Morning Traffic Patterns? (Mesa, Scottsdale, Gilbert: buying, school, quality of life)

[teeej]

I will be teleworking half time and need to commute to both near Indian School & Central, as well as Southern & Gilbert in Mesa. If I live in Mesa, I can buy an actual house, which is kind of cool.


Will I hate the commute going to Midtown from Mesa to get there at 7 AM? Looks like it could be 60 to 10 to 51 (18 miles), or 101 to 202 to 51 (20 miles)....

[DetroitN8V]

It will suck but it won’t be a total quality of life killer if you’re only doing it periodically. You’re sort of stuck with a nasty commute one way or the other given your work locations.

[madison999]

It depends on your temperament and what you're conditioned to accept.

I would lose my mind with that drive. I work second shift, partly because I refuse to drive between about 6-9 am and 3:30-6:30 pm.

I just wont do it. It's a quality of life thing to me. But then, I spent my first 18 years in an entire county that still doesn't have one single stop light.

[teeej]

Originally Posted by madison999

It depends on your temperament and what you're conditioned to accept.

I would lose my mind with that drive. I work second shift, partly because I refuse to drive between about 6-9 am and 3:30-6:30 pm.

I just wont do it. It's a quality of life thing to me. But then, I spent my first 18 years in an entire county that still doesn't have one single stop light.

I used to drive from S. Scottsdale (Hayden & Roosevelt) to Midtown before the pandemic, it was probably 30 min on streets, red lights are always annoying, but so is stop and go on the freeway. Obviously i'd rather have a short commute, but I don't know if it's better to live in the middle or close to one. it seems like the choice is having two meh commutes by living halfway or having one ugh commute less frequently but an awesome commute the rest of the time.

During the pandemic when I could drive from Scottsdale to midtown in the middle of the day, I just took the freeway and it was a breeze.

I would guess that being closer to midtown or Scottsdale would be a much more fun place to live, but $$$ goes a lot further in Mesa and not having to share walls is pretty fun to think about. So tricky!

[grmi66]

My wife's office is at Central and Indian School as well and before Covid would commute to the office twice a month. Her secret was to suck it up and get to the office by 6:30 AM and then sneak out of the office at 2:30 to get back on the freeway via the HOV onramp on Third Street just before the HOV restrictions take effect at 3 PM. Generally has a 10-15 minute window on the HOV lane to get through a lot of the nastier traffic.

[DetroitN8V]

Buying a Tesla would be a good thing to consider to lessen the burden.

[teeej]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

Buying a Tesla would be a good thing to consider to lessen the burden.

I don't see why having an electric vehicle could ever improve the desirability of a commute.

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by teeej

I don't see why having an electric vehicle could ever improve the desirability of a commute.

HOV lane access, no worry about gas prices, autopilot.

[teeej]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

HOV lane access, no worry about gas prices, autopilot.

The extra cost of that vehicle dwarfs any thought about gas.

[DetroitN8V]

Originally Posted by teeej

The extra cost of that vehicle dwarfs any thought about gas.

I was more so talking about easing the commute (per the topic of this thread), but there is also a financial ROI to be had at some point. If you currently drive a Honda Civic or something like that, it will certainly be longer than if you're currently driving an Escalade.