Rush Hour Traffic and House Shopping
Rush hour traffic is not on your mind when you’re out looking at homes. Sunday afternoons are filled with open houses during which you look at a host of homes for sale in just a few hours.
When you get more serious you’re out with an agent on Saturdays as well. Summer is great because sunlight lasts longer making it possible to look after work too. This entire time rush hour traffic is never on your mind.
Why? Because you’re looking when it’s quiet and your focus is on a house.
New York City commuter traffic is famously awful as it is as every other major city. Highways become clogged with cars. Drivers also use local streets as alternate routes and for short cuts. This is what you should check out in your home’s location.
Leonia NJ
Leonia NJ is next to the George Washington Bridge. Without traffic you can be in NYC in 10-15 minutes. At rush hour the town streets were filled with commuting drivers. Residents became so fed up that Leonia fought back by making it illegal to use their local side streets for commuting.
Leonia’s situation is extreme but commuting does affect all of Bergen County. As a result, it’s important to take rush hour traffic into consideration when buying a home.
Make sure that quiet street on Sunday afternoon isn’t a commuting shortcut on Monday Morning. Go back at rush hour in the morning and afternoon to see what happens.
To be fair, Leonia is a great place to live. Although next to the GW Bridge, it has maintained it’s decidedly small town ambiance and is filled with charming, picturesque streets. It also has a terrific school district and a vibrant business district.
It’s perfectly OK to live on a busy street. I grew up on one. You buy a much better home on busy streets. What’s not all right is being surprised that your street is busy after you move in. So check out rush hour traffic along with everything else.
