The Denver metro area consists of not just the City and County of Denver, but seven other nearby counties. Arapahoe, Douglas, Jefferson, Broomfield, Adams, Weld, Boulder are the closest surrounding counties and are all within a comfortable commute of Downtown Denver.
Denver has more than one business center, so working Downtown is not always a guarantee. Other business areas are Cherry Creek, Denver Tech Center, Inverness, Interlocken, Denver Federal Center and Buckley Air Force Base.
If a relocation to Denver is on your horizon considering the location you work and where you want to live is very important. As the metro area continues to grow so does traffic and travel times to and from work. Most people find living and working in the same general quandrant of the metro area the best bet for a more comfortable commute.
The Denver metro area has a few choices in public transportation. RTD has buses and light rail. Buses serve the entire metro area, but currently only the south is served by Light Rail.
Currently FasTracks is working at a swift pace to put another 119 miles of Light Rail into place all over the Metro Area. Projected completion dates are well into the future at 10 more years. Buying a home near the projected lines will not provide immediate effect, but long term benefits will be had, if the home purchase is a long term one.
Savvy home searchers have discovered using Google or MapQuest to plot the distance from a specific neighborhood to the work address is a good way to guessimate the commute. Such techical tools provide quick and easy answers to distance, but not always the actual commute time.
Relos coming from high traffic areas such as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. Boston or others are seldom phased by Denver traffic. Others coming from smaller cities find traffic and general city life are overwhelming. Relativity wins, most folks adapt to doing what is necessary and find after all the compensating factors, commuting in Denver is really not so bad.
About the Author
Kristal Kraft
Kristal has been helping buyers and sellers in Colorado since 1984. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of the Metro Denver Real Estate market via blogging and in person while driving around the beautiful Rocky Mountain town of Denver! For fun, Kristal enjoys shooting things with a Canon. Visit Denver Photo Blog
Kristal Kraft
7 Comments
As one who recently relocated from Los Angeles, I can’t complain too much about the traffic here. On the other hand, with all the construction and growth, I really hope it doesn’t become another overbuilt, overpopulated city.
When I was a younger man I used to stay at a place called Mooredale Village close to a town called Baily, which I am sure you must know. If I ever quit real estate (yeah, right) I would want the job of playing cowboy songs for the tourists around the fire at night.
I used to communte, it ate up a couple of hours a day. Now my communte takes less than 120 seconds if I stop at the coffee pot in the way into my office.
No shoes required!
I just stopped by to say hi to the best REALTOR in Denver.
My commute takes 60 seconds.
Great info KK, your community is lucky to have good public transportation.
Awesome site KK…I’m cruising blogs tonight and always love looking at your pictures.
Dear world is now too small and population is increasing but it does’nt mean that this city will become 1 of the overpopulated city.
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