OT: House in Ann Arbor, commuting to a Detroit proper office good or pita idea?
February 28th, 2019 at 1:20 PM ^
I would go with pita, but I am not speaking from personal experience.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:20 PM ^
PITA. I drive into AA from Dexter around 5 PM every Wednesday. The traffic into AA from the east (Detroit) is pretty bad, starting from 4:30 until about 6. I personally hate commuting so I wouldn't wish that commute on anyone. Just my opinion.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
Depends where in Detroit, but I'd prefer evenings and weekends in Ann Arbor. Easy.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
100% a pita idea. Put some chicken shwarma in it!
February 28th, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
I did it for a year and hated it. I left early enough that the ride there wasn't bad but the drive home was brutal. It took me an extra 45 minutes on a good day. Never again.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:21 PM ^
I travel 45 mins each way to work in A2 so to me that seems fine. The biggest hurdle to me would be affording a place IN Ann Arbor because got-damn.
February 28th, 2019 at 2:32 PM ^
I feel the need to further clarify that I've lived at least 30 minutes away from anything my whole life, so commute time is relative to me.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:23 PM ^
Depends on how long you're planning to do this for. I did a huge commute for 4 years via train, at first it was novel and tolerable since I could read and listen to music. But once you hit a few years of doing this you start to do the math for how much time you're spending just to commute and to me it became obvious that I had to change something.
February 28th, 2019 at 2:28 PM ^
This. I had a 75 minute train ride so I could live in Chicago and work out near the border of Wisconsin. At first it was fine. It lasted a year.
February 28th, 2019 at 2:36 PM ^
Yeah I lived in SF and commuted down to Palo Alto. It was a crazy commute (2 mile bike ride to station, caltrain down 40 miles (50 mins), then another 2 miles on my bike). I was a great daily workout, but it was about 1.5 hours one way. Totally worth it to be able to live in SF for a bit and experience living in a metropolis since I'm from rural Michigan but no way I was going to do that for decades.
February 28th, 2019 at 3:13 PM ^
Did pretty much the same commute for a few years. LOVED living in SF..but that 1.5 hour each way Caltrain/shuttle/bus/bike commute (better than sitting in 101 traffic) def took a toll -- esp. on my social life.
February 28th, 2019 at 8:08 PM ^
On top of that, you've got the high schoolers at Paly and Gunn throwing themselves in front of Caltrains every so often, and who needs that, amirite?
Everyone in this area would be doing so much better if the kids went back to just smoking weed and trying to lose their virginity instead of having stress breakdowns trying to found startups and getting admitted to Stanford.
February 28th, 2019 at 4:00 PM ^
Did you work at Abbott/Abbvie or Baxter?
February 28th, 2019 at 6:59 PM ^
No. Same industry, but it was a smaller company in the same area. I wasn't the only person who did that commute, and I got to work from home usually once a week.
But it became too much. I ended up not able to have a life during the week and then felt like I was constantly spending the weekends just relaxing to recover from my work week.
February 28th, 2019 at 9:22 PM ^
Well, most people quit working out much earlier than a year, so nice job. Now you can just find a gym in the city.
February 28th, 2019 at 2:45 PM ^
I am currently a student at Hunter College in NYC. One of my classmates lives in Montauk, out at the tip of Long Island. Every day she has class she takes a four-hour bus ride each way. I don't know how she does it.
February 28th, 2019 at 3:47 PM ^
Guaranteed study time.
February 28th, 2019 at 4:07 PM ^
That is insane. My last year at Stony Brook on Long Island, I commuted for summer classes and I hated it. And I lived in Lower Manhattan.
Trizz are you Hot dog man?
I don't know that reference, so I don't think so. But who knows, maybe I am the Hot dog man to some.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:24 PM ^
If you have to do it every day, it sucks, if only commuting on say, Fridays, totally doable.
February 28th, 2019 at 3:11 PM ^
Yeah, commuting anything more than 20-30 minutes forces the Franklin chart analysis. 45-60 min each way is a whole lotta time...especially if everyday. Gotta put the pluses and minuses on paper to weigh it out...other thing to consider...what if you move and the job ends up being a dud...maybe commute for 6 months then reevaluate the whole thing.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:27 PM ^
Pita you will be sorry
February 28th, 2019 at 1:29 PM ^
PITA - commuted to Detroit from A2 summer after grad, moved in with my parents in Northville for a minute, commute was a PITA, so then moved to Royal Oak, now looking to move downtown/midtown when my lease is up bc even the RO commute is a PITA for me.
Driving is a PITA for me in general, but most of my coworkers live no further than Troy to the north, Northville to the west.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:34 PM ^
I'm going with pita. That's a 45+ minute drive with no traffic depending on where in AA and Detroit you are. I guess if you work odd hours and won't hit traditional rush hour it would probably be fine but any kind of traffic/weather would really suck to have that commute.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:35 PM ^
This raises *lots* of questions (age, needs of family, life goals, etc.). I'll try to stay focused.
I did that a long time ago (late '90s) for a couple years. Assuming you're talking downtown Detroit, yeah, that's many miles.
One thing I found pleasant back then was the availability of what were then two roughly equivalent (distance, time) routes (14 to 96, 94).
Unless you move downtown you'll be doing significant driving no matter where you start (Oakland County / wherever).
February 28th, 2019 at 2:16 PM ^
I also did this drive for two years in the late 90s. I came back to A2 after 6pm so it wasn't too bad normally but any accident or weather incident turned that smooth 45-50 minute trip into a 1.5 hour ordeal. After two years, I had enough and found in job in downtown A2.
