Currently my commute tends to be about 45-50 mins depending on trains (mostly on the tube with a 10-15 minute walk at the other end). Mostly either listen to podcasts or read a book.
Back in australia I used to do a 2hr door to door for a while there by train (wife was still in uni+working in the place where we lived, so preferred doing the longer commute myself when I was used to it rather than move somewhere we’d both have an annoying journey from that wouldn’t be close to anything). In the mornings I used to get a bit of sleep on the train (the long stretch was about an hour and a half straight on one train), and on the way home I’d either read a book or watch a movie on the laptop. Wasn’t too bad once you were used to it.
For four years I commuted 80 miles each way. It took a minimum of 1 hour 15 minutes, but on heavy traffic days it could take four hours or more.
I once worked with a guy who lived two states away (New England States, I’ll grant, but it’s still a hefty commute). It took over two hours each way, even at the best of times.
I take mass transit downtown into Chicago, and my evening commute, depending on the train I take, may take an hour and a half. The morning is an hour door to door, the evening usually more like an hour and a quarter. Moving downtown would not be a guarantee of having a shorter commute, as I’d be stuck using the L or buses, which do not run as smoothly and promptly as the commuter train system, and depending on where I lived, might require a few transfers and the delays associated with those. I could get a car if we lived downtown, sure, but my husband uses our current car for driving to his job, and having two cars in Chicago could get expensive. Where we live now, my commute wouldn’t necessarily be shorter with a car, and it would definitely be more expensive.
I work in medical research in a large Chicago hospital, so I wouldn’t have many options for finding similar work closer to my house.
It’s no big deal for me commuting. I leave early, come home before 6, and have time on the train to read, play handheld video games, knit, or nap, while listening to podcasts or music.
I had a 45 minute commute for my last job, and I hated every single minute of it. It took every ounce of my energy to not quit every day I went in. It’s an absolutely soul-sucking experience.
The thing I didn’t understand were the people on the other side of the highway. The direction I went was against traffic. Everyone on the other side had an hour and a half commute. I just can’t wrap my head around that choice.
My commute to San Francisco was an hour and 15 minutes for the two mile drive from home to the train station, the train ride and then walking two blocks to my office. Round trip cost was about $10.50
If I needed to drive the whole thing, it would be an hour and a half, and the traffic was so fragile that one person with a flat tire on the bridge could kick that up to two hours, and the cost would be about $45-50 for gas, tolls and parking.
Now, my commute can only be driven as mass transit is a vestigial afterthought here. It’s an easy 30-minute drive - about a mile at each end to the freeway. Traffic here is nothing like the Bay Area.
I also telecommute two days per week, so on those days, unless there’s a jack-knifed dog on the stairs, it’s about a 20-second walk from the coffee pot in the kitchen to my desk.
For seven years Lady Chance and I did seperate, 75 mile or so commutes to work and back. Total transit time was between three and four hours. There is nothing so horrifying as knowing that All Things Considered is a two hour loop program and realizing you’re hearing a story for the second time.
So we moved. Never again. The money is not the same but the 3-4 hours of our lives back and worth all the gold in the world.
My daily commute is about an hour each way, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. I enjoy it - I take the subway, and my house is on one end of the line, and my office is at the other end so I always get a seat both morning and evening. Having 2 hours a day for reading is terrific, sometimes I will read for work but usually it’s for pleasure.
The only time it sucks is when there is some sort of systemic delay. Adding more delay to a one hour trip is painful. Fortunately, that is an infrequent event.
My problem is that I live relatively close to work, but can’t afford a car (along with grad school and my own place), so I take public transportation. But there’s no direct bus route to my office, so I have to take a series of buses and trains. The combined act of waiting for the next arrival, to missing the next connection and having to wait forever for the next one can take anywhere from 50 minutes to 2 hours. And I only live 20 minutes away.
I travel 30 minutes each way to work twice a week and about 90-120 minutes three times a week. On the longer days I have the option of driving or taking the train. I almost exclusively drive even though it takes longer. I appreciate that driving is one act. Taking the train involves, driving to the train station, paying for parking, purchasing a ticket, making sure you’re on time for the train, getting to the destination train station, taking a subway to your final destination.
Something I have learned about myself is that I really don’t mind driving as long as I have something to listen to.
It takes me approximately one hour to get to work in the morning, and 1.5 hours to get home. This is with no traffic, accidents, detours, or bad weather factored in. I telecommute one day a week, and could do so every day except my boss is an automaton. (She is working at home several days a week because her mother has been ill and everything is just fine. There’s no reason at all either one of us has to come in – it’s all online.)
Moving closer to my job would only add to my husband’s commute.
