What Do You Consider A Busy Street?

[Anonymous]

Both of our houses have been on busy streets. Here are a few things to consider:

- How does it sound from the inside in places like your bedroom and the offices (if you WFH)?

- Are you near an intersection where cars will be stopping? That will exacerbate any noise.

- Are there a lot of pedestrians, and what kind? (we get a lot of loud high school groups who are noisier than the cars)

- Will you ever be crossing as a pedestrian? Will you feel safe doing so with young kids (if applicable)?

- How do you get in and out of the car? A (flat) driveway is ideal. If you park on the street but there's a bike lane, that's helpful too. If there's no buffer between your parked car and the traffic lane, you might feel unsafe, especially with young kids.

[Anonymous]

I live on a street that was built in the 1940s to accommodate a lot of traffic (big center median with trees, one lane of traffic, bike lane, and parking lane), but as development happened in the surrounding area, it's just not convenient as a cut through to anything. So...it has the feel of being busy without being very busy. We found that acceptable as a "busy street" to live on, we can't hear traffic inside or in the backyard, and aren't very worried about our young kids being in front.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Simmer down - someone is itching to Karen no all caps please... NP here but it matters because buyers should care about the future, specifically resale value and appeal to a wider swath of potential buyers. Sure, OP and her DH might be fine or live with it, but if a lot of future buyers won't, they'll have to factor that in. In this market, buyers are overlooking all kinds of flaws, rightfully being told to not be super picky. But when buyers have even a little more choice, things like this can cause a house to linger if it is not priced to account for something like a "busy street" or a quirky layout.

OP - as other PPs have said, depends on context. Suburbs? Then 35 mph and above, even if two-lane arterial. In DC? Low speed cut-through streets with street bumps can also fit this definition, regardless of double striping of lack of. A PP's Upper NW description spot on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

OP here. I'm not letting what people think influence my decision. I was genuinely curious what others would define as a busy street. I see it mentioned a lot in posts about deal breakers when looking for a house and realized we could all be talking about completely different things when we say busy street.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1
We have streets like this in our neighborhood and DCs walk on them all the time to get to school and they don't feel busy. On weekends when they see their friends there are like no cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

OP here. I'm not letting what people think influence my decision. I was genuinely curious what others would define as a busy street. I see it mentioned a lot in posts about deal breakers when looking for a house and realized we could all be talking about completely different things when we say busy street.

Busy street to me is usually something near a commercial area. Double yellow lines would definitely be a no in my book.

[Anonymous]

H St corridor = busy street

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both of our houses have been on busy streets. Here are a few things to consider:

- How does it sound from the inside in places like your bedroom and the offices (if you WFH)?

- Are you near an intersection where cars will be stopping? That will exacerbate any noise.

- Are there a lot of pedestrians, and what kind? (we get a lot of loud high school groups who are noisier than the cars)

- Will you ever be crossing as a pedestrian? Will you feel safe doing so with young kids (if applicable)?

- How do you get in and out of the car? A (flat) driveway is ideal. If you park on the street but there's a bike lane, that's helpful too. If there's no buffer between your parked car and the traffic lane, you might feel unsafe, especially with young kids.

These are good questions.

Another question from a friend of ours, whose house is across from the neighborhood community center, is do the car lights shine directly on your house as cars pass by? That would have been a deal breaker for them but because the driveway to the parking lot came out at an angle, they don't have 200 cars lighting up their house after an event at the center.

[Anonymous]

50 cars during rush hour isn’t that busy but it’s certainly not quiet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:H St corridor = busy street

But that's to be expected. It's a dense, urban area with tons of amenities. IMO being on a busy road on H ST or 14 ST/Logan isn't a draw back; it's a positive to be in the middle of the action.

[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.

If anything back, front, side, rush hours only, carpool line, bus lane, school, etc. ANYTHING pinged me as possibly busy I moved on. It was my biggest top ultimate no-no. Never again on a busy street. So my answer to you, is NOPE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

If anything back, front, side, rush hours only, carpool line, bus lane, school, etc. ANYTHING pinged me as possibly busy I moved on. It was my biggest top ultimate no-no. Never again on a busy street. So my answer to you, is NOPE.

I'll add to that: speed bumps, stop signs, and corner lots or even near a downhill stop sign. You will get breaking and accelerating sounds all day. NOPE.

[Anonymous]

We live on a street that would definitely be considered busy - double yellow lines, four lanes, 35mph limit, cut through to two VERY busy roads. Don't mind it at all. Very convenient and the road noise honestly sounds like white noise. No lights/turns, so there is very rarely any honking.

[Anonymous]

Speed limit >= 35mph