Summary, it's doable for a bit but not exactly pleasant. I would never sign up for 10 years of that.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:36 PM ^
Driving 94E in the morning sucked so much in 2004 that I moved downtown after only 3 months to avoid the commute.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:37 PM ^
I did that for a year or two back around 1989 - 1991. I lived in Ann Arbor and my office was down in the Renaissance Center (or whatever it's called now) downtown.
The traffic on I-94 wasn't too bad -- I've experienced worse in the D.C. area -- but the miles add up on the car pretty quickly. Plus, the drive in the morning is into the sun, and the ride in the evening is into the sun. At times of the year the sun seemed to rise and set smack-dab right over I-94, so I squinted a lot.
Bottom line -- it's a bit of a commute. But I think there are worse commutes. So if AA is where you love to be, then carpe diem.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:46 PM ^
I live in A2 and work in Dearborn and that bit about the sun couldn't be more true.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
Big time PITA, unless you enjoy spending time sitting in the car.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
I did this for ~2 years. It's about 20-30 minutes too long of a commute to do regularly. The mornings won't be too bad going from AA into Detroit, but the evenings going to AA will be brutal.
The other thing that's frustrating about the commute is that there aren't a ton of natural spots to stop along the way to break up the commute, imo. If you are planning on trying this long-term, look at getting your shifts moved so you can avoid the evening rush hour and/or stopping at a gym in Lincoln Park every night or something.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:40 PM ^
We had wraps for lunch. It was crazy.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
How attached are you to living in A2? For some people this is a big deal. Speaking from experience, the two years I lived in the burbs and commutes into a2 (St. Joes, actually) I still went to a2 occasionally to relax and whatever. But I wasn’t there as much, and I worked close by at that.
You can still go there, of course, but you can’t just say, “hey, let’s go downtown for dinner” quite as easily either.
But then, five days out of your week you’ll be too drained from your commute to think about it anyway.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:50 PM ^
Definitely PITA, but if you have some flexibility with working hours so you can avoid traffic it will at least but just a PITA and not a HUGE PITA.
(I was living in Royal Oak when I got a job in AA and tried to stick out my lease for six months, but lasted one week before breaking my lease.)
February 28th, 2019 at 1:50 PM ^
I did it for a couple years, as did my wife and several of our friends. It was totally fine. 45 minutes each way, give or take. I think it's totally worth it to live in A2.
February 28th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
The only non-pita answer yet...
February 28th, 2019 at 1:53 PM ^
Now I'm starving!!
February 28th, 2019 at 1:58 PM ^
Gyros! tell me that's lamb....
February 28th, 2019 at 3:05 PM ^
It's lamb!!
February 28th, 2019 at 6:02 PM ^
Olga's!
February 28th, 2019 at 1:57 PM ^
EDIT: how long will J Garden stay edible? can it be over-nighted to LA? could really go for some decent Lebanese food which is severely lacking in LA.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:58 PM ^
for 9 months I commuted 200 miles a day (round trip) It took 3 hours on a good day, 4 hours in the worst of winter driving. It sucked, but at least it was all on the highway, at 70 to 80 mph.
having to commute an hour or more a day in heavy, stop n go traffic would have me ready leap off a tall bridge.
best of luck to you.
February 28th, 2019 at 1:59 PM ^
Naf Naf has good pitas
February 28th, 2019 at 2:03 PM ^
I did the reverse for a 15 years ago and it was rough. I assume it's not demonstrably better now, and that's probably still the "easier" way to go. I'd say just get a place closer to Detroit.
February 28th, 2019 at 2:04 PM ^
It isn't worth it. Unless you have kids that are in school, I would move to Detroit. I have worked downtown for almost 6 years now and I commuted from A2 for a period of time and from the east side suburbs of metro detroit (scs/grosse pointe area)/
There are so many considerations it is impossible to know what is best for you. How long do you plan to work at your new place? What are the hours? Any weekends? What do you like to do in your spare time? Do you like going out for drinks after work with co-workers? Do you like going out on the weekends for shows? If you can answer these questions, it is easier to give you good advice. In a vacuum, no it is absolutely not worth driving from A2 to Detroit 5 days a week for work. 45 minutes is optimistic. If you are parking in a garage add time. If there is an accident, add time. If you have to be to work at 9am, are you prepared to wake up earl enough when the weather is snowy to not be late? Will they let you WFH in bad weather? Will you get fired after being late only a few times and by only a few minutes?
February 28th, 2019 at 2:05 PM ^
I do this commute almost everyday. It’s not the worst commute in the world considering Royal Oak is half an hour. Ann Arbor is 45 minutes. On a bad day it can be an hour and a half though. That’s a rare occurrence. It’s all about how you time it. I’d also recommend having Google Maps handy. Listen to audiobooks or something productive.
February 28th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
I have a brutal commute to and from downtown Detroit and I am fine.
I mean, my legs are numb for long stretches of time, I have five to six cups of coffee before I get to work everyday, I scream at nothing and punch the steering wheel at random times several times a week and I drink a lot when I get home.
Aside from that it really isn't an issue.
February 28th, 2019 at 2:56 PM ^
Pita, pita.
February 28th, 2019 at 2:08 PM ^
Tried it for a few months commuting to the northern suburbs of Detroit. Very much PITA and moved. One can always go to AA on evenings and weekends when so inclined, given the circumstances.