Fiancee will work in Rockville, I'll work in Bel Air, where to live? (rent)

[pysquared]

We're beginning to look for a new home. My fiancee will be working in Rockville while I'll soon be starting a job in Bel Air, MD. My fiancee doesn't have a car and would like to use public transportation whether it's metro or bus. I don't mind driving but then again, don't want to spend too much time in traffic. Any suggestions on good places to live?

[trying2moveup]

Originally Posted by pysquared

We're beginning to look for a new home. My fiancee will be working in Rockville while I'll soon be starting a job in Bel Air, MD. My fiancee doesn't have a car and would like to use public transportation whether it's metro or bus. I don't mind driving but then again, don't want to spend too much time in traffic. Any suggestions on good places to live?

Ah, here we go again with these killer commuting questions.

believe me, I understand commuting around this metro area; for years both my husband and I, before we had kids, had killer commutes. . .and alot of it has to do with cost of housing around here.

Believe me, I get it.

But now that I am many years older than that time, and have children to work into every scenario, I feel like it's beholden upon me to try to make people who want to do these crazy commutes aware of some of the things that are going to drive them insane if they do them.

To address your question, if you reside in the ROckville area, you will either be right near a metro station and you can walk OR you can hop one of the public buses (metro, ride-on, transIt) and get to a metro station. Of course, paying to live within walking distance of a metro station is going to cost you, whether you rent or own ( are you all from this area or out of state - if you are from this area then you already are aware of the cost of things around here. . .)

Now, to drive to Bel Air, which is near the Pa/Md line from Rockville. . . sigh. Just the pure distance mileage-wise of this commute makes me tired just thinking about it. And that is before factoring in the following:

killer traffic around every major interstate exchange (70/270; 695/70; 795-I 83, etc., etc).
the cost of gas for all the miles you will drive every day
the stress of sitting in the traffic, dealing with the traffic, etc.
the time spent away from each other because you are on the road so much

if you plan to have children in the future, this scenario sucks, to be blunt.

Now, if you planned to live north and your future husband was driving south to Rockville. . .. all the same would apply as well.

Sorry this post is so pessimistic but quality of live is important and if you have to put so much time/energy/money into just driving to and from work, i just don't understand why people voluntarily want to do this anymore!!!

[GotBackHome]

the problem is that the highway system mostly goes (on an angle) north-south. There is very little that goes east-west. Therefore you have to go down and around and over and.... it just gets ugly because there is no good way to do it.

There are good places to live, but you'll still end up with an ugly commute (someone actually LIKE 2 hours each way??? that's time away from each other in a brand new marriage. getting home, tired and cranky... I'm just saying...)