Denver Area Traffic and Commute Times, General Moving Advice
Darlan
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I've suddenly been offered a job in the Denver Tech Center area and am really keen on moving out of Iowa to the Denver area. However, I would have to start on the 17th, and I still have to finish out my current job working all next week, so the time I have to get out there is really short. I could possibly get a small extension, but I'm not too keen on starting out by being a nuisance. That said, I have a relative in the Brighton area who would be happy to put me up for a while as I look for a closer place to stay, but I'm worried about the drive.
Google maps estimates the drive as about 40 minutes in current (Saturday afternoon) traffic, but does anyone familiar with the area have an estimate about what my drive times would be during the actual morning and evening rush hours?
Any advice on decent but relatively affordable areas to stay? I'm a young person who would be making above 40k/under 50k before taxes with no one to split the rent with at the time, aside from the previously mentioned breathing room with the relative up in Brighton, so price is a major concern. Is this workable in the area? Other advice on things to do and look for in the Denver Area?
Thanks for any input!
Google maps estimates the drive as about 40 minutes in current (Saturday afternoon) traffic, but does anyone familiar with the area have an estimate about what my drive times would be during the actual morning and evening rush hours?
Any advice on decent but relatively affordable areas to stay? I'm a young person who would be making above 40k/under 50k before taxes with no one to split the rent with at the time, aside from the previously mentioned breathing room with the relative up in Brighton, so price is a major concern. Is this workable in the area? Other advice on things to do and look for in the Denver Area?
Thanks for any input!
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We used to rent an apartment down near the DTC. A one bedroom, basic apartment will run you around 800/month around there. At least mine was when I lived there. The DTC is a pretty hot area for young folks to work and live, though, especially in the last few years, so finding a decent place might be tricky. Further south than that is the Parker area, which is kinda upscale but not too pricey if I recall correctly.
Lakewood is pretty decent and not too expensive, and I'm in Arvada which is a nice place and also not too expensive. Our last apartment was about 850/month here. Any of the half dozen metro cities further south than Brighton would be pretty good I think. But yeah, you're gonna get tired of that commute pretty quick.
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Thanks for the advice, it sounds like being a little south of Denver proper is the way to go for apartments.
Any tips on fun stuff in the area?
Fun stuff, I mean, what do you like? We have pretty much the best beer in the country if you like that and the largest beer fest in the world comes here every year. There are about a thousand places to hike. Rafting, kayaking. I'm not big into theme parks but Elitch's is pretty good I think.
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I've spent some time in Westminster as well and that area seemed nice enough.
In regards to 470, it moves faster, generally has a lot less traffic, but it is a toll road. So, you'll probably save time and get better mileage using it but it's gonna cost you.
I think that may have been generous by estimating a little under an hour, depending on where in the DTC you're job is. Most of the mapping directions put your commute on I-25 through the middle of downtown Denver. On a good morning, I-25 can move along pretty well (30-40 MPH), but one accident in the wrong place at the wrong time and it turns into a parking lot.
The DTC is pretty spread out and "DTC area" even more so. Generally it starts at around I-225 and I-25 and follows 25 south till about Lincoln.
I don't know much about the DTC, but I am living in Capitol Hill now. It's a more central location so you will still have a bit of a drive to the DTC, but there are lots of young people around and there is plenty of stuff to do in the area. You might want to check out the Washington Park neighborhood and the area around DU, as well.
Also while you're in Brighton you might consider jogging over to I225 via I70, the traffic's a little lighter than I25.
I used to live in Centennial when I worked off I-25 and Dry Creek, if you look between Dry Creek and Arapahoe road there's a ton of reasonably priced apartments, or decent rooms for rent. It's a really great, central location if you don't need to be in the middle of the city. Easy access to pretty much everything, low crime, etc. If you do want to be near the heart of the city, then the areas listed above (Cap Hill, Wash Park, DU or downtown) are all valid options, but I'm not very familiar with prices there these days.
Living in the tech center isn't bad. I'm a 5 minute drive/20 minute walk from the train and downtown is a 20 minute train ride away. The area itself isn't completely vacant either, the DTC and the immediate area (Park Meadows etc) has its share of nice restaurants and smaller venues (comedy club/movie theaters/bars etc). With all the business here there are some ridiculous happy hours. That does mean there's a lot of businesses around though, ergo there isn't much diversity in the area, you will see obscene amounts of yuppies and old businessmen/women and not a whole lot more (I say that as a certified yuppie). Further north is definitely more exciting.
In any case, I would highly recommend against driving long distances on the highway during rush hour. It makes for a miserable existence. I-25 is just not capable of handling the volume of traffic that goes through it, it shows at all hours, but during peak hours it will make you hate life. I agree with the person above, I-225 is generally a bit better, but either can completely collapse into a 3 MPH stop and go experiences on any given day. With that said, if you get a place along the light rail line (either up north or south) then the commute becomes much more tolerable. I go to school downtown 4 days a week and the lightrail makes that whole experience pretty painless. Its also an awesome avenue to the nightlife that's around if you do move further south.
