I suppose this goes along with my ‘buying a new house’ question from a few days ago. How far do you commute to work? And for those who commute a long ways, does it bother you?
1 mile on the bus. It’s fantastic. I cannot understand why people choose to live as far away as some of my co-workers do.
It’s like having a 25th hour in the day compared to the suburbanites.
6 miles. It is really nice. When all is said and done I used to drive a little less than an hour each way and it was a real drag. 1.5 hours driving time per day adds up when you could be biking and running. Hmmm, brings up a good question though… Is it better to live closer to good workout areas and farther from the office or vice versa? I guess closer to both is where you want to be…
24 miles each way; 21 of it on interstate highway. I used to live 10 miles from work, so it now cost me about an extra $3 / day in gas, plus the additional mileage. I work from home a day or two a week.
18.3 (one way) miles from my apartment to work, which Google Maps says will take 27 minutes. In the morning that is true, in the evening it’s another 5-10.
From my girlfriend’s it’s 26.7 (one way), and Google Maps says it will take 36 minutes. That’s totally not true, it’s at least 45 in the morning, can take over an hour if I leave too late (typically because she’s running behind).
And take on another 12.9 (one way) from my place to class at night. I wish I could ride that, but no one would EVER want to sit by me…
The commute from my place isn’t bad, it’s probably made better by appreciating how much better it is compared to my girlfriend’s place. I typically listen to a book via an iPod, so I get some decent quality time there. Recently I’ve taken to driving without any music or radio, just to have quiet time, which is nice. I’m also trying to force myself to call people to keep in touch during my PM commute as well. I’m horrible about calling people, so it’s time well spent.
I’d MUCH rather a shorter commute, but it’d mean living near “nothing” and would mean my commute to class would be more like 25 miles one way. My current location is pretty much in the middle between work, and school/fun. I’m also 1.3 miles from a great bike/run path, .3 from a HS track and .3 from a good long uphill for repeats. It’s a good situation all things considered.
And to your “buying a house” thread, I’m trying to buy in this immediate area.
With the exception to one job location (2 year/60 mile round trip), I have always been less the 6 miles from my employment. More like 2-3 miles for most locations/jobs. It is EXTREMELY important for me to spend less time commuting, so that I have more available time for other activities.
When I did commute, I had a nice ride through country roads, little traffic, so the 1 to 1 1/2 hours on the road was not bad. Put me in congested traffic for 1/2 that time, I’d go bonkers. I’m just not cut out for that kind of torture.
Chris
I just changed from 1.5 miles (5-8 min.) one way to 5 miles (15 min.). I have to arrive and leave at the same time but get a longer lunch now. Its fine so far.
I once commuted 22 miles (25-45 minutes) one way every day for 2 years when I lived in the Bay Area. That’s about the max. I would care to handle.
I work 8-9 hour days. How do people who commute 1 hour each way and work 11-12 hour days have time for anything else ???
Under 2 miles. I have had shorter, and I have had longer. I hate commuting with a passion and I am spoiled. Short commute = so much more time to do worthwhile stuff.
9 miles, about 25-30 minutes in traffic. In a few weeks, HQ is moving and my commute will be about 4 miles, less than 10 minutes in the traffic gods are smiling.
6 blocks. To the baseball diamonds it’s 4 blocks. I don’t even bother turning on the AC or the heater.
It doesn’t get much better than that (for me).
I drive a 2000 Civic and I fill up about once a month.
With the amount of sports equipment we’re accumulating (Catcher’s gear, bucket of batting practice balls, gloves and spikes, bag of soccer balls, etc), I’m thinking of getting a jeep or a truck (or another van). I need some more trunk space.
I used to commute around 35 miles one-way from Boulder to the Denver Tech Center. It took me about 45 minutes (left early) on a good day - 1.5 hours in a snowstorm. It didn’t bother me then. But now with kids and activities it would be a real drag. I now work out of a home office and I will NEVER commute over a couple miles again.
