[Naritai]

It's too bad, really, because as you say Boise is quite beautiful. But yeah, there was no plan for handling population growth. Too many people wanted to leave out by Eagle / Nampa, but work in downtown or at Micron. And of course there is absolutely no way to get anywhere except by car.

[snuxoll]

It is indeed beautiful, which makes it terribly difficult for me to even consider leaving - especially having a five year old daughter to whom Boise is all she's ever known as home. I wish I could stay, but between the increasing pollution, lack of transit options (I don't drive, so this is huge to me), lack of jobs I'd actually want should I need new employment (ClearWater, HP, T-Sheets, Kount, etc. all suck in some way) combined with the political nightmare that Idaho has become have all but pushed me away. Heck, I can't even enjoy the beauty of the area half the time because there's so much litter everywhere these days -_-

[sudosteph]

That really stinks. It's amazing how many otherwise modern US cities let transit infrastructure linger in limbo. That was my experience in Charlotte too, though at least they've finally rolled out another leg of light rail to help somewhat. Seattle is the only place where I've had the option of living very comfortably without driving, and man its a game changer. Though I don't know if it's my long term pick due to costs of housing. What kind of alternatives to Boise are you looking at?

[snuxoll]

Portland is my top option, keeps me in the PNW close to family, nature is still close by, housing is within my means and TriMet is fantastic (I used it every day when I was visiting for PuppetConf 2015, by far my favorite out of the major cities I have visited). Seattle is a another option, but I'm really not a fan of WA's regressive tax structure and it's not very close to outdoor activities.

If it didn't put me so far away from my family I'd consider Boston since my brother-in-law + niece/nephew live there, but my daughter is much less attached to them than my mother and grandparents so it makes sense to stay close (at least PDX and SEA both have nonstop flights available to BOS, makes it much less painful to visit than the BOI-DEN-BOS legs with Southwest).

[Naritai]

I can hardly imagine trying to live in Boise without driving. Not because I love my car (now that I live in Silicon Valley I'm one of the few people who commutes by train), but because Boise is notably unfriendly to non-drivers. I agree that (every says) Portland should be much better for that.

[snuxoll]

Thankfully my wife drives, we made it work with bikes after we got married living by Capital High but after we had a child the car was a necessity. It’s hard for me because even if I wanted to drive my lack of peripheral vision on the left makes it unsafe (severe amblyopia as a child, my eye is aligned now but the vision center in my brain didn’t develop properly as a result).

Boise drivers are terrible as of late too, my wife hates getting in the car - just glad she is a stay-at-home mom so she doesn’t need to deal with I84 or the east-west arterials at rush hour :/

VRT is finally looking at expanding their hours and service area but it’s going to take a decade or more to even get to a point where they can invest in a rail line from Caldwell to Boise - I can’t wait that long, traffic is bad enough and the lane increases ACHD has been working on aren’t going to cut it. Pine Ave from Meridian Rd to Locust Grove is going to four lanes and it’s going to get clogged right back up.