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huverk t1_j1ahkzk wrote

We lived in Columbia for 30 years and just moved to Ellicott City a year and a half ago. Both communities are equally family oriented in my opinion. Columbia has much more population density compared with Ellicott City because there are a lot more condominiums and apartments there. This also means the traffic is worse there; however, I will say there are several different ways to get everywhere so you normally aren't stuck. Columbia has more amenities such as the Columbia Association gyms, skating rink, ice rink, bowling and almost anything else you can think of. I love living in Ellicott City since we have a lot more land but the one thing I really miss is the huge amount of restaurants in Columbia compared with options in Ellicott City.

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BismarkUMD t1_j1bdxpt wrote

No road on its worst day in Columbia is as bad as 40 in Ellicott City is on its best day.

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Arcticsnorkler t1_j1cwgs1 wrote

Agree unless it is one of the 90 concert days at Columbia’s Pavilion or a December weekend evening at Columbia’s Festival of Lights. Then you, after a long day at work, have a good chance of being stuck in a traffic jam for an hour where you can see your spouse waiting for you in the window of your apartment at Juniper Apartment bldg.

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bizbiz23 t1_j1dp9d4 wrote

LOL this is rough. If you go down Banneker Drive near the fire house, there's a community towards the bottom with some visitor spots that are almost always open where you should have no issue parking for a day, or even more at times (as long as it's not 3 or more I think).

From there, you can walk the path through the woods and Merriweather is about 1,000 steps and the buildings on the other side of it are about 2,000. Just figured I'd let you know in case you know this is going to happen again. There are probably some closer public spots, but these ones are safe as far as I know.

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Temporary_Version240 t1_j1dcyef wrote

I don’t think 40 itself is that bad unless there are accidents on 70. But any alternate routes can have that. Certainly the area by St John’s and 70 sucks during rush hour and I’ve personally seen it as a parking lot by Turf Valley a few times when 70 was actually shut down. But the worst area is just the choke points where 40, 70, and 29 all converge. Which IMO isn’t any different than various areas on 29, 32, 175 and 108.

And try going down 108 in the Long Reach area during rush hour or Snowden around Kendall Ridge/Columbia Gateway area. Those are areas I don’t even go near during rush hour.

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k0vi86 t1_j1cxqun wrote

Snowden river parkway is definitely worse than route 40 after work.

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BismarkUMD t1_j1d47hj wrote

Because people are making left hand turns across 3 lanes of traffic with out controls every 20 feet on Snowden?

I drive Snowden river parkway from just north of Broken Land all the way to 108 every week around 515pm. And I'd take it over 40 any day.

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k0vi86 t1_j1dcgqo wrote

The amount of lights on Snowden it can take 15 mins or more to go from broken land to 100. 40 has their fair share of idiots but the stretch of road from 29 to enchanted forest is pretty short.

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rpg36 t1_j1bccru wrote

You can join the CA even if you don't live in Columbia. We joined with the play package so we can use the pools and ice skating rink.

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