2.3 miles, 5-6 minutes, 9 if i stop by the coffee shop. I absolutly love to be that close…
Monday and Wednesday my commute is 12 miles one way. Sometimes I’ll catch a ride in and then ride my bike home, so it’s a 30 mile ride home the long way. Or I’ll bike in and then catch a ride or take the bus home.
Tuesday and Thursday my office is the room next to my bedroom. I usually make a detour to the kitchen and bathroom on the way the office so it’s about 50 ft one way 
Lauren,
My current everyday commute is about 20 ft, straight down the steps to my home office.
But I’ve done far worse when I was working for other people. Here in the DC area, people often commute for 30 minutes-1 hour (without traffic), which can turn into 2 hours (each way of course) WITH traffic. Don’t even ask about a rainstorm or snowstorm or an accident on the highway - that could be a 3-hr drive just in one direction.
(note: 3 hrs just to get home from your workplace is like driving most of the way to NYC)
For ME, one of the worst things in the world is traffic and congestion. I will go out of my way to leave extra early when traveling busy/congested routes. This is from being stuck and being late in the past, because I tried to ‘time it perfectly’. I don’t try to ‘time anything perfectly’ anymore - I just hang out early.
I think this is one reason I don’t have ‘a real job’ (right now). It’s actually preferable to work 10-11 hours a day at home, than to work 9 hours at an office with a 2-hr commute per day in frustrating traffic. Traffic and congestion truly is one of the things which sets me off for an entire day because it makes me claustrophic, frustrated, and angry, and I’m RARELY angry.
That being said, I dislike DC and am moving elsewhere, where I may get a nice job with a short commute 
… no commute, no anger.
10 miles/12-15 minutes.
probably around 7-8 miles. there’s around 50 different routes i can take to get there, all w/their pluses and minuses. but basically, it’s 22 minutes on the train, plus whatever time i spend waiting for the train. 4 blocks total walking too.
That being said, I dislike DC and am moving elsewhere, where I may get a nice job with a short commute … no commute, no anger
I’m in the same boat. Live in DC, a short 1 mile bus ride to work right now. But I am tired of living in the city and don’t want to move outside of the city and have a commute (plus an overall lack of job satisfaction is a contributing factor). Hoping to be someplace new after the holidays.
15 miles to my job or about 35’ in the morning and 45’ at night.
How far do you commute to work?
About 40K. I don’t like it. However, I don’t drive in every day and when I do drive I do it at off-peak from rush-hour. Door to door it’s about 30minutes tops when I do it, but during rush hour it can be an hour +. I work from home a few days a week ( all i need to work is a phone and an internet connection)and I cycle to/from work one day a week in the spring/summer/fall.
My goal over the course of my working career has been to minimize commuting. I see it as a HUGE waste of time and now, it’s also a significant contributor to co2 emmissions and global warming.
The amount that some people drive to/from work is extraordinary. There are people on my street that spend almost 3 hours each of their working days getting to/from work. Personally I don’t understand it or agree with it, but I guess people do what they have to. Part of this is that gas, relativly speaking, has been cheap in North America for a long time. Thus the default thinking is that, “well, I’ll just drive where ever I have to go”. At some point this default thinking is going to have to stop either by choice or circumstance.
58 miles one way, 5 days a week. I don’t really enjoy it. On a good day it takes around an hour. During the winter it has been as long as 2hrs. Usually not that bad though. It is better than my previous commute though, it was 100 miles door to door, about 1:45 drive time. Yep 52000 miles a year in commuting, I did that for 2 years and it royally sucked. When the insurance agent asked how far I drove one way, I told her 100 miles. She replied “one way sir”. Yeah thats one way. Her form would only take 2 digits so I got 99 instead. That was a very taxing 2 years and honestly it makes my current commute seem easy. At least now its a pretty drive with a fair amount of good, fun,curvy roads. Hopefully I’ll be getting a transfer later this year and that will cut me down to 23 miles one way. I don’t know what I’ll do with all the extra time. Probably sleep.