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Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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LimeSoda,
Where are you moving from? I always find it helpful to use your home city as a comparison. So many of us are from different places, that it's likely one of us is familiar with where you live now to help compare.
Poppydog, Carrboro and Chapel Hill sound like they would be a good fit for us. Maybe my husband can write relocating the office west of Raleigh into his counter-offer!
Michgc, we currently live in Indiana and are very much wanting to experience a different region of the country.
If we didn't have kids, we'd jump on the opportunity without hesitation. However, we don't want to move them often during their childhood, so we want to make sure we are very comfortable with our decision. (Yes, I realize many kids move frequently and do perfectly fine. It is just not what we want to do. ) I really, really want to make this work. Thank you to everybody for your input.
We had suspected that Raleigh may not be the best place for getting around by bicycle. The greenways sound great for recreational riding but perhaps not so much to replace a car as the primary mode of transportation. While my husband would love to be able to get to work by bike, he understands that is probably not feasible here and is okay with that. We just want to not have a completely car dependent lifestyle. With this being hopefully the only move we make for at least 15-20 years, we have determined what we need most of all, and this is it. (I had not realized that extremely picky means to have one item on our wishlist that is a must have, but if it does, then picky I am! )
From suggestions in a few of the posts I been able to get ideas of areas to check out when we visit. Any idea how long a bus ride to Raleigh from Carrboro would take? (I find it a bit funny that "Car"rboro is the town mentioned that is bike and pedestrian friendly!!) How is public transportation around there?
I don't know exactly what you're asking. I'm not sure what the advantage would be for your husband to try to commute to the possible job at 540 and Capital Boulevard from Carrboro, let alone trying to do it by bus. As others have said, there are TTA buses that run back and forth between Carrboro (or technically Chapel Hill, actually) and Raleigh numerous times everyday, and it's not a bad ride and not outrageously longer than driving, but it only goes to the N.C. State campus area of Raleigh, and to Downtown Raleigh, neither of which are anywhere near Capital and 540. To get to work, he'd have to transfer to another bus there that would go northeast up towards his job. And I'm not even sure that's possible. CAT's #1 Capital Boulevard bus route goes only as far north (I'm pretty sure) as Triangle Town Center mall. If his job is there or near there, then that would be fine, but if it's on the other side of Capital or (especially) on the other side of 540, he'd still be kinda stuck. There isn't (to my knowledge, somebody please correct me if I'm wrong) any public bus route that makes stops along Capital north of Triangle Town Center, until you get to the town of Wake Forest, and nor is there any bus route that goes directly from Chapel Hill/Carrboro to that far northern part of Raleigh without having to go to the Moore Square Station to change buses. So no, unless someone has some very new or different information I'm unaware of, commuting by bus from Carrboro to Capital Boulevard and 540 would be highly impractical and almost certainly undesirable.
And I really don't see what the point of it would be anyway. Carrboro and Chapel Hill are wonderful towns and excellent places to live, and I suppose they may be the most "bike and pedestrian friendly" municipalities in the region, at least on a per-capita basis (although I don't know how one would quantify that exactly). But they're not substantially enough more bike- and pedestrian-friendly than numerous other places around the region that would be a hell of a lot closer to Capital and 540 to be worth considering trying to make that commute, either by bus or by car. Durham would at least be closer and more easily commutable to your husband's job by car, although it also would be very impractical to try to do by public transportation. But there are several parts of Raleigh that I believe would suit you more-or-less equally well, especially the older, inner parts of town Inside the Beltline, but also some of the newer, denser, more human-scale developments in the outer suburban parts, such as Bedford and Falls River that I mentioned before. I can personally vouch for the fact that many of those areas are really very bike- and pedestrian-friendly, and one really can use a bike at least as a partial substitute for a car, if not a total substitute. Realistically, everywhere throughout the Triangle it's undeniably helpful to have and drive a car, and in some situations it's nearly essential. But there are numerous parts of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill/Carrboro where it's entirely possible and practical to use a bicycle as a significant enough component of transportation as to truly reduce, if not totally eliminate, your dependence on a car. Back in 2009, I was living and working in Raleigh, and was without a car for about seven months, due to a variety of factors. It was kind of a hassle and a nuisance, and I was happy to get my car back eventually, but I actually managed a lot better than I would have expected without a car, getting around only by bicycle, bus, taxi, on foot, and occasionally getting a ride from a friend. So it's possible to live a car-free life in Raleigh, and it's relatively easy to lead a fairly low car-dependence life, without having to live in Carrboro or Chapel Hill. And those areas of Raleigh, whether Inside the Beltline or further out, would entail a much, much shorter and easier commute to Capital and 540, by car or by bus, and as I said before, I wouldn't necessarily totally rule out a bike commute at times either, again depending on exactly where the job is. (Are you allowed to tell us specifically where his workplace would be if he took that job? Not trying to pry, just trying to get a more precise understanding of what his commuting outlook would look like.)
