What Do You Consider A Busy Street?

[Anonymous]

We found a house that checks a lot of the boxes except it sits on a street that some may consider busy, which got me thinking, what would you consider a "busy street" when looking at a house? Cut through traffic? Double yellow line? Speed bumps?

This street in particular doesn't have any lines, but does have speed bumps and seems to get a fair amount of traffic. Sitting outside for a half hour at rush hour there were 50 cars. I would consider that to be busy but DH doesn't have a problem with it which made me curious what others think. Has anyone bought on a similar street and have regrets, advice, etc.? It does have a large, quiet backyard with a privacy fence.

[Anonymous]

It totally depends on your comfort level, OP. I would not have any problem with speed bumps (in fact, would like that) and cut-through traffic is not that big of a deal. I can't deal with being on a bus route. We are in CCMD and there are some strange bus routes through quiet residential streets - creates so much noise and traffic.

[Anonymous]

That’s less than 2 cars per minute at rush hour, so I wouldn’t consider that particularly busy. I think the speed bumps probably help too.

[Anonymous]

It depends. Double yellow lines are busy roads, but that would be perfectly fine in a very urban area. If I was doing the UNW thing, then I wouldn't want it to be busy at all because I'm paying for the bucolic atmosphere and ability for my kids to play out front. In that case, even roads like Chevy Chase Parkway or Chestnut in CCDC would be too busy even though they're not as busy as Connecticut Ave.

[Anonymous]

as pp said, "double yellow lines." that's my definition.

[Anonymous]

A busy street to me would be 4 lanes, 40 MPH. I always lived in cities or suburbs with streets with traffic. It doesn't bother me at all because I am used to an urban environment. I like the activity, joggers, cars, dog walkers, stuff going on. I think living so far off the beaten path would be boring. I like being able to walk out the door and walk to civilization on busy roads.

[Anonymous]

Speed bumps are sort of a double edged sword. It means you probably live on a cut through and it limits speed (good). However, every time a car hits that speed bump you will hear it in your home.

[Anonymous]

Double yellow line, 4 lanes instead of 2 or 2+ turning lane, no sidewalks.

Really depends on the age of your kids and whether it’s a location where they will walk / bike places. Depends if a family member runs/walks/bikes for exercise regularly.

[Anonymous]

I live on a busy street (double yellow but 2 lanes, 35 mph speed limit) in a town that otherwise is very quiet / not densely settled, so this is a bit of an outlier, in that most people living here would definitely choose NOT to live on such a road.

I don't mind because it's what I'm used to from prior neighborhoods.

The advantages are that we are in walking distance to elementary and middle schools, as well as a small "village" with coffee, post office, grocery store, playground, and some other conveniences.

Being home so much more these past few years, the road noise does get to me a little. Safety is a bit of a concern for the kids but they have definitely learned to cross safely.

I would not trade these conveniences for a quieter road; however, if you're not getting any benefits from the busier street, then it would be more of a negative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It totally depends on your comfort level, OP. I would not have any problem with speed bumps (in fact, would like that) and cut-through traffic is not that big of a deal. I can't deal with being on a bus route. We are in CCMD and there are some strange bus routes through quiet residential streets - creates so much noise and traffic.

What does CCMD/CCDC mean? I figured CCDC = City Center DC but that theory doesn't make sense if CCMD is a thing! Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Any speed limit with cars doing above 25 miles per hour. And cars that come every 30 seconds or less.

[Anonymous]

To most posters here, it's anything busier than a cul-de-sac.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It totally depends on your comfort level, OP. I would not have any problem with speed bumps (in fact, would like that) and cut-through traffic is not that big of a deal. I can't deal with being on a bus route. We are in CCMD and there are some strange bus routes through quiet residential streets - creates so much noise and traffic.

What does CCMD/CCDC mean? I figured CCDC = City Center DC but that theory doesn't make sense if CCMD is a thing! Thanks.

Chevy Chase

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To most posters here, it's anything busier than a cul-de-sac.

cul-de-sacs are apparently the worst

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We found a house that checks a lot of the boxes except it sits on a street that some may consider busy, which got me thinking, what would you consider a "busy street" when looking at a house? Cut through traffic? Double yellow line? Speed bumps?

This street in particular doesn't have any lines, but does have speed bumps and seems to get a fair amount of traffic. Sitting outside for a half hour at rush hour there were 50 cars. I would consider that to be busy but DH doesn't have a problem with it which made me curious what others think. Has anyone bought on a similar street and have regrets, advice, etc.? It does have a large, quiet backyard with a privacy fence.

Why would you care what other people think is a busy street? Do you like the house or not? Why on EARTH would you let what people think about the street in front of your house influence your decision to try to buy it?

So weird.