jhan

I'm thinking about moving to San Diego North County but will be working downtown. does anyone do this commute? how long does it take? how bike friendly is it?

megalowmatt

Are you referring to downtown San Diego and where exactly in North County? Inland or coastal?

Praxis

Try the San Diego Bike Commuter forums:

https://sdbikecommuter.com/forums/com...&page=1#Item_0

sirlight

That sounds like a really long ride. You might want to consider taking the coaster part of the way. In case you don't know, that's the train that runs from downtown to oceanside. They have bike storage on the train. I know a few people that do it and it works great for them.

matt.critchlow

agreed, that's a really long bike ride roundtrip. for example, from carlsbad to santa fe depot downtown you're looking at about 35 miles one way. as mentioned what most folks do who work downtown is take the Coaster train one of the ways and ride the other. depending on what kind of shape you're in, even riding the one way might take some getting used to.

megalowmatt

And depending on the route there are some major hills.

matt.critchlow

oh yea, those too

billdsd

Another sdbikecommuter here. North County-downtown can be long. You'd have to be more specific for us to get a good idea. You're going to hit some hills no matter what and it's likely going to be a long one. People complain about the hills at the coast but inland routes are actually worse. It's a beautiful coastal ride and a lot of people do it, though maybe not for that distance, at least not daily. Some areas have good bike lanes. Some areas don't and are awful in terms of bike vs. car space. You'll figure those out quickly enough.

The Coaster suggestion is a good one, though you'll want to check the schedules. It doesn't run all that late. It's mostly oriented towards rush hour.

Between 8am-5pm (or is it 6pm?) on weekdays you can't ride on the pedestrian walk ways through UCSD even though some of them are 30 or more feet wide so you'll need to stay on the roads either through it or around it if travelling during that time, which makes things slightly longer. There's a popular paved bike path south of UCSD called the Rose Canyon bike path, that starts at the south end of Gilman where it meets La Jolla Colony and leads to Santa Fe St which leads to Mission Bay which leads to Pacific Highway which leads to downtown.

If by North County you mean Escondido, that's a whole other mess. I'm not sure about the best advice there.

Kimmitt 

My sister lives thereabouts, and it's a nontrivial drive downtown. And she had big problems using the Coaster to commute, because of the restricted times. But I suppose a long ride home isn't the end of the world...

megalowmatt

I had no idea this San Diego Bike Commuter site existed. Looks interesting. Thanks for the link!

billdsd

It's a nice group. I highly recommend it to any bike commuters in the San Diego area.

jhan

thanks to all that responded. I'm not sure exactly where in north county I will live, I was told to live there because there are better public schools for our kids than san diego unified. I'd prefer to live closer to the coast but I understand that drives up the price. neighborhoods with good bike paths are a plus. In my commute in D.C., about 15 miles, I ride along a rails to trails bike path along the potomac river and then by the Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington memorials, Smithsonian museums, and the capitol. the route is very bike friendly. However, the possibility of year around nice weather is a draw to southern california. Any recommendations for neighborhoods would be appreciated. I'm making a scouting trip with my wife over labor day.

billdsd

If you haven't settled on a spot, then you need to consider your priorities and how far you're up for riding as well as how much you can afford. The UCSD campus is maybe about 12-14 miles or so north of downtown, and it's still not considered North County by most people. That's almost the distance of your D.C. commute. Take a look on a map.

Also, the freeway is pretty much a nightmare between North County and downtown during rush hour. You need to consider that if you're thinking about driving.

Check out this live traffic map during west coast rush hours:

https://www.dot.ca.gov/dist11/d11tmc/sdmap/showmap.php

It's true that prices go up rapidly as you get closer to the coast. Clairemont is getting somewhat affordable these days and isn't too far from downtown and only a few miles inland. Not sure about the schools though. Mira Mesa might be OK too but is a few miles further north (more or less east and slightly North of UCSD).

You might want to take this up with a realtor. Housing prices around here are tough to easily gauge. I don't know about schools.

You might also consider South. Parts of Chula Vista are actually pretty nice and somewhat more affordable. South has the advantage of the trolley, which runs earlier and later and far more frequently than the Coaster.

sd_mike

Long commute or actually live closer to work. I'd pick living closer. The added expenses of living farther, no matter how you get there, will eventually outweigh the savings in housing prices. Rather like those people that live in Temecula and work in San Diego - cheaper housing, but far more expensive commute. Living closer you can spend more time at home, not getting to/from home.

Praxis

You will not get an intersection of affordable pricing + good school district. Clairemont I can recommend as reasonably central and affordable, but the school district is nothing special. We deal with this by homeschooling, which is not everyone's cup of tea but can be rather convenient.

To me, the school district is less important than the massive amounts of time wasted in a commute, but I can certainly see both sides.