Originally Posted by
fishboat
Once out of the city and on the more rural 2-lane roads...I found them to be very narrow roads(lanes). I had a claustrophobic feeling driving on them. I had a dump truck ahead of me one day and I swear the lane width was just a couple inches wider on each side than the tires. Zero shoulder..just a ditch, no bike lanes.
Yeah, the roads are narrower in the eastern part of the US, I'm fairly used to that. I was shocked by how wide the roads are in the Detroit metro, I guess that's for snow removal?
Originally Posted by
fishboat
If I were you, I'd do some research on the secondary tier of cities where you might find good employment as I'd bet there are other options that are more desireable than the 4 cities you've mentioned.
Enh, I'm in a second (third?) tier right now. The way the current job market is, you've got to jump jobs to get raises, otherwise you'll fall behind your market value. The problem with the small towns is that there's really only one or two jobs that take advantage of my engineering specialization, so if you want to hop jobs, you've got to move. Or if your industry is being prematurely wound down and you're about to find yourself out of a job.
Either way, I'm tired of moving, hence the desire to find a place with a lot of jobs.