Work in Calgary, live outside city

[sphelps]

For anyone who works within Calgary but lives in a town or community outside the city limits. Looking for peoples opinions and experience on the daily drive to work and back and how bad it is. I'm considering the community of Lyalta which is advertised as 35min from downtown, took me 36 min on Sunday but I have no idea about rush hour. How bad is it, am I crazy?

[Wingin It]

I don't live outside the city, but I am a driver in the city and I pass through all the major arteries on the outskirts of the city, and so i'm assuming you will be using Hwy 1/16th Ave NE to enter the city...it reallly depends on two things. Time and weather. If you enter during rush hour you may be waiting a while longer than you did on Sunday and when bad weather strikes, there are traffic jams everywhere! I guess you need to weigh the pros/cons to living in Lyalta b/c traffic can and will vary day to day. At least you're not on the South end which is even worse than the NE end! lol

[kien]

Originally Posted by sphelps

For anyone who works within Calgary but lives in a town or community outside the city limits. Looking for peoples opinions and experience on the daily drive to work and back and how bad it is. I'm considering the community of Lyalta which is advertised as 35min from downtown, took me 36 min on Sunday but I have no idea about rush hour. How bad is it, am I crazy?

You're crazy!!!!

I know a lot of people who dont mind commutes from outside if the city (chestermere, okotokes, airdrie, strathmore, etc). If you are one of those people that dont mind sitting in their cars for a while then you should be fine . Every Calgarian knows that our poor roads were not designed for the types of traffic that we are seeing theses days. It is tough enough just getting around the city . I guess I'm spoiled as I'm probably one of the few calgarians whom have been here since the 80s.

.. Did I mention you were crazy?

[Parker]

Would your employer allow you to work different hours? I once made arrangements to work 6:00 am to 2:30 pm. I used to miss a lot of the traffic that way. This is in Edmonton though, I don't beleive our road systems are any better.

[sphelps]

Yeah I have flexible hours. If the drive takes 45min I would leave the house at 6am and be home by 4pm. The morning drive I would probably enjoy, I find morning driving to be relaxing and good way to prepare for the day (believe it or not) driving home however will probably not be as pleasant but I believe the other benefits will out weigh this greatly.

I'm just uncertain on how long it will actually take to drive to and from work. Also the newer communities here "in" the city don't really offer a much better commute IMO/E. Inner city houses are out for me so I'm left with either a really nice place outside of town or a cookie cutter in a newer community.

[Magma]

well I was born and raised here in calgary and I never understand why people would live outside calgary and commute every day.

1. Traffic always is hit or miss even if you live in the city
2. Does the Lower of the price of a house really matter when you end up spending the extra on gas anyways?

Not to mention higher property taxes etc.

I have never seen the point it and for me why would I want to live another 20-30min out of town when it already can take upwards of an hour to get home when the bad weather hits. (even though its only a 10min drive normally)

[365seasons]

IMO if you can swing it for 6am-4pm, you're just missing the heavy traffic both ways, coming in, and going home.

+1 on what most people said though, very time and weather dependent.

[MitchM]

We live in Water Valley and work in sw Calgary. Our commute is 1 1/4 - 1-1/2 hr each way. We basically traded what we were paying in taxes for vehicle costs.
If you have busy schedules with kids, that could be a challenge.
We've been doing it for 4 years now and love out country lifestyle/property way too much to go back.
It's not for everybody.
It's best if you have a flexible schedule, but during good weather our driving times are always within 5 or 10 minutes accuracy.

Mitch

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by MitchM

We live in Water Valley and work in sw Calgary. Our commute is 1 1/4 - 1-1/2 hr each way. We basically traded what we were paying in taxes for vehicle costs.
If you have busy schedules with kids, that could be a challenge.
We've been doing it for 4 years now and love out country lifestyle/property way too much to go back.
It's not for everybody.
It's best if you have a flexible schedule, but during good weather our driving times are always within 5 or 10 minutes accuracy.

Mitch

That time is pretty much in par with what google map gives, so I'm hoping the same is true for myself. What times during the day do you make the commute?

I'm going to drive to my potential new property from work on Wednesday and see exactly how long it takes. I'm OK with the fact some days will suck, my work is flexible and on bad weather days people come in late and leave early.

[Phanman]

I used to live in Airdrie and the commute to work to barlow trail wasnt bad 30-40mins. But what killed me was all my friends and family lived in Calgary. So after work if I wanted to go out and do whatever, I would have to stay in calgary till I was ready to go home. So technically I lived in Calgary, but only went home to Airdrie to sleep. If you wanted to go home and rest for a few hrs it wasnt worth it to drive in to work, drive home, drive back in to play, then drive back home to sleep.

Very inconvienient for me.
Not bad if you actually plan to "live + play" where your house is.