Is it common for people to commute from the Dayton area to Cininnati for work?  My family is currently staying with my in-laws just north of Dayton and I commute to dowtown Cincy for work and was curious if other people do this, we are wondering whether or not to make it permanent.

I'm not familiar with a commute of that distance although I have done the commute to downtown from Middletown. It's still a good hour both ways with at least three consistent traffic jams. Also with gasoline prices slated to rise next year, it's probably better to find a residence closer to work or work closer to your home.

My friend Kara used to do that, but she hated it and didn't make it a year.

I was interviewed a few years ago for part-time teaching gig at Wright State and would have done it twice a week.  You can bike it by taking the bus to the Dayton Mall, then biking about 18 miles across Butler County to the 42X park-and-ride at Tylersvill Rd.    Or you can man up and bike the whole 110-mile round trip. 

I'd say if you're going to do that, get something cheap to run such as an old Toyota 2wd pickup or maybe something like a '90s Civic or Corolla. Something that takes cheap tires and is easy on brakes. Preferably with a timing chain instead of a belt or just make it a throwaway if it throws a belt. The last thing you want to be doing is keeping up with annoying 4x4 maintenance, steering systems and tires.

You will not be keeping up with the maintenance demands of any of these vehicles because the long commute will destroy all of your free time. You won't want to spend every Saturday at the shop. Long commutes can quickly erase any pay benefit of taking a job in another city even if you drive one of those '84 Mercury Topazes that gets 55mpg.

Although I'm delighted by the emergence of our new twin-cities (the "Cin-Day Corridor"), I would strongly urge your family to make the move to Cincinnati.  (1) the daily wear & tear on your vehicle will be immense; (2) your own psyche will take a relentless pounding; (3) gasoline costs will cripple you; (4) inclement driving conditions will prove time-consuming and hazardous; (5) future I-75 construction in Cincy is imminent; (6) under ANY condition I-75 is crowded with trucks and totally unpredictable; (7) Cincinnati is much more of a city than Dayton.  (Have I left anything out?)  Yes, when I recently lived in Franklin, Oh, I knew a woman who commuted M-F to a job in downtown Cincy--but then she was bonkers to begin with!  So!  Please don't kneecap yourself by such an arduous, costly, and unsafe commute! 

My dad commuted from Cincinnati to NCR in Dayton for a good 15 years when I was a kid.  The gas prices then weren't quite as high as they are now, though.  I know plenty of people that drive from the West Chester area to downtown, but that seems to be about the farthest up I-75 that is a popular commuting distance.

I was interviewed a few years ago for part-time teaching gig at Wright State and would have done it twice a week.  You can bike it by taking the bus to the Dayton Mall, then biking about 18 miles across Butler County to the 42X park-and-ride at Tylersvill Rd.    Or you can man up and bike the whole 110-mile round trip. 

LOL.

 

I'm all about bike commuting, but I don't think I would do this. Maybe occasionally for the heck of it, but not regularly.

 

The only way I might do it is if buses were allowed to use shoulder lanes and avoid traffic. Then it might actually be faster than driving.

 

>'84 Mercury Topazes that gets 55mpg

 

The '87 Honda CRX flirted with 60mpg, but I doubt more than 50 are still operational.   

I was interviewed a few years ago for part-time teaching gig at Wright State and would have done it twice a week.  You can bike it by taking the bus to the Dayton Mall, then biking about 18 miles across Butler County to the 42X park-and-ride at Tylersvill Rd.    Or you can man up and bike the whole 110-mile round trip. 

LOL.

 

 

I'm all about bike commuting, but I don't think I would do this. Maybe occasionally for the heck of it, but not regularly.

 

The only way I might do it is if buses were allowed to use shoulder lanes and avoid traffic. Then it might actually be faster than driving.

Wasn't there a pilot program for buses to use the existing shoulders? That was on I-71. I would assume they would use it on I-75 as well with the newer wider shoulders.

 

 

 

The '87 Honda CRX flirted with 60mpg, but I doubt more than 50 are still operational.   

 

A lot of them got turned into race cars.

I know one person who commutes to northern Cincinnati suburbs (Sharonville) from the southern Dayton suburbs (near Dayton Mall).  I don't think it is that bad for him.  I used to commute from Monroe (Rt. 63 Exit on I-75) to downtown and hated every minute of it.

We have a moderator here that commutes from Mason to Beavercreek daily so it's not that out-of-the-ordinary.

There are numerous commuters traveling between the northern Cincinnati and the southern Dayton suburbs, as The ColDayMan just mentioned.  But only the brave or the desperate would make it a daily habit to venture between city-centers! (just thinking about "Malfunction-Junction" on one end or Arlington Heights at the other end makes me want to plop a couple of Ativans) WHEN is the bright future between the two cities ever going to arrive--i.e., either those French TGV/German ICE trains or the even faster Chinese MAGLEVS? (HA HA HA!)

Well we could have had something going with the 3C rail line.

Both my parents commuted from Centerville to downtown Cincinnati for about 10 years during the 70s and 80s, and I commuted over the last few years from Cincy (Anderson Twp.) to Centerville.  I left pretty early, but there were a few routine backups around 275/75 and 275/71, other than that it was not that big a deal, but a solid hour every day on average to Centerville.

Note CFDAY indicated he is staying  "just north of Dayton" and commuting to downtown Cincy.  It is not like he is even south of the city, say in Centerville.  That kind of drive would kill me after a while, especially given inclement weather as mentioned by other posters.

I know a guy that tried it. He lived in Dayton and worked in Cincinnati. After about two months of those long drives he gave it up and quit his job. He liked his job but the long commute ruined it for him.

 

I know another guy who did the opposite, living in Cincinnati and working in Dayton for many years, but he lived in the northwest suburbs and didn't go through Sharonville.

BIG JESUS! LOL!!!

Isn't the Sharonville exit (Sharon Rd) north of Glendale Milford, or am I imagining things?  (That is a very real possibility.) 

Isn't the Sharonville exit (Sharon Rd) north of Glendale Milford, or am I imagining things?  (That is a very real possibility.) 

Yes, that's right.

I've split the commuter rail discussion off into a different thread:

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,26683.0.html

I'm still trying to figure out how to use Glendale-Milford to get to Milford.

Or how to get to North Bend from North Bend Rd. 

 

 

>Isn't the Sharonville exit (Sharon Rd) north of Glendale Milford, or am I imagining things?  (That is a very real possibility.) 

 

 

Yeah.  I was just testing everybody.

I worked with a girl who commuted from Kettering to OTR for over 10 years& was generally ok with it but having to go around/thru Dayton every day at rush hour is a different matter that even she acknowledged.

She also claimed to have met quite a few people who did the general commute.