Of course, if he really could negotiate a change in the location of his job, as you suggested, or a work from home arrangement or something like that, or some other way of not having to commute daily to the Capital Boulevard and I-540 area, then that would be great, and would change the equation entirely.
Also, are you thinking of renting or buying initially if you were to come to the area? Do you know what your approximate price range would be? What size house would you need or want? Are there any other particular features or attributes that you would want or need in a house? And, just out of curiosity, what part of Indiana are you guys coming from? Again, not trying to be nosy about any of that, just trying to get information to give you better and more accurate suggestions.
Tompope, I know several people who, for their own personal reasons, do like Chapel Hill and Carrboro substantially more than Raleigh such that they live in Carrboro or Chapel Hill and commute to Raleigh, either by bus or by car, for their jobs, so I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that the OP take a look at Chapel Hill and Carrboro and see what they think. Sure, the OP should definitely look at Raleigh first and see if it floats their boat. I know several people who are very happy ITB in Raleigh, too, specifically in the Five Points area. Definitely worth checking out places in Raleigh.
I think your detailed responses give the OP a lot of info to think on, but it's worth checking out all the areas of the Triangle and seeing what works best for the whole family. Schools would be a consideration, too, and certainly Chapel Hill/Carrboro schools are great.
I also know several people who are car free by choice in Chapel Hill and Carrboro and have young kids in school, etc. That is a doable lifestyle choice here, not one of necessity. For sure, most people in CHC have cars, but I know several folks who prefer to walk or bike or ride the bus and rent the occasional car for big trips outside of town. I also know several families that have one car with one parent driving to work and the other walking or riding bike/bus. Again, very doable and not that unusual in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. Tons of kids walk or ride their bikes to my kid's school.
Tompope, I know several people who, for their own personal reasons, do like Chapel Hill and Carrboro substantially more than Raleigh such that they live in Carrboro or Chapel Hill and commute to Raleigh, either by bus or by car, for their jobs, so I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that the OP take a look at Chapel Hill and Carrboro and see what they think. Sure, the OP should definitely look at Raleigh first and see if it floats their boat. I know several people who are very happy ITB in Raleigh, too, specifically in the Five Points area. Definitely worth checking out places in Raleigh.
I think your detailed responses give the OP a lot of info to think on, but it's worth checking out all the areas of the Triangle and seeing what works best for the whole family. Schools would be a consideration, too, and certainly Chapel Hill/Carrboro schools are great.
I also know several people who are car free by choice in Chapel Hill and Carrboro and have young kids in school, etc. That is a doable lifestyle choice here, not one of necessity. For sure, most people in CHC have cars, but I know several folks who prefer to walk or bike or ride the bus and rent the occasional car for big trips outside of town. I also know several families that have one car with one parent driving to work and the other walking or riding bike/bus. Again, very doable and not that unusual in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. Tons of kids walk or ride their bikes to my kid's school.
So, what would your suggested route be for a daily commute from Carrboro or Chapel Hill to the area around Capital Boulevard and I-540, by bus or otherwise car-free, or even with substantially reduced dependence on the car?
Reporting back in, my friend who rides the bus says it takes about 45 minutes from Chapel Hill to downtown Raleigh which is where he works. He says the buses usu have free WiFi and he can sleep or work on the way.
Tom, I don't have a suggested route. I merely pointed out that I know someone who takes the bus and likes it. I also said that I don't know much about the area where the job is that the OP mentioned. I'm just putting the info out there. They might decide that Dad rides the bus to some location and then bikes or maybe Dad takes the car and bikes on the weekends and Mom and the kids are car free, or maybe they decide that ITB is where they want to be. For me, when I'm trying to make a big decision, I like to weigh all the possible options. I know not everyone likes to do that — drives my spouse crazy .
In Raleigh, you are going to be best supported by the lifestyle you want in the Cameron Village area just NW of downtown. The only trouble is that it's one of the most expensive areas in Raleigh for real estate. It's also not really bikable to Capital and I540. On the plus side for that commute, it would be going primarily against traffic and there are two options to get there via Capital Boulevard itself or by Atlantic Avenue.
Carrboro to Capital and I540 would be a nightmare commute. Don't be fooled!
Have you considered Wake Forest? That would be a shorter commute.
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) I really, really want to make this work. Thank you to everybody for your input.
)
