Quote:
Originally Posted by rnhood
If you desire a bit more seclusion or a more remote getaway place, then the Triangle may not be the best place. You can get away, mind you, but it'll take a car to do it. However, within a reasonable driving distance you have beautiful mountains in one direction as well as a beautiful coastline in the other direction.
Cycling here is great....once you're out past the city limits. In the rural farmland areas it is outstanding. Near the city limits however, it can be a challenge with respect to your "road shoulder" concerns. Its a congested area within the limits and some drivers simply don't like cyclists. We have certainly had our run-ins. I live in NW Raleigh and like it. Cary is very nice too, as is a number of other surrounding communities. Our greenway here is first rate, and gets a lot of cycling use especially in the winter months. Since cycling is your priority, I would look hard at NW Raleigh and The Cary/Apex area.
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I, of course, want it all. Defined as reasonable access to good medical (Duke may not be ranked like Mass General but that's mostly due to fewer specialities, most of which few care about), good grocery stores, and some sense of modern civilization while at the same time being able to slip into the country for quiet rides. Looking at the roads in that Strava URL, it's hard to figure the best transition points from one to the other because the reddest routes are the most urban by definition. Where I live now, tons of fairly rural routes are red. And the Raleigh area is growing so fast that the suburban buffer zones are getting overrun by new developments and busier roads, so what I would buy now may be wrong for what I buy when I retire.
I like the housing stock in North Raleigh and the big lots protected by Falls Lake on the north from encroachment, but the only way out to the country looks like Six Forks and that will lead to increasing development north of the lake. I am surprised the Strava density is not better going northwest from Wake Forest. I am thinking Bahama to Rougemont might not be bad 10 years from now for occasional access to the metro area but with a Whole Foods closer than Durham, by then. And north of Hillsborough is close to Durham but not close to RTP so might miss some of the people who prioritize commuting.
Cary and Apex are perfect commuter locations but you pay for that and lot sizes tend to be smaller than I am targeting. And of course as a cyclist I would like a basement for all my bikes but basements are fairly rare (due to clay and the frost line among other things). The biggest surprise in my research has been the ubiquity of HOAs, which has the potential to be a big negative.
The research is definitely part of the fun.