bearfacts

Hi, I may be working in Abbotsford, Coquitlam, Port Moody - or possibly Chiliwack. We like the look of Maple Ridge, how is the commute to the above places?
Car journey or public transport easier? Bridge tolls?

Appreciate any info. on this.

Maple Ridge looks like a good place to live. Sure it's a bit of a hike to downtown I guess. But again, cheaper to live there. Still can't get used to the overblown prices in Vancouver housing.

Cheers.

Aviator

If you are working in PoCo pr PM, traveling from MR is not too bad.

If you are working in Abby or Chilliwack, forget MR, it would be a pain to do that everyday. Moving to Abbotsford would be a better move and in my opinion far nicer than MR.

No transit from MR to Abby or Chilliwack. No transit between Abby and anywhere else.

scrubbedexpat091

Not true completely true there is some limited transit from Abby to Aldergrove and Langley.

Abbotsford transit does serve Aldergrove, which then allows access to Langley/Surrey/Sky Train by connecting to translink there.

There is also the joint venture between Chilliwack and Abbotsford offering transit service between Chilliwack-Abbotsford-Langley.

Aviator

These options take around 2 hours vs a 30 min car ride and are nowhere near good enough to commute by. Certainly nothing like the OP is used to as far as transit is concerned in the UK.

withabix

Its 45 minutes drive each way from NE Maple Ridge to the centre of Abbotsford via Lougheed Highway. Likely to be a bit longer in winter.

The only holdup (according to my wife) is coming back in the evening at the junction of Abbotsford-Mission Highway and Lougheed.

Takes about the same time going via Golden Ears Bridge and HW1 assuming Canadians don't drive off the edge of the lovely straight piece of HW1 at 264st, which they have a regular (daily!!) habit of doing although you have to factor in the extra $6.60 for the return trip.

There are some nice areas in Abbotsford (Sumas Mountain particularly), although home burglary and vehicle crime appears to be a lot worse in Abbotsford than Maple Ridge.

In before someone calls me a racist, but there is a definite problem with Asian-based crime in Abbotsford at the moment, including Asian-on-white bullying of children. Some areas to the west side of Abbotsford are particularly affected by black-on-white racism, the same areas suffering a lot of vehicle crime. It seems to be the under-30 age group that are at the centre of this.

Abbotsford has a number of Asian drug gangs and I can see there being some more stabbings and shootings coming soon...its a mini version of Surrey.

We spend just over a year in a 'nice' subdivision between Abbotsford and Aldergrove and then bought in Maple Ridge (Silver Valley). The crime levels and what we had witnessed locally were part of the reason...

scrubbedexpat091

I didn't say it was, but you had said none existed which wasn't true, so simply pointing out service do exist, now if someone wants to use the or finds them viable, that is a matter of opinion.

I would have loved a connection to Chilliwack when I lived out that way, and there are people who commute via Aldergrove, it is long I agree, but it is used by folks.

scrubbedexpat091

I like Maple Ridge, almost lived there, but the rental places in my range were a little too sketchy for me.

Always like the area though for the most part.

bearfacts

Thanks for the responses and quality info. Good to have local insight. Maple Ridge and Abbotsford 'look close' on the map... but for sure with traffic/junctions it's a bit of a commute I guess. It depends what we class as a long commute. 45mins is reasonable I think.
We've travelled as 'tourists' in the area, but just along Highway 1 up to Hope. The road was smooth and way less busy than the M6....ha, that wouldn't be difficult.

You must enjoy living in the mighty Fraser Valley.

bearfacts

Yes Maple Ridge seems a good area to live. With home prices in Vancouver absurdly over valued, I guess MR enjoys popularity, being a bit cheaper. Saw some reasonable town homes 'end of Terraced' at not bad prices. 2 Bed home and garage would do us. Don't need a large Canadian palace as such.

withabix

What puts some people off Maple Ridge is that the 'city centre' is rather linear, stretching from about 200st right to 228st+ and spread across Lougheed Highway and Dewdney Trunk Road.

Haney is the real city centre, up at 220-224st area, but all of the big-box stuff (what there is of it) is down at Meadowtown in Pitt Meadows (just west of what would be 199st if PoCo used street numbers). They need a Home Depot too, although there is one in PoCo.

People complain about the traffic in Maple Ridge at rush hour particularly, but it can easily be avoided by careful choice of route. Most of the congestion is caused by 3 or 4 sets of badly-sequenced traffic signals and lemming drivers, not the actual volume of traffic. The only real problem place is the confluence of Golden Ears, Lougheed and Dewdney.

The route up to Silver Valley along Abernethy Way/128 Avenue has a bottleneck caused by the traffic lights at 216st, but that is going to get better in the next few months as they just started dualling 216st to 210st, the result of which should be that the (ineffective) ban on right turns on red and restrictions on peak-time left turns at 216st will be removed.

bearfacts

Great detail Withabix. Useful to know. I'll look at these things when I'm in the area checking things out. One thing for sure, we'd need to buy 'away from main roads' - cul de sac or such like. Quiet area is at the top of the list. Tho I've found in Canadian towns that's usually doable.

Aviator

Before thinking about buying property, renting for several months to a year in an area is sensible. I would not want to do MR to Abby or Chilliwack on a regular basis, or the other way round.

If you buy in the wrong place and want to move it can be costly. Assuming you could sell quickly, selling a house with a realtor is 7% of the 1st $100k and 2-3% on the rest, plus legal costs and sales tax on all the fees.

JuneSpring

Prices in Vancouver are even higher than a couple of months ago, and 15-20 percent higher than last year. It's a joke.

nativenewyorker

My other half works in Abbotsford next to the airport and we live in Maple Ridge. It takes him 30-40 minutes and he says it is a good commute as he goes against the traffic.

el_richo

With Maple Ridge, i'd recommend renting for a year. It's like Marmite. You either love it or hate it.

Especially rent because you're either in a nice-ish subdivision or a dirty shithole surrounding by dodgy looking people. Over half of MR is the latter.

If you want to be in a nicer area out of the hustle and bustle of drug addicts and drunk homeless people, try the Whonnock area. Lots of space, nice little lake, nice little school, and lots of bears.