Real commute time, please advise.... (Portland, Gresham: school, living in, costs)

[Discovery1]

Originally Posted by AmeliaPond

The whole "traffic is horrible" thing is SO subjective though. I mean, traffic is pretty horrendous here in DFW. Not just in the time it takes, but how terrifyingly aggressive most of the drivers are. I'd love to know how traffic compares between Portland and Dallas, but that kind of thing is hard to google, lol.

One thing to note is that most in Texas have service roads right along both side of the freeway so you do have some sort of maneuver choices to get around in traffic.
I5 from south of Portland all the way to Vancouver are worst compares to any in Dallas such 635, 75, I20, I30, I35.
Not many lanes, that's all.

[Nell Plotts]

SW Portland has excellent schools as well.

[Discovery1]

Originally Posted by Nell Plotts

SW Portland has excellent schools as well.

Yes Neil. NW and SW Portland are my most favorite part of town to live.

[elle2124]

Originally Posted by patches403

Is there some reason your child needs to go to this one particular school in Sellwood? The reason I ask is because the schools for the most part are better in the Beaverton area than they are in Portland and combined with the fact that you'll be working in Beaverton, I just don't see why you would even be looking at Sellwood or any Eastside neighborhood to live in. If you really want to be in the City of Portland, at least pick an area on the West side of the river. As others have said, the bridges and the West Hills are major bottlenecks and you will really start to hate your drive pretty quickly. Portland is one of those places where it's best to live as close to your work as possible and especially to live on the same side of the river as your work.

We found a Catholic School that we really like for our child, we've already reserved a space. It happens to be in Sellwood neighborhood, so we'd rather live close to his school. He's always attended Catholic school and that's a priority to us.

[eric351982]

I have driven one hour in traffic in LA and I drive about 50 minutes each way from Portland to Beaverton. The Portland to Beaverton commute is painful. In fact today I was asking myself how much longer I can do this. I get home tired and frustrated. The roads here are tiny and poorly designed. Picture five adults trying to walk through a doorway at once. Times that by 100 and you have the commute here. The hour commutes in LA had some flow to them. (Yes, I've done the 405 in LA from LAX to Irvine at 5 pm on a Friday) and it just feels more peaceful than here.

LA commutes are like pouring sand through a funnel. Portland commutes are like pouring chunky gravely mud through a funnel. My car is often stopped and I put the car in park.

FYI: it takes me 50 minutes for 13 miles. 10 of that is freeway.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by eric351982

I have driven one hour in traffic in LA and I drive about 50 minutes each way from Portland to Beaverton. The Portland to Beaverton commute is painful. In fact today I was asking myself how much longer I can do this. I get home tired and frustrated. The roads here are tiny and poorly designed. Picture five adults trying to walk through a doorway at once. Times that by 100 and you have the commute here. The hour commutes in LA had some flow to them. (Yes, I've done the 405 in LA from LAX to Irvine at 5 pm on a Friday) and it just feels more peaceful than here.

LA commutes are like pouring sand through a funnel. Portland commutes are like pouring chunky gravely mud through a funnel. My car is often stopped and I put the car in park.

FYI: it takes me 50 minutes for 13 miles. 10 of that is freeway.

That is the thing with the Portland metro, the area isn't designed in mind for people doing a cross metro commute. It is designed best for those that live near to where they work which in turn makes for shorter commutes.

Sounds like the OP is already committed to this. There's not really much to say at this point. The commute is going to be a hellish nightmare that routinely blows up into hour+ long insanity, but if the school is really that important, we're not going to convince the OP to reconsider.

The fact is lots of people make similar commutes every day. They give up hours of their lives every week to live where they want. The OP will just be another one of those people. I'm not entirely unsympathetic to their way of thinking. I choose to commute from Portland (west of the river) to Hillsboro because the thought of living in the suburbs makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Some days it's maddening but I do it anyway.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by JasonF

Sounds like the OP is already committed to this. There's not really much to say at this point. The commute is going to be a hellish nightmare that routinely blows up into hour+ long insanity, but if the school is really that important, we're not going to convince the OP to reconsider.

The fact is lots of people make similar commutes every day. They give up hours of their lives every week to live where they want. The OP will just be another one of those people. I'm not entirely unsympathetic to their way of thinking. I choose to commute from Portland (west of the river) to Hillsboro because the thought of living in the suburbs makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Some days it's maddening but I do it anyway.

I use to make the commute from downtown to far out in Hillsboro off 26 back in the day when I was dating this one girl, that was such an awful drive getting out there that I just wanted to do something out there by the time I got there. Needless to say it didn't last long.

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

I use to make the commute from downtown to far out in Hillsboro off 26 back in the day when I was dating this one girl, that was such an awful drive getting out there that I just wanted to do something out there by the time I got there. Needless to say it didn't last long.

I've been doing it for a couple years but fortunately work is right off 26.

It's usually not too terrible but even my commute occasionally turns into over an hour of crawling along.

I'd love to move to the east side but there's no way I'm going to add in having to crawl across a bridge. I know people who do that and despite living only a few miles from me, it can easily take them an extra 45 minutes to get home.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by JasonF

I've been doing it for a couple years but fortunately work is right off 26.

It's usually not too terrible but even my commute occasionally turns into over an hour of crawling along.

I'd love to move to the east side but there's no way I'm going to add in having to crawl across a bridge. I know people who do that and despite living only a few miles from me, it can easily take them an extra 45 minutes to get home.

Ouch, I can believe that, it is a shame all the tech boom seems go have happened on the westside rather than on the eastside where the terrain is more manageable, as well as access to Portland.