How many days a week will you need to commute to GT? If the answer is 5 I would just focus on neighborhoods within a close commute, Atlanta traffic is terrible.

yep, 5 days per week.

I was looking at the neighborhoods of Lindbergh (4.5 miles) and Avondale Estates (11 miles) away. Actually, the spot in Marietta was only 16.4 miles away which is a little shorter than my current commute in metro DC (northern VA).

I really liked living in the Vinings/Smyrna area when I was there for a bit. There are a decent amount of road options that allow you to shoot out of the city and have some good long rides. There is also the silver comet trail nearby which is good for rides and awesome for running. It also isn’t awful travel wise from midtown to that area, it’s kind of a hole in the traffic compared to other areas (basically can’t go any other direction lol). I did that commute every day for 5 years.

Good luck!

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My Strava | My Instagram | Summerville, SC | 35-39 AG | 4:41 (70.3), 10:05 (140.6) | 3x70.3, 1x140.6 | Cat 2 Cyclist

I’ve lived here most of my life, and there are no good places to start a ride in metro Atlanta. There is trail running near Stone Mountain and Chattahoochee river parks. There is great riding in Stone Mountain park - I’ve ridden and run tens of thousands of miles there. Plan to drive to the fringe of the city to start a ride.

Traffic to GA Tech is rough, so plan your home around that commute to make it easier to get life balance for the other stuff.

Not sure of your hours, but Marietta to GA Tech is a nightmare from 7am to 9am and 3pm to 6pm on the return. Plan for an hour commute each way, sometimes well over an hour if there’s rain. If you can afford it, live closer, within a few miles of Tech and commute by bike or e-bike (becoming more common) or do a car and bike commute depending upon the day. There’s actually a solid in town bike path community- https://www.pathfoundation.org/ and the https://beltline.org/ that can take you a lot of places without going on many roads.

Lots of ways to go from intown to Stone Mountain park, as mentioned above for great cycling. Avondale Estates is roughly midway between Tech and Stone Mountain, and very easy to bike to lots of locations. “City of Decatur” or just outside of it in Decatur, is another bike friendly community closer to Tech and cycling options, Lindbergh area is a bit busier for cycling in the immediate area. Lots of other riding from intown to out of town with many road cycling group rides. Running at/around Piedmont park, and running along the BeltLine is nice. The edge of the BeltLine path in some areas is like a rubber track surface. Swimming at Tech is an amazing facility. Tech campus, is very bike friendly.

Stand up paddle board, might be the time when you drive to it. Again, Marietta, or Roswell for that matter, would be a really, really hard commute. It’s very common for just a 6 mile commute to be 30 to 40 minutes in traffic in Atlanta metro.

https://atlanta.curbed.com/...ommutes-nation-study

Hi Pattie, Roswell to Georgia Tech is a horrible commute. So bad that a friend of mine who did it used to sleep on a couch in the student lounge, which is not much better than sleeping at a bus station, a couple of nights a week to avoid a day or two of it.

I would recommend somewhere closer in on the northwest side of the city and then drive out to Roswell/Marietta on the weekends or evenings. That's what many do. I ran for Tech, lived nearby in Home Park, and we would all drive up to Kennesaw on Sunday mornings to run. Georgia State team did the same. Even after I graduated and started working out in Marietta, I stayed living intown off of Northside and drove out to Marietta for work...it was fine.

Oh, one more thing. Regarding Kennesaw Mountain trails, be prepared for the greatest trail running experience you will ever have :)

If you don't mind riding and running in urban areas, look around the Underwood hills area. It's about 3-4 miles from Tech and an easy commute.

If you check Strava's route creator, it connects to a ton of intown routes. Yes there are cars, but the speed limit is around 25 mph. I found my favorite time to get out was around 4 pm. The roads I was on were wide and either had traffic that wasn't moving or no traffic at all in beautiful neighborhoods and hills. PM me if you decide to go that route and want me to share some routes with you.

These are all great tips. I'll also look at Riverside/underwood hills - looks like a decent neighborhood. I'm also hoping to make weekly visits to the velodrome.

Just remember, Atlanta is an hour away from Atlanta.

I've lived here since 2007. I'm in Vinings/Smyrna (who the heck knows) but about a mile from the Silver Comet Trail. Comet goes to the Alabama border. It's fun sometimes but it can get a little boring. It might be why I spend so much time on Zwift. Also, Vinings is close to Cochran Shoals which is an absolute amazing place to run/bike especially in the summer. Saturdays/Sundays you'll see tons of people running and riding there.

Windy Hill Athletic Club is a really nice gym/club. There's even a masters swim M/W/F at 6am. But you'll have access to GT so I'm not sure you'll need an outside gym.

It's also a pretty easy drive down Atlanta Road to get to GT, considering being in Atlanta.

On the weekends we all drive up to Cartersville and ride up to 100 miles out there with limited traffic.

Anyway, good luck in finding a place.

If you're going to work at Tech then absolutely Do Not live outside of the 285 perimeter. Try to live very close to the MARTA line so you can commute in by train to Tech. MARTA is only effective if you live/work right off the line. Decatur, Avondale Estates, Candler Park, Edgewood, Kirkwood, East Lake, Oakhurst. are on the MARTA line and can easily access Stone Mountain for weekday riding and paddle boarding and Legacy Park for trail running.

On the weekend you can commute to Silk Sheets, Silver Comet, North Georgia mountains...etc for riding, Kennesaw Mountain for running and plenty of lakes and rivers for paddle boarding. I live in the city very close to work. I drive more on weekends than commuting during the week.

For swimming Tech has a great aquatic center so you are covered there.

