I’m sure lots of people will post lots of different reasons. But considering the addage “time is money” and the fact that once you spend that time on the road or perhaps stuck in traffic, you cannot buy those hours back no matter how much money you have…
Why don’t people move closer to their jobs? Saving gas money, reducing pollution and not having to deal with traffic all seem like good motivations. But nothing tops the fact that moving could mean less of your life wasted on the road. What possible motivation is worth those precious hours of your life?
fyi: I have always lived very close to where I work or go to school, and not by accident.
I commute by train. I could have a parking spot and drive in-and I only live 15 miles from the office, so most days it would be a quick trip. Of course, when traffic is bad, it’s really, really bad.
So I take the train, it takes about 35 minutes. I have that time to read, and transition between work and home.
Why don’t I move closer? Because rents downtown are higher than I pay here, and I pay too much here.
Well there are a few possible answers, but I expect for most people the answer is that they can’t afford to live closer to where they work.
I live ten minutes from where I work. A house in the neighborhood–and I mean a small, unremodeled, nothing-special house–would be about $350,000. What most Americans think of as a nice house would be twice that.
So what a lot of people do around here is to move way out to the boonies to one of the cookie cutter housing developments that are covering the hills.
We’ve chosen the option of living in a small apartment for a while and spending two or three extra hours a day with the kids.
I’ve never had what I would seriously call a “commute,” so I can’t answer from personal experience.
However, a former co-worker years ago lived half-way between Columbia (where she worked) and Charlotte (where her husband worked). They both had significant positions in their workplaces, and this was the best solution for them. It meant long drives to and from work and living in the sticks, but it also meant they both got to keep the jobs they loved.
I know what’s off I-77 between those two cities. Nothing. Until I drove that stretch of road, I had no idea there was anyplace that flat-out deserted on the entire Eastern Seaboard.
When you say ‘the sticks’, you really mean it! :eek:
Getting back to the question, though, my wife and I commute because we work in Suitland, MD, which is not exactly a place you’d live in if you had a choice. The commute takes us about 35 minutes, which isn’t bad for the DC area, or for most major cities. And while we could live in VA and be about 20 minutes away, a house would’ve cost twice as much, and probably wouldn’t have been as nice. Here, we’ve got woods right behind the house, and plenty of room, and a house I love, instead of a house that I settled for.
Last job I had, the commute was six minutes, no traffic lights, and the job was killing me and wasn’t paying jack, either. Frankly, I can live with my commute.
Also, it’s a really pretty drive, most of the way, especially right now with the leaves turning.
I work aboard a Naval Air Station - living there isn’t an option. We chose to live in the adjacent county because the schools are better, the neighborhoods nicer, and shopping and such is more convenient. We back on to a preserve area - wetlands - so we have a view of the wild. It’s worth a 20-30 minute drive (depending on traffic)…
because even though i live an hour and a half away from where i work (city centre) the only houses nearby (about 15 minutes walk) are innercity and very dangerous to live in , infact Long sight and Moss side + some areas of Salford are considered THE most dangerous places to live in the UK , i lived in Moss side once as a student and there was a shooting right outside my house and 2 bullet holes in the brick work next to my door , which told me to move away from the inner city areas , the city appartments cost far too much about £500 a week rent ($750) and i can’t afford that , and city centres are busy noisy places too and esp at weekends there is alot of violence from roudy pub leavers
i would live closer to school, except my family lives in the same city (but on the other side of town from school). so to save money on rent i’ve been staying with family and i drove the 40min commute a few days each week when i had regular classes. ideally i would like to live in a place where i can walk everywhere or take public transportation. i don’t really like having to have a car.
Speaking for that silent group that may not have Internet access, that is, the immigrant gardeners and housekeepers who commute to Beverly Hills and Bel Air, California every day: “No tenemos dinero.”
Because the frelling company doesn’t understand that we have these things called “telephones”, and that computers can use them to do work remotely. There’s nothing I can do at my desk that I couldn’t do from home, but the company wants “everyone in the same building”.
They’ll be losing me in a few months. I hate living here and they won’t let me telecommute from where I want to live. Too bad for them. I’m pretty darn good.
I live on Long Island and always commuted to NYC for work…once you got use to commuting it didn’t make a difference how long the train ride was…45 minutes or an hour+. The difference was being able to live in a house in the 'burbs vs. an apartment in the city. We bought our house before we got married based on what we could afford vs. how far was still a reasonable commute and for the next 7 years I commuted a roundtrip of about 3 1/2 to 4 hours (yikes!). For the last few months my commute has consisted of a flight of stairs to an office formerly-known-as-bedroom-number-four. There’s no way I could ever go back to that lifestyle.
I work in Charlotte, NC, and just recently moved out to the “boonies.” I’ve got about a 45 minute ride, but a lot of it is country roads, and I actually enjoy the quiet time. (I’ve got three kids at home, one of the reasons we moved to the country.) We’ve got a nice, roomy house on 4 acres of land, great schools, and instead of hearing sirens at night, we hear crickets. And being a biker here in NC, there’s only a few days when it’s too cold to ride. True, I wouldn’t mind having a job closer to home, but until I find one, I’ll be cleaning the bugs outta my teeth, but smiling nonetheless.
