Fort Collins/Denver Commute (Westminster, Boulder: house, construction, live in)

[22070Cedar]

[SIZE=2]We are thinking of moving to Fort Collins. What is the commute to Denver like? I lived in San Diego, commuted from Escondido to Downtown San Diego. My normal morning commute was about 90 minutes to 2 hours, one way. I realize it depends on what part of Denver. I'm just asking for a rough estimate. It is a realistic commute? Or should we look at other communities closer to Denver? If so can anyone recommend any areas? [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=2]What is the weather like? We moved to Cedar City, Utah last year and get about 42 inches of snow a year. How does it compare? [/SIZE]
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[SIZE=2]Thank you for any information you can offer. [/SIZE]

[Count David]

Why would you want to do that? The commute from the north is well known for being quite atrocious. Traffic is quite heavy from at least Longmont, south into Denver, and is especially heavy through Thornton.

I think it is a realistic commute if you are nuts.

I realize you've been commuting this way in the San Diego area (Escondido to San Diego is much shorter than Fort Collins to Denver), but weather plays a big role here, winter weather can make it much longer than the 1 to 1.5 hours it normally takes.

You should definitely look closer to Denver, or just work in Fort Collins if that is really where you want to be. It all depends on where you're job will be. There are very few places in Metro Denver/Northern Colorado that I'd consider places to avoid.

Weather is pretty unpredictable, but probably comparable to Cedar City, but with more snow. Denver averages about 60 inches per year, but during most months it doesn't stick around long.

[22070Cedar]

Thanks. That was the answer I was looking for.

[RangerDuke08]

Hi Cedar, winter certain ain't as bad as Cedar City, I've been through there several times and as long as your not actually in the mountains, you are fine. I like David would not recommend the commute, the thing is it has been done, I did it for a while. So it is possible but three problems 1) road construction in Fort Collins and I-25N seems endless these days 2) traffic - not from traffic but from accidents especially in the winter shuts down the whole road, talk about an 1 hour commute turning into a 3 hour commute because of 1 accident. 3) It'll get old really fast! I would certainly recommend Denver/Boulder area, anywhere in that general area is relatively the same, there aren't much bad areas and it seems to be the place where many Californians enjoy. Good luck!

[22070Cedar]

Thank you for the information. My husband and I are both IT people. Right know we telecommute for a Southern California based Company. We moved to Cedar City for a better life. As much as we love Cedar City we are very dissapointed.

So we are looking to relocate again. We plan on keeping our telecommting jobs, however we also thought that we would keep our job options open. We heard so many things about Fort Collins. But I will reserch the Dever area as that may fit more into our future plans.

Thank you again. )

[tfox]

I must concur with the other posters here. You can't commute from Fort Collins to Denver for very long, not with $4.00 gas and a ever-more-congested I-25. Longmont is about as far as you'd want to commute from Fort Collins, and even that's a stretch.

There are some IT jobs in FC at HP, Agilent, Intel, LSI Logic, etc as backup for you, but there never seems to be quite enough in FC as compared to Boulder of Denver.

[luckysam]

Don't forget this is Colorado and it snows here which adds lots of time to your commute in the winter!

My hubby does IT work in Ft. Collins and drives from our house in Frederick which is east of Longmont. I work in Westminster so we live in the middle of our jobs. His commute from our house is close to an hour and we only live a few minutes from the highway. Right now they are widening I-25 from where we live in Frederick up to a little North of Longmont. The lanes are pinched down, the speed is 55 (normally 75) and it's a NIGHTMARE to drive through. Construction is going to be going on for a few more years too. You will also have to deal with traffic issues leaving Denver. Traffic gets even worse once you hit Ft. Collins. If you work on the east side of town it's better but my hubby works on the west side of town and then has to fight SLOW traffic all the way from the highway to his job. It's awful!

I live 35 min. from my job in Westminster and on snowy days it takes up to 90 minutes for me to get to work. It would take you FOREVER to get to work in Ft. Collins on snowy days. Plus with gas at $4 gallon I would look closer.