Would homebuyers consider other areas if rush hour traffic eased up a bit?
It’s not perfect, but recent highway construction has improved the flow:
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Jim Klinge
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Hi Jim,
I always think that if they got rid of the car pool lanes, traffic will be much better.
No house, no matter how spectacular or how great the school system is worth sitting in traffic for an hour each morning and an hour coming home at night. Every Day.
That’s 10 hours of your week lost to nothing more than commuting.
That’s 40 hours every month.
Every month you spend one entire week’s worth of work hours sitting on a freeway, moving at 10 MPH.
What’s wrong is not that we need bigger and better freeways – it’s that we need to develop job centers in outlying areas of cities. We need to change over to telecommuting and stop wasting people’s time, wasting gas and generating enormous amounts of pollution.
Commuting time and costs are a big reason why houses close to urban centers retain value better than suburbs and exurbs. I live 5 miles from DC and my the value drops in my zip code are a fraction of what they were out in nowhere-ville.
Same reason why the Inland Empire got completley crushed. Who on earth would want that commute unless that’s all they could afford? And, maybe not even then when gas is $4 a gallon.
I saw a car get crunched yesterday trying the last minute “zipper” merge, so be careful!
Excellent idea with the traffic videos, Jim. I’m curious about the traffic along the 56 (going from the 5 to Rancho Penasquitos, RB and the 4S Ranch area). How is that at peak travel times?
We can monitor traffic online. There are even several cameras along I5 between 805 merge point and Lomas Santa Fe.
http://www.sigalert.com/map.asp?region=san+diego#lat=32.95673&lon=-117.16512&z=1
After several days of watching, I found I5 from Del mar heights to Manchester usually busy during evening rushing hour (4:30-5:30). 56 is even worse. 78 is the worst.
correction: “78 is worst” ==> “76 is worst”
usually busy during evening rushing hour
It’s better than it used to be.
I’m curious about the traffic along the 56 (going from the 5 to Rancho Penasquitos, RB and the 4S Ranch area). How is that at peak travel times?
I commute from PQ to Mira Mesa (the part just off the 805) There is heavy traffic until you get to Carmel Valley Road, just a few miles, and then it speeds up to 60 the rest of the way. I’d say the traffic adds about 10 minutes onto my commute. Door to Door, it’s about 20 minutes without traffic and 30 minutes with traffic.
It’s actually a shorter commute (by time) than when I lived in PB, and my commute is certainly shorter than the people who commute down the 805 into mission valley, north park etc.
Jim, how much of the traffic improving is the poor economy? (Less jobs=less commuters) or the flight of jobs from S.D. to elsewhere (e.g., SAIC)? Maybe some of this is cyclical, in which case its just a temporary reprieve.
It could be temporary, but hang with me. We may not need more freeway construction.
The traffic, and everything else, depend on when the “jobs come back”.
But I don’t think they are coming back.
I think the economy of the future (the new economy) will be dependent on creating new opportunities, and most of those being self-employed.
Tele-commuting, and working out of the house, should get more and more popular – especially if gas prices go through the roof.
The unemployed/under-employed who are waiting for someone to give them a job, are in for a long wait. It may never happen.
Eventually they’ll create a new oppotunity for themselves, or make a living of out squatting.
We definitely don’t need more freeway construction. All that does is make transit easier which then encourages more moves to the outlying areas and jam up the highways again.
Right on that point. The “build more roads” approach to congestion mangagement just leads to longer commutes (e.g., the cities ranked with longest commute by time (not by congestion): Houston, Nashville, etc.
Not sure I think work at home is the future of the economy, unless those flyers I see on utility poles everywhere are right. The economy of any city needs big businesses to thrive. Ma and Pa shops don’t make cities happen.
CALTans is in the works of expanding the 5, both directions from Oceanside to La Jolla to up to 12 lanes (maybe its 16) Talk about unsightly concrete landscape.
It will take 15 years. San Diegans had better speak up. Talks with City’s ends in November.
Jim, I have another theory on that I-5 slowdown n/of Del Mar Heights: that’s the first picturesque view of the ocean coming north, and everyone looks left in admiration. Having commuted the route for several years, I watched traffic moving along fine, and then suddenly heads turn and fingers point at the beautiful coastline. They brake without realizing it, and before long, the whole freeways at a crawl for nothing. Another driver distraction, this one by Mother Nature…
A good theory – I like it.
May be coupled with those waving sadly at their money lost at the track?
The I5 is my daily commute. From north Carlsbad down to Hillcrest, then back again. Without traffic, it takes me 35 minutes. With the normal freeway congestion, maybe 45. I’m able to work at the edge of normal commuting hours, so most times I miss it. I’ve decided it’s doable.
The reality for us is if we want a house (vs a condo) it’s pretty much south oceanside or west vista (and that’s neither spectacular house nor spectacular school district). There’s very little else that’s [what we consider] affordable until you get to clairemont, and that’s out given my husband works in orange county.
Personally, I’d rather see them improve public transportation than widen the freeway as much as they’re talking of doing.