Yes, I should have emphasized, and I see you mentioned, that Stone Mountain Park has a 323 acre lake that you will see Kayakers, crew rowers, stand up paddle boards, and small motor boats. Generally the lake has very few people on it and is smooth, unless very, very windy. You can get an annual pass for $40 to enter the park by car. It’s free to enter the park by foot or bike.

They also have running trails, there, as well.

Here is a good source for intown rides both weekdays and weekends. https://atlptn.com/ There is also a Wednesday businessman ride that rolls out of 3 Taverns Brewery at 11AM or 9AM depending on the season. Just remember these are road bike group rides with roadies so no tri bikes or aerobars.

I've lived in ATL area for 40+ years, if you work intown the best thing to do is live inside the perimeter unless you can work some off hours(get in before 7 leave before 4 flex schedule) Otherwise you're losing 1-2 hours of your day depending on the day commuting from Marietta or Roswell. Being from NVA you are probably use to the traffic, the only difference is our public transit is not as good as the DC metro area. I think everyone here has given you the 2 best options but I'll add a little more color.

Option 1 - Vinings to UnderwoodHills - good trendy food/bar/brewery options. You can stay off the Interstate and come in the back way to GT.
You have great riding options, Cumberland connector out to Silver Comet and "easier" to get out to Cartersville from that side of town for long out of town rides.
For running, Chattahoochee River Nat Rec trails or head into town through Atlantic station and over to Piedmont park is another good route. Also easy to get up to Kennesaw mountain for great trail running or Lake Allatoona for Paddle Boarding or open water swimming.

Option 2 - Along the Blue line from Inman Park out to Avondale Estates. Easy access via Marta to GT. Again, lots of food/bar/brewery options from down town Avondale though Decatur down to the Beltline/Old FourthWard/Krog St area.
Riding and running along the Beltline to Piedmont Park, or along the Path to Lullwater Road over to Emory and Lullwater Park. The Path give you lots of options in this area for routes. Easy out to Stone Mountain for riding and running and Paddle Board.

Riding in Atl is rough, and rush traffic is considerably worse. I live around Buckhead/Lindbergh are and have friends in the East Atlanta Village to GT area, and that's easily a 40 minute drive during rush hour from where I am. Coming from north of the perimeter would be a rough drive to make daily. One potential option for you would be the near a marta stop, you could ride into North Ave or Midtown and have a short walk over. Would still be a lengthy commute but at least you wouldn't have to drive

For riding you pretty much need to head 30+ minutes out from the city to get to quieter areas. I do a very large percentage of my riding indoors since riding outside in my area is hopeless, but the Silver Comet Trail and Six Gaps are where I go if I'm looking to be outside. Tons of tri bike on the SCT and roadies love riding the gaps. Trail running is a little more manageable near the city, Stone Mt out east, Kennesaw NW, Cochran Shoals kind of in the middle. If you head up north you'll hit the Appalachian trail and tons of others that range from gravel roads to rocky technical routes.

Atlanta native, currently live in Buckhead which is ~4 mi from Tech campus (also an alum). Everyone's advice is spot on. If you work at Tech in Midtown, don't live in Marietta and probably not Roswell either. Distance is relatively meaningless intown because of the traffic volume. A friend works at Tech and used to live in Marietta, it was over an hour each way.

I work in downtown which is less than 2 miles from campus. Someone on my team lives in Roswell and on a good day, 45 minutes each way. But any accident on 400, 285, or the connector and it's 90 minutes. With the current roadwork going on where they shut down some lanes, it can be over 2 hours if anything happens (rare but not that rare).

Living within perimeter is going to be better for lifestyle - less commute, more to do, more convenient. But it's less ideal for training - cycling in the city can be sketchy. There are quiet roads but you have to get on busy ones between them and with traffic + lights it's a lot of stop and go. FWIW, I'm still recovering after getting hit by car on Peachtree not far from Midtown.

There is a decent greenway in Roswell that is continually being expanded, somewhat crowded though. Silver Comet on west side is very nice but it literally does not turn - and it's super crowded near the entrance points. Stone Mountain is nice but it's only a 5 mile loop around mountain, decent elevation changes though. Better for running than biking.

As mentioned many times previously, living OtP is a commitment to a lengthy daily commute; some worse than others. If possible, why not live near campus? It's been an explosion of development on the Westside the last decade and now there's way more to chose from. I'd much rather pack up the bike in my car for drives to wherever you want to ride twice a week than commute five days for the sake of being closer to acceptable riding options.

That said, one neighborhood not mentioned is East Point. It's on the MARTA line, not the worst commute to Tech if you want to drive and the riding heading southbound(Airport Ride) is not terrible..

Lots of good advice here. The traffic here is absolutely as bad as you can imagine. The Roswell area is awesome for all of your requirements except the commute. It is probably 45-60 minutes to GT. The Vinings, Smyrna area would be second best and reduce your commute by half. It is very easy to go S Atlanta Road to Northside or Chattahoochee Blvd the back way into Tech. Silver Comet Trail is fantastic and right there . You are close to Cochran Shoals a/k/a Columns Drive which has a large multi-sport running community training there daily. Open water swimming, etc is about 30 minutes north at Red Top Mountain. Road cycling on Atlanta roads is not for the faint of heart, but it is well supported with quite a few ride groups on Facebook. The Budweiser plant and Sosebee Cycling Park are in White, GA about 45 minutes north of Smyrna, Vinings. The cycling community there is really strong on the weekends with many loops marked on the roads.

Awesome everyone, thank you all. Still figuring it all out and holy cow, the Atlanta housing market is bonkers - almost DC prices.