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.
Greetings from yet another potential newcomer to the area. We're relocating to Raleigh, NC and my new job is near the 440 / 64 (264?) intersection. I would prefer to have a shorter commute, but it seems that the schools in the close vicinity to the office are not good.
Not sure how the Greatschools ratings are accurate (in MD they mostly are), but it seems that the best rated schools are mostly in Apex/Garry area.
Google shows that it's 24 min. drive time, but I'm wondering what the actual commute time along 40 might look like during the rush hour. And if it's really bad, could you suggest another community with a better commute but with decent schools?
Google shows that it's 24 min. drive time, but I'm wondering what the actual commute time along 40 might look like during the rush hour. And if it's really bad, could you suggest another community with a better commute but with decent schools?
Yes, I'm willing to bet that the schools in southeast Raleigh are not the best in the area.
My wife travels east for her daily commute and it's not bad because you are going against the flow of traffic. She gets on 440 at the Gorman exit and travels counterclockwise on 440 to the Brentwood exit. Most people are heading west to Raleigh and RTP.
There are some average schools (not great, but average for Wake county standards) if you start heading west towards Cary and Apex. Not sure if you are interested in elementary, middle, or high schools. My son goes to Yates Mill elementary. There is also Swift Creek elementary nearby.
I live in the vicinity you are talking about. Yes, you'd be moving counter to traffic flow so commute will be approx as quoted. If you drive from Cary, it really depends on which main roads you'll travel as some are very busy. And, I-40 coming from Cary, past Poole Rd to 64 exits can sometimes get backed up.
As for the schools here - it depends on which ones you are talking about and what your child's needs are. My daughter attended Hodge Rd Elementary and loved it. The school is well run, clean, with caring teachers & principal, the kids are good, no issues. My daughter did very well academically there.
Our yr round middle school option is Heritage WF - an excellent school. If you live in Knightdale from Hodge Rd on into town, the MS is East Wake and also Wendell. Wendell is brand new and has an excellent reputation! My daughter's friend attends there and loves it! The principal is very fair and firm. No issues at the school.
I would never recommend Carnage Magnet MS as I've heard from parents who yanked their children out of there due to behavior issues from problem kids. I know some parents are happy there and I'm sure the teachers are good, it's just that they seem to have more than their fair share of problem kids.
HS's are East Wake, Knightdale, Wake Early College and Enloe Magnet. As I am 1 mile from Knightdale I am assigned to Knightdale HS but can apply to Enloe as our district magnet. However, as with all schools in Wake Co, we are awaiting the new zone plan and things could change. Although the only change I anticipate here is that they will remove the children who are brought in from SE Raleigh proper and house them at SE HS and others. Our area is true East Raleigh but the Northern end.
Our current school nodes pull from East Raleigh, , NE & SE Raleigh and parts of Knightdale and the county. Knightdale HS has a mix of students. Many from good families who are middle class and med and hi income. There is also a % from lower income. The racial make-up of this area is white, black and hispanic. Parents from Knightdale HS have formed an action group, the Knightdale 100, to advocate for their school. Current board members have met with them and committed to providing more resources and maybe even programs(?).
never mind good schools - go to www.wcpss.net and look at the schools' scores. Compare them to others in Raleigh. I think Knightdale's scores are higher than Sanderson HS which is inside the beltline of Raleigh. The scores for Apex and Cary schools are consistently good. As are those of Wake Forest. If you lived in Wake Forest you could skip Capital blvd and come to East Raleigh/knightdale on 401/Rolesville Rd and then jump onto 540 and 64. Or even take Forestville Rd to 540 and 64.
PS - the school stats I was referrring to are AYP and my comparison of Sanderson to Knightdale was wrong, they are similar with respect to AYP scores.
Last edited by RaleighLass; 09-13-2010 at 12:37 PM..
Reason: PS
Greetings from yet another potential newcomer to the area. We're relocating to Raleigh, NC and my new job is near the 440 / 64 (264?) intersection. I would prefer to have a shorter commute, but it seems that the schools in the close vicinity to the office are not good.
Not sure how the Greatschools ratings are accurate (in MD they mostly are), but it seems that the best rated schools are mostly in Apex/Garry area.
Google shows that it's 24 min. drive time, but I'm wondering what the actual commute time along 40 might look like during the rush hour. And if it's really bad, could you suggest another community with a better commute but with decent schools?
Thank you.
90% of the time, traffic in Raleigh is not that bad. The only people who think it is bad are typically from here, and are comparing it to how things were 20 years ago, or from another area that has grown exponentially.
