Sitting in traffic in suburbia one day it dawned on me how important traffic patterns are to where you live. I've heard it said that before you buy a house you need to leave the house location and drive to work in the morning and likewise drive from your work location and drive to that house location in the evening, during rush hour. I would add to that also drive from the house location to stores on the weekend.
You'd be amazed by doing this little exercise what you will discover. Though you might like the lovely house in the Master Planned Community, with the pool, golf course and the friendly neighbors, you hate the back and forth traffic. This of course isn't true in all areas of the country. But the U.S. population just seems to be increasing everywhere.
Taking into mind traffic patterns on where you choose to live I think is vastly underestimated. Better to find out up front than hate where you live a month or two into ownership. Check with the knowledgeable local REALTOR. They can tell you about forecasted expansion of roads and about new development coming to a corner near you. Nothing's guaranteed with traffic but you need to put that little item on your checklist of things to watch out for, not to mention road noise next to your property.
Here in Bakersfield, we have a growing traffic situation. Even with $1,000,000,000 (yes, that's one billion dollars) that retired Congressman Thomas obtained for Bakersfield to improve our roads, we are underfunded by more than $1,000,000,000 (yes, that's another billion dollars). The costs of doing any road work are huge. The costs of not doing them are even worse though as not only the roads clogged with cars, but the environment takes a hit and quality of life for everyone in the city drops like a rock. The projections I have seen from County and city planners is not good unless more road improvements are done in a timely manner.
I'm sure it is similar in most cities across America. Not enough money for too many projects that needed to be done years ago. Sad though that Congress can pass hundreds of millions of dollars to projects like the bridge to nowhere (though thank God they killed that one, but I forget the Congressman's name from Alaska, he's trying to get it back and passed). You have got to wonder what in the world does the government spend all of our tax dollars. I recently read that they don't know where $1.2 billion dollars went in Iraq. How do you lose $1.2 billion dollars? Accountability. The government needs to know the meaning of that word.
Pat: You got me here in my newbie days. Love that HUGE wave that guy is riding and I do remember Kojack and the lollipop. History emptives, another cool term of yours.