Back when I commuted, I did it for lifestyle. My job was in the 'burbs and I chose to continue living downtown and drive 1+ hours each way because the 'burbs were sad and lifeless. I did this for a couple of years and didn’t mind at all. It gave me an hour to get my head together in the morning and another to recap the day in the evening. I can’t tell you how many breakthroughs and insights I had during that drive.
Now I live in the country (rural, not suburban), and I have a twelve-step commute. Sometimes I miss the time to think.
I commute about 45 minutes (about the same number of miles) to and from work every day. Why don’t I move? Well, I’ve got a lot of things I’m involved with locally so I’d have to commute the opposite way somewhat regularly anyway.
I plan on returning to college soon and I live in the same town/city as my school. Also, I’m still hoping to pick up some cute college chick or something, and I can’t very well do that at a distance of 45 miles!
Before I got my apartment in NYC, I was commuting from Newburgh NY every day for about 10 months. Hated it… on the express bus it was supposed to be about an hour and ten each way, but traffic always screwed that up, so I could count on at least three bus hours each day. The ride home was ok-- that unwinding from work, having time to read or nap. Getting up at 6:00am to catch the bus I needed sucked-- I’m about as far from being a morning person as you can get.
Yet there were people on my bus who were clearly career commuters. I guess they did it for the same reasons those above have mentioned-- cheaper to live outside the city, maybe more convenient to the schools they wanted their kids to go to. I was never happier than when I found my apartment, though. My commute was wearing me out-- you wouldn’t think that sitting down for an hour and a half at time could do that, but somehow it does.
I study these types of things at work (I am an economist). There are a number of reasons why a person may feel that it is worth the time, money and effort to commute for hours every day. A lot of them have already been mentioned here.
House prices, rents,neighborhood, family, friends, quality of schools, proximity to nature, etc are all factors that may be important when choosing where to live. For a lot of people the type of job they want to have, or maybe the jobs they can get, will be in another part of town. They will then weigh the pros and cons of all these factors and quite often they will choose to live in one place and commute for hours to work or school.
Another factor that causes commuting is that economic activity tends to be more concentrated to the centre of urban regions. Companies often derive advantages out of being located close to other companies (so called cluster effects). So some areas will tend to have a larger number of workplaces than there are places to live (The day population is higher than the night population). Other areas will be better suited for houses or apartments and these areas will attract services that cater to those living there. It is all about specialization.
I’M the guy the Controvert was wondering about. I work in NYC (Midtown, well outside the blast radius) and live outside Philadelphia. I drive 40 minutes to Trenton, take an hour plus train ride to New York, and walk another 20 minutes or so to the office. Total round trip time daily: 4 1/2 hours
Why? Several reasons.
I grew up within a few miles of where I live. I like it here. All my family and most of my friends are here.
Living anywhere I’ve seen around (much less in) New York has never really held much appeal for me, and appeals much less to me now that I have a wife and daughter.
I like my job. I like the specifics of it – my co-workers, my working conditions, etc. I’ve looked around, and have never found anything that seemed like an adequate match. Many comparable jobs would routinely require more overtime than I currently work. Given a choice between a 10 hour day with a 2 hour commute, or an 8 hour day with a 4 hour commute, I’ll generally take the latter.
The driving portion of my commute is on limited access highways at off hours, and is pretty easy on me and my car compared to my slightly longer drive to a previous job in Philadelphia. The rail portion is prone to infuriating delays, but allows me a free hour in either direction to nap or read. Other than the time it takes away from other pursuits, I think my commute is less unpleasant an experience than an urban drive of half the length would be.
I get paid a New York salary, and have a Philadelphia cost of living. The difference is well in excess of my commuting costs, and hastens the date of my eventual retirement.
So, on the balance, while it would be great to work within a 5 minute stroll of my job (though being too accessible to one’s employer has a downside as well), this seems like the best arrangement possible. At least until telecommuting becomes more feasible.
My answer is because work is one of the less important areas of my life. More important are friends, surroundings, and the like, so I wanna be where everybody knows my name. It would be an amazing coincidence if this happened to be close to my job (the city I live in is somewhat sprawled out), but I gots my priorities. I bought a house in the area of town where I wanted to spend the other 128 hours of the week and planted myself there.
Because of this decision, I have recently worked where I had a 45-minute commute. That did grow old; instead of spending time where everybody knew my name I was spending it on the freaking road. Therefore, I did the amazing: got a job closer to where I live. Now it’s a 15 minute commute. Yay!
I live 7-8 minute drive, 15 minute bus trip, or 40 minute walk from work (walk if the weather cooperates, otherwise try to take the bus, rarly drive). I love having all of those options, never having to worry about snow/ice, gas prices, or the wreck on the interstate.
Just couldn’t get used to a regular hour+ drive each way. Although I could see the appeal of a long train ride everyday, reading time or what-not.