If you are from any big metropolis, this will likely be a non-issue.
My findings are that traffic does indeed slow down, but a 24 minute commute would be considered a bad day if it was extended by 5-10 minutes. (It seems like traffic, but if you look at the clock, things usually move around here.). Then maybe once a month, there will be a real issue that slows things down more, and maybe 2x per year, your commute will last more than an hour.
I commute 37 miles from the country, strait into RTP. It takes me 41-45 minutes in the AM, and 45-50 minutes going home at 4:30. If I wait until 5 or 530 to leave, it seems really bad, but on the clock it is usually only 50-55 minutes at the later time. In 10 years, I don't think my commute has gone over 1 hour more than 3-4 times...
Thank you, everyone, for a reply and especially RaleighLass for an excellent analysis. And, of course, I meant Cary - thanks for noticing.
On a recent trip to Raleigh, when returning to airport, I've noticed a very heavy traffic (comparable to Baltimore Washington Parking Lot, err, Parkway) going into city and was told that those are commuters from RTP returning to Raleigh. Happy to hear that I would be going "against the flow".
Regarding schools - my son is actually only 1.5 years old, but for the property values and resale I think the high schools matter the most. At least in MD the homes in good schools districts are selling like hotcakes for good money while comparable homes with school ratings <5 are sitting on the market forever. And there is usually a direct correlation between the crime rates and school scores. This assumption might be wrong about Raleigh, but it's all I know.
I'm not familiar with the "magnet school" concept though - what is it exactly?
The traffic backup you saw on I-40 will be helped a LOT when construction is finished on adding a lane in each direction in a two mile bottleneck from US-1 to the Wade Avenue extension.
3 lanes dumps to two lanes in each direction. Widening the two lane area will help drive time traffic.
Additionally, before your student hits High School, it is likely that 540 will be built from US 64/264 in East Wake County, around the southern arc, and help with traffic volume on I-40.
All in all, driving east in the morning from Cary to New Bern Ave, and returning West in the evening is a pretty good commute.
I recently moved from the Raleigh area to MD, and I can tell you that in Raleigh the relationship between schools and property values is *nothing* like it is in Maryland. I was shocked at the dramatic differences in MD. In general, the Wake County School System policy of balancing F&R (what they call FARM in MD) ratios in schools has led to more balanced home prices across the county. However, Wake County may be going in the MD direction as the new school board wants to have "community" schools. For more on the school board that search for other threads, otherwise this one will get derailed.
I know people who work in the area you are talking about, and they live near Creedmoor and 440 or near Six Forks and 440. If you aren't averse to older homes, there are some great areas in Brookhaven, North Hills, Oak Park and the neighboring areas.
On a recent trip to Raleigh, when returning to airport, I've noticed a very heavy traffic (comparable to Baltimore Washington Parking Lot, err, Parkway) going into city and was told that those are commuters from RTP returning to Raleigh. Happy to hear that I would be going "against the flow".
To my earlier point, these back-ups are pretty common, but note that this stretch from the airport (exit 285) to US1/64 (exit 293) is only 8 miles. While it is stop and go, my experience at afternoon rush hour (between 530-630) is that it usually moves at an average of 20-30 mph. That is almost stopped at some points, and then 40 at another point. But even at 20 mph, an 8 mile stretch would only take 24 minutes. On a empty freeway, it would take 8. In the worst time of day, you are only adding 16 minutes to the commute, whereas in the DC/Baltimore area, the traffic looks the same, but could go on for 50 miles (litterally).
Also, as Mike pointed out, there is construction in the area you saw now, which will be completed relatively soon. Completion of I540, the Triangle Parkway and a few other roads over the next several years will also help to alleviate the problem.
Traffic is not bad here by "big city" standards.
(BTW: In my original post, I did not mean to come accross as an outsider looking down on NC traffic. I've lived in NC for all but 6 months of the last 33 years. I've been in the RDU area since 1993 and seen a lot of growth. All in all, it's a great place to live.)
On a recent trip to Raleigh, when returning to airport, I've noticed a very heavy traffic (comparable to Baltimore Washington Parking Lot, err, Parkway) going into city and was told that those are commuters from RTP returning to Raleigh. Happy to hear that I would be going "against the flow".
Yeah, unfortunately I would be one of those poor *******s returning from RTP to Raleigh every afternoon. I try to leave my office by 4:30 every day to miss this traffic, but as someone said. . . . it's only 10-11 miles (from I540 to the Jones Franklin Rd bridge on I40) and most of this will be "fixed" when the 3rd lane opened this spring.
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.
- thanks for noticing.
