to last another year at least.

For references I work just north of Sky Harbor airport. It takes me 45 minutes to get to work, but I leave at 5:30 to 5:45 am. No traffic is my reward for going in early. Plus early in means early out. Your greatest drawaback at normal working hours will be the back up on the 101. It will be bad. You can take carefree hwy east to scottsdale road and then cut south, but it will still take a long time.

[Rick Lee]

Yeah, Tramonto, that's right.

Hmmmm. I was thinking Carefree east to Scottsdale Rd. would be not too bad. I dunno. Our commute now is an hour door to door, no matter the time of day, no matter the day of week, even weekends. It's that bad here. My record is 26 min. on the motorcycle on a holiday. Otherwise it's so bad here, that I just can't imagine Phoenix can be worse.

[sablebaby]

I wouldn't do that commute. I live at Happy Valley - about 5 miles south of Carefree and I still wouldn't do it. I'd find a rental much closer to her work.

[Magnum Mike]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

My wife and I pulled the trigger today on renting a place near where Carefree Hwy. meets I-17. I think the neighborhood is called Taranto or something like that. The construction at that intersection of Carefree and I-17 is a concern, but it's probably temporary and we haven't figured out what kind of alt. route going east on Carefree would be. Anyway, my wife is close to landing a job near the Fashion Sq. Mall in Scottsdale. Assuming she gets it, what is her commute looking like? Under an hour?

Well you got 2 options 1) I-17 south to the 101, then 101 East, then South to Camelback, Scottsdale Fashion Square is just west of the 101 on Camelback. If you take this route, you can count on a one-hour commute in the morning, and a two-hour commute in the evening.

Second option is Carefree Highway to Cave Creek road, Cave Creek south to the 101, 101 East and South to Camelback. She might cut about 30 minutes from the evening commute.

Your best option is to live somewhere close to Scottsdale Fashion Square and avoid the commute hassles.

[hts]

Rick, whereabouts in DC are you? We live in Sterling (used to live in Alexandria, then Reston, now Cascades in Sterling) and we own property in Anthem (just north of Tramonto)!

[Rick Lee]

I live in Fairfax for a few more weeks anyway. I absolutely cannot stand the traffic here. Commuting to and from work I can deal with. It's the traffic on secondary roads at every other minute on every other day. Phoenix seemed like a breeze by comparison.

Magnum Mike, why is the evening commute so much worse? Here I think it's actually shorter than in the morning.

[Rick Lee]

I should add that my wife doesn't have any job in Phoenix yet. She's got a second phone interview tomorrow and the company is located in Scottsdale. No idea if she'd have flex-time or be able to telecommute. I will be based at home. It's just impossible to know where to live when we have to find a place before we know where wifey will work. So we picked Tramonto because it was a very nice place, a great price and near some other stuff we wanted. What else could we go on?

[MD2AZ]

Rick,

I live right across Carefree HWY from you and work near Camelback and 20th. I would avoid I-17 AT ALL COSTS. My commute using entirely surface streets is nearly always 40-45 min. and saves on miles vs. taking 17,101,51.

There are some variations to this which you'll learn but take 27th AVE or Norterra Pkwy South from Carefree hwy. Stay on this all the way down to Happy Valley. Turn LEFT at Happy Valley to the next light. Turn RIGHT onto 19th Avenue. Take this South and if you wish, you can get on the 101 East here and take highways the rest of the way in.

If the highways are totally screwed, read on. Continue down 19th Ave to Union Hills. Turn LEFT on Union Hills until 7th ST. Careful not to take 7th AVE. Turn RIGHT on 7th ST. Take this all the way south to Mountain View. LEFT on Mountain view, Right on 12th St.
Follow 12th st south. At any of the major cross streets, you can turn East to join the 51 South. If not, you can keep south on 12th. I personally ride 12th all the way down to Camelback then East a few blocks to my destination.

It sounds complicated but trust me, it is easy. most of these streets are in the classic grid pattern so you zig-zag South-East-South on most streets and do the same as I described above using alternate routes. I leave between 7:30A and 8:00A. It takes me 40-45 minutes, EVERY day. Very consistent. Back all this up with a route overview in Google maps or something and you'll see what I mean.

Yes, I agree with you on Tramonto. Very nice neighborhood, beautiful mountain backdrop with lots of new stores and such coming to the area. We moved here last June and rented a house and are now ready to buy. We have been scouring Tramonto and other nearby areas as well. We like this area very much. Ping me and I'll help out as much as I can. I went through lots of alternate routes before I settled on this one.

Aaron

[aj661]

If you have to use the metro freeways on weekends, this e-mail newsletter is worth subscribing to: Serving The Greater Phoenix Area

You'll get one or two e-mails a week that I consider garbage, but once weekly they send a list of freeway work and closures, along with a map showing the locations.