Avoid Aurora, Parker and Castle Rock... They're all super cheap and would have a moderate commute, but they're also godawful boring sprawl, have nothing going on in them also no easy access to the train.
I leave my house around 605 every morning and generally get to work around 7 give or take 15 minutes [downtown office]. It would probably take me another 20-30 minutes at least to get to our DTC office.
So yeah, I might not be taking the job after all. I'd tell them to get bent right now, but I don't have a backup offer at the moment, so I'm going to talk with some supervisors and see what the hell is going on here. Not a super inspiring start.
Though, unless you live near your work, the commutes are gonna suck no matter where you live.
Yeah, that does sound better...I'm starting to eye a possible alternate route of taking Tower Road down to I70 to 225 that way instead, does anyone happen to know what the speed limit/traffic is like on Tower Road?
RTD is the bus company here. Buses go in express lanes, but you have to pay "express fare". You can park at the "park-n-ride" parking lots and leave your car there all day for free, just hop on an express bus... The problem is that the express lanes stops south of downtown and pickup again further south. But I used to take the bus from Westminster (Sheridan park and ride) to DTC and it wasn't bad at all!
If you have a carpool buddy, it changes the rules a little.
EDIT: ToddJewell, Lincoln/11th eh? I work at 16th and Logan. You like working downtown?
Edit: Dang, just noticed that the place I was looking at is income-controlled.
Edit: No worries Heir.
I'm flying up to Boulder next week for a 4th interview with a company there. I'm pretty confident I'll be getting an offer.
I've got family in Lakewood and in Longmont and am fairly familiar with the area.
Anyways, trying to figure out an ideal area to live. I love Longmont, and will probably look there first for places to live. However, I'm engaged, and my soon-to-be-wife would need to find a new job up there as well...and it sure seems a lot of jobs for what she does (ecommerce marketing) are downtown-ish. That'd be quite the drive from Longmont.
Any ideas where a good area would be to live that would be somewhat between Boulder and downtown Denver?
Broomfield is super popular, as is Lafayette. Those would be your obvious choices, with some drawbacks: you're both going to have pretty bad commutes on 36 at both points in the day.
Broomfield has a little more going on, Lafayette is more rural-ish and is closer to Longmont. Louisville is closer to Boulder and it ranked as CNNMoney's best place in the country to live last year, which I guess is something.
Dull. Renting an apartment in Westminster currently and its neither terribly expensive nor terribly interesting.
With that said Westminster is kinda huge. Big difference between being at 92nd and 36 or 144th and I25, as far as commute goes.
EDIT: you can park you car for free, but the bus ride costs.
@Darlan hope the move went well. City Park is generally pretty nice. I'd say keep looking around there, Capitol Hill, the Highlands, Congress Park, Washington Park, uptown, maybe even Cherry Creek (tends to be pricier but there are good deals floating around)
This week with the snow I worked from home Mon-Weds, so that makes it a lot easier. The drive down to DTC for meetings [we have two offices] on Friday sucked.
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I've found a place a little more south of town, but still in Denver and close to a light rail and a book store/comic store/game store/grocery, and not such a far drive from downtown, so I'm pretty satisfied. Maybe I'll move in closer next year when I'm not so pressured to find a place to stop the commute from hell from Brighton, but we'll see. Anyways, thanks a ton for all of the advice!
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I just moved to the River North area and it's a fun neighborhood. Not cheap, but you can find a deal up here if you're diligent. It's still in the throes of gentrification but there is some cool stuff, and downtown is nearby for all your other needs. Someone told me that 5280 magazine called RiNo the top neighborhood in Denver right now? I dunno if that counts for anything, but I love this area so far. It's essentially the old warehouse district of Five Points so it's more abandoned than run-down, and on every block you'll see some kind of tech startup, a new restaurant or coffeehouse, and a nascent microbrewery (or distillery, or urban winery). I dunno if I'd raise a family here, but as a single dude in his late twenties I'm already enjoying it.
I also was looking just southwest of Wash Park, near Pearl Street. Bunch of cool stuff there. And there is the Highlands of course, which looked outrageously expensive and not all that interesting (but I guess I wasn't looking in the right places). Cherry Creek is, well, Cherry Creek. Cap Hill is a pretty diverse area, as far as I can tell. In general the closer you get to Colfax the shadier things get, but some neighborhoods near Cheesman Park seemed really neat. Most of the really cheap apartments nearest Denver are in Aurora. Aurora is massive. Parts of Aurora are less safe than the worst parts of Denver, but most of it is the beginnings of the massive urban sprawl that is the Denver Metro Area.
If you want to be within walking distance of the heart of downtown (ballpark, 16th st mall, LoDo) you're going to pay a hefty premium on rent.