COMMENT BY
Julie from Marietta, GA
COMMENT ABOUT PLACE
Marietta, GA
COMMENT
Travel time takes away any quality of life
I moved here from a West Michigan city, (population just under 200,000 to give you a perspective, if you're coming from LA maybe this would be great!) and it has been a terrible experience. The traffic is so awful even in outlying Marietta (West Cobb) that just to go to Kroger, 2 miles away takes 10 minutes each direction, a 6-7 mile trip at the wrong time of day, which would be anything outside of approx. 9:30a-3p, would likely be 40 mins.+. With every errand, activity and work commute taking so long, there is not much time for getting together with friends or even having friends (remember everyone else is just as bogged down as the next, no time or energy left for friendships), keeping the house in good repair or having family time. Basically you live in your car here if you want to have groceries, wear clothes, your kids in any activities, work etc.
Everything is very spread out too so you will likely be driving somewhere across town to accomplish your errands or for work. Job searches will likely include the entire metro area (quite a wide perimeter) so you could easily be in for a 1 to 1-1/2 hour drive each direction to work (this is very common here). People think a 45 minute commute is good. Access to expressways is not good. Where we live we have to drive minimally 15 minutes to get to I75 and many nearby areas are much further than that.
The lights are timed horribly too, adding to the problem. You will be stopped at nearly every light allowing exhaust to flow from the cars adding to the bad air here(many code orange days) not to mention the extra gas consumption and wear and tear on your vehicles. Each light is approx. 3 mins. (I'm not kidding), so you can add about 12-15 minutes to your otherwise short trip.
If you dare to go out before 9:30a or between 3p-7:30p you can assume you will need to allow a good bit of additional time to get where you want to go. All in all any activities you enjoy will be hindered by the ability to get there or to have the needed items to do the activity. Since I moved here 6 years ago, an additional 1 million people have moved to the metro Atlanta area and you can sure tell by the steady traffic increase. The population continues to grow and the traffic issues have already officially been deemed unsolvable even with any amount of money.
Not only do these issues take away any quality of life, but they also add tremendously the the cost of living here. I don't really think that this has been factored into the "cost of living" index for the area.
That's my FYI for you.