My commute now is about 45 minutes and it is wonderful. I get on the train, grab a seat (there is a seat available almost every day) and go straight to work. No switching trains, no standing for an hour, no being stuck in traffic. Just reading my book for 45 minutes in the morning and afternoon.
I used to commute for a previous job and it was horrendous. It took an hour and a half each way and I had to switch trains 3 times. Worse yet was that one of the trains was not a subway but a train that runs on a regular schedule and the way it was set up I could be to work 4 minutes late every day but get an extra 40 minutes of sleep or I could be to work 10 minutes early but lose that 40 minutes in bed. Towards the end of my time at that job I just showed up 4 minutes late every day and dealt with the backlash from my boss because the sleep was more important to me.
Changing to the shorter commute gave me an hour and a half every day and that is worth more to me than any amount of money.
I used to travel and hour each way and hated it. Alas, if I go back into the “real” world I will likely have to do it again, as there are few jobs close to where I live in my field.
I commute about an hour each way, door to door, on a good day. It can take much longer on a bad day. I walk about 10 - 15 minutes to the orange line, and I can either stay on the orange line and walk another 15 minutes to work, or switch to the green line, which drops me right outside my office. The green line runs excruciating slowly, so I usually only bother in bad weather on the way to work, and avoid it like the plague on the way home, since if I take the green line, by the time I get to the orange line the trains are mobbed, and I can easily stand at the station for three or four trains until I can actually get on one.
Commuting by mass transit is bad for the soul. On a regular day, it’s a series of minor frustrations that add up to crankiness. On a bad day, it can put you in a real 'kill 'em all and let god sort ‘em out’ kind of mood.
My commute is 50 miles each way, which takes almost exactly an hour (about 90% highway).
I honestly don’t mind the 2 hours a day in the car because it allows me to listen to the news, as well as just think.
What I do hate are all the miles being put on my car. My 2008 car, purchased new in February 2008 now has 52,000 miles on it. :mad:
I could move, but I’m finishing school and my current location means I’m about 25 minutes from campus. That, and moving would mean I’d be away from all my friends.
Many years ago, I had a commute of roughly 60 miles each direction, from Thousand Oaks, CA to Santa Barbara. Not a bad way to kill an hour or two – most of the drive is on PCH right along the coast, close enough to feel the spray. Usually not very much traffic during the week, so you can zip along at 70 or so.
However, I eventually moved to SB, choosing an apartment about 4 blocks from the office – that was a pretty good commute too, walking down Anapamu past the courthouse.
My current commute is about 5 miles and can take as long as 15 min but I am frustrated when I get home since I’m still thinking about work and wanting to kill all of the other drivers.
I am looking forward to getting home in another 2 months where I have a 52 mile commute that takes me right at an hour and as much as an hour and a half in bad weather. Luckily there are very few other cars on the road so I have no frustrations. I have time to plan dinner, finish thinking about work and I get to listen to music and relax.
My worst commute was 110 miles it was all highway and took about 2 hours. It was too long my brain started to shutdown and I didn’t have time to do more then hit the gym and make dinner. My life felt rushed but I was living in a great place and I really hated the town I worked in, unfortunatly there was nothing in between. I did it for 2 years but I wouldn’t do a commute that long again.
My last commute was about an hour and five minutes, if I hit everything right. That means I get to the subway and it’s there and I get to the bus, from the subway and it’s there, and then the walk. Usually it was more like 90 minutes with waiting on the bus and the subway.
What’s really irritating was that if I could drive, or if someone drove me it was at MOST 20 minutes from my flat to work. Usually it was less.
I had one commute that was almost two hours each way, 'cause it was all buses. And the buses stop at every single corner to let people on and off. And it would’ve also been about 20 minute if you could drive.
That’s one big disadvantage to public transit, it’s only faster IF you take ONE subway and you’re going from stop to stop. If you have to change subways or subway to bus it’s forever.
I recall when I lived in Manhattan, I had to go from Battery Park to Times Square and I’d go so fast via the subway, but every once in awhile I wouldn’t feel like going underground so I’d hop a bus. I never made it from Battery Park to Times Square on a bus. It just takes FOREVER!!!. I would always get sick of the bus get off and hop the subway
I live 6 miles from work. My work provides me with a bus pass. 15-20 minutes on the express bus or 25-30 if I take the milk run. It costs too much to park everyday in downtown Seattle and given that the bus pass is free it is a no brainer to me to let Metro take me to work.
When I lived in CA I had about a 40 mile commute each way. San Luis Obispo to Paso Robles Airport. Now days, I think anything south of Safeco Field to be “too far.”