I am relocating to Columbus, Ohio this summer. Will be working at OSU, and hopefully [bike] commuting to work. Does anyone have recommendations for good neighborhoods to try to live in? Something with a 60'ish minute commute? or maybe less. But not student infested (I deal with them at work, don't want to see them while i'm out walking my dog).

Also what areas would you avoid as a commuter? Any particular scary neighborhoods to have to ride through?

i'd try and avoid the western suburbs like arlington and grandview, commuting from out there to campus is ****ty.

i dont know what your budget or lifestyle is like, but if i could choose to live anywhere in columbus, id take german village or victorian village. not student-infested, but very close to downtown and campus as well, and very beautiful homes. just can be a bit pricey, and if you're looking for a huge sprawling backyard, these wouldnt really work.

North-South commuting is much easier in Columbus than East-West, mainly because there are few decent East-West bike crossings over rivers and freeways. That said, a 60 minute commute will let you live almost anywhere in Columbus. If you really want to ride 60 minutes each way, you'll have to live on the edge of town (or outside it).

There is a bike path that runs along the Olentangy river from I-270 in the North to Highway 104 in south central Columbus. It runs through OSU. On the North, that path now takes you under I-270 so you can get to the northern suburbs. Google "Olentangy Multi-Use Path" for a map. (I'd link it, but I haver to get off to work myself).

To the North of campus, I'd look at the campus area, Clintonville, Beechwold or Worthington. To the south, lot at Italian Villiage, Victorian Village or the Short North (all basically the same area). These areas (especially the Short North on High Street) tend to be more artsy, urban, and noisy than the northern neighborhoods I mentioned. They also have a decent nightlife (it's illegal to sell alcohol in most of Clintonville and Beechwold). The northern areas tend to be more suburban in nature. Clintonville used to be a suburb, and has a lot of university people living in it. Beechwold is a nice, more-blue collar neighborhood.

Be aware, there's a not-so-safe part of town south of campus but at the north side of Victorian Village. The not-so-safe area is shrinking, but it's still there.

There are now a decent number of apartments and condos being built downtown. For a little longer ride, you can find lots of rentals in German Village south of Downtown. Many of the homes there date to the 19th century, which is good or bad depending on what you like.

What's the not so safe part south of OSU? I know there's some shady areas to the west, on the other side of Grant St. Mostly South West corner or columbus, outside of the city, cars get broken into all the time where I live.

Check out this site www.columbuscycling.com , you might find more answers, also check out the Monday night ride, we have about 20 or 30 riders every monday night at 9:30pm, meeting in front of the Wexner center at OSU, we ride around for a while and then get free pizza.

Daily Commute's comments are pretty good. A lot of it depends on how much you want to spend. To answer Kevin's question, Weinland Park is tough, and south of downtown is edgy, some streets better than others. Merion Village is an up-and-comer down there that would be a nice commute to OSU. I commute (about) every day on the bikepath, Arlington to Worthington, and I commuted Arlington to OSU previously. 60 minutes, look at Hilliard or Dublin, but that'd be a traffic-y commute. Like DC says, N-S is easier than E-W. I'm a mortgage broker and can give you lots more info, or refer you to realtors, etc. in the area if you have further questions. Oh and good luck with the not student-infested thing, there's 50,000+ of those guys around here. If it ain't students, it's staff, faculty, etc. Lots of OSU in Cols.

I commute from Bexley to downtown -- 4.5 miles; it'd be another 3 or so to OSU. East-West isn't that bad; there are some options that work pretty well -- Oak St. is my preference, although Bryden and Spring work well, too. It's a pricey neighborhood; you won't find may, if any, students north of Main St.

60 minutes.......thats across town, anywhere inside the outerbelt prettymuch.

Try victorian village just south of OSU, or anywhere near downtown like german village or the edge of old town east.There's some inexpensive apt living in downtown too, dont overlook that,I live there, not a bad neighborhood at all really.Bad neighborhoods?Well, anything tween main street and long east of parsons ave, but only in selected areas of that grid, for commuting its fine.Grandview west of campus is ok in some areas, the cops there suck, but its livable and commutable no problem.There arent many places in columbus I wont ride thru,even what many would consider the ghetto, living in them is another story.Get at least 6-10 blocks away from campus though or housing is expensive.

I should have said that the bike path I mentioned is great for morning commutes, but it can get congested on nice days between campus and Worthington. If you like to get places fast, you can't count on the path in nice weather.

Octopus is right, commuting from the Bexley in the East is not a bad commute. I did it for a year or so.

Given that you are willing to ride so far (even a 60 minute round trip gives you a big circle of potential places to live), you are probably better off picking the place you want to live by other factors.

Thanks for the ideas. German Village does sound really nice that was one of the areas we had been looking at. How is the I-670 path? The O. Path (not going to spell that this morning) and Scioto Path were clearly visible on Google Sattelite, but I couldn't find the I-670 path on the sattelite image. Where in downtown does this path go?

I thought there weren't any places so bad you wouldn't ride through, but my wife insisted I ask, go figure.

Thanks for the help.

The downtown path is split and part of it is closed due to the northbank park construction.Commuting to campus from german village, blow the silly bike path off.Take front street straight up into victorian village, cut over to neil avenue and run that right into campus.Its columbus, the traffic is light and easy for the most part.The 670 bike path is still chopped up and not complete, part is still on the street, it follows airport drive for awhile.To be honest, they really arent too many places in columbus I feel bad about riding in, I avoid the bike path as much as possible, it winds all over and the intersections at many streets suck, your better off on the road.You can easily go from south german village to OSU stadium in about 15-20mins, ive done it lots of times.

The bike paths when they get to downtown disappear, your on city streets, no big deal,columbus is pretty easy to ride in.Heck I ride out US 33 all the time and thats a 45mph zone and part of it has no shoulder.The biggest issues riding in columbus come during rush hour near freeway interchanges, other than that getting around is pretty easy, and often during rush hour you can get around just as fast as cars stuck in traffic sitting on the freeway.

i live in german village and its a great neighborhood to live and ride in.. i can get to everywhere i want on my bike faster than my car.. commuting to campus is easy as well..
plus i take full advantage of free ride with bike on the COTA bus during summer..

It's been officially open for a few weeks. It's been ridable for a two to three months (if you were willing to ride under the "caution" tape).