Portland --> Sherwood Commute?

October 4, 2016 10:24 AM

I've just been offered a new job which is great on paper, but the commute has me concerned. Does any one have experience with the Portland to Sherwood, OR commute?

After a lot of job searching, I've met a great match with an established company that is based in Sherwood. Traveling to the office is non-negotiable (no WFH or in town offices). Does anyone have experience making this commute?

Google Maps says it will take 50-100 minutes to get home to SE Portland if I leave at 5 pm and quite frankly, that sounds terrible. Is this estimate realistic? There might be some flexibility in start/end hours, but I'm hoping there's a sneaky path using backroads that will shave off some time.

posted by Flamingo to Travel & Transportation around Portland, OR (8 answers total)

That sounds like a crappy commute, at least in the afternoon. If at all possible, I'd look at living on the west side of the Willamette. One of the things I've found that makes commutes worse is the fact that there are limited places to cross the river. If you can at least work and live on the same side of the river, that would help. (not sure if you're moving here, or already have a place in SE.)

Have you looked at cutting over and taking 205 north to 224 or just keep on 205 to home (depends on how far out you are in SE).
posted by hydra77 at 10:34 AM on October 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Not to threadsit but to clarify that we own a house in SE near Hollywood and we will not be moving.
posted by Flamingo at 10:48 AM on October 4, 2016

Anecdata: I have a friend who took a job about a year ago in Newberg (about 2-3 miles further down 99 from Sherwood). She lives downtown near PSU and routinely experiences two hour commutes home.
posted by togdon at 11:54 AM on October 4, 2016

Best answer: I have never found an alternative route from Google Maps that shaved off more than 5 minutes. You can check maps directions every day before leaving because sometimes traffic changes, there's an accident, etc. But unfortunately I think that overall the estimate you have is realistic.
posted by serelliya at 11:56 AM on October 4, 2016

Best answer: My partner semi-regularly commutes by car to Tigard, which is closer to Portland, and when he has to drive back in the afternoon/evening it's not unusual for him to be in the car for 1+ hours. If you can adjust your time and leave by 4pm, you'll probably be mostly towards the 50 minute end of the scale, unless there is an accident or something (which will definitely happen sometimes). If you are really looking at leaving at 5pm, I'd be surprised if you managed under 2 hours getting home regularly, honestly. I have a 1+ commute each way myself, and it eats up an awful lot of my time. But I can go by MAX, so my long commute is a lot less stressful than a car commute. I'm not sure I'd agree to 1+ hours in the car each way.

There just aren't a lot of alternatives that make a meaningful difference in time from the west side-- you get stuck with freeways and/or tunnels and/or bridges, and there's not much to do but slog through.
posted by Kpele at 12:22 PM on October 4, 2016

Best answer: I live in outer SE and work in Tigard, but drive to Sherwood on a regular basis.

The commute is pretty terrible. You would be in stop-and-go traffic from Sherwood to I-5, and then your options are still terrible: I-5 N at that time of day is gridlocked and I-205 N doesn't really go to the Hollywood district.

If it were me, I wouldn't make that commute unless the pay was exceptional. Or unless I could shift my schedule so the commute isn't during rush hour.
posted by tacodave at 12:54 PM on October 4, 2016

Best answer: I did this commute for 2.5 years and can confirm that it suuuuuucks. It was a major factor in my decision to leave my last job.
Your best bet is to try commuting at odd hours; in my experience, working later (10-6:30) helped drop the commute down to a manageable 35-40 minutes. I tried earlier (8-4) and while the morning was ok, in the afternoon it regularly took 90 minutes to get home. There are some off-highway routes that can keep you moving more, but it takes the same amount of time.
posted by adastra at 11:23 PM on October 4, 2016

This may be an option: Google says that the bus is no slower than driving yourself. Doesn't save any time, but you can be reading/typing/knitting/playing/napping.
posted by at at 10:45 AM on October 5, 2016