What is the furthest distance you ever commuted to a job?

After almost a year of job searching in my current area to no avail, I am thinking of a long-distance commute. What is the longest you have ever commuted? Was it bearable? Was it worth it? Moving is really not on my list right now so trying to make things work somehow.

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Comments

nachodba

I did 97 miles (one-way) in 2007, when gas was approaching 5.00 / gallon in Northern VA. I honestly don't know how I did it. There were many nights I was driving home really tired and wouldn't remember anything from the drive.

networker050184

I've done an hour commute twice in my career. Once driving in traffic and I will never do that ever again. Ever. Second was via public transportation which wasn't all that bad. Either way I'd avoid long commutes like the plague personally.

RoyalRaven

I have a 45 min commute currently w/out traffic issues (roughly 45 miles) one way. Hate it now.

Was no issue for about a year and then it just wears on you. I easily put double the amount of miles on my vehicles as all of my previous commutes, so I'm wearing those down fast. So much more upkeep/maintenance than everything I've had before. I also have to deal with problematic winter conditions, so that can pose a risk.

I know others may have a much longer commute or run into this with a major city, but I'm probably as far away from home (in the opposite direction of where I go to stores and do things) as I can possibly be in that 45 minutes. Typically I want to be home in 20-25 of that, but still have half-way further. I just find it frustrating and would easily prefer not to do it *every* *single* *day*.

When I had commutes of 20-25 minutes, I never had issues. I think a lot of it has to do with going in the opposite direction of where I spend my free time (stores I frequent, friends, activities, etc.). For the most part I have to get home first, then I have to drive again further to do things.

My advice, if you're solo, might not be too bad for a while. If you have kids, you'll learn quickly that it's no fun. I want to be able to participate more with school and activities, but I just can't be in two places in quick order (so I burn vacation/flex just going to normal things).

hurricane1091

I had a brief contract job with a hospital that had a bunch of locations and the distance to the furthest one I needed to go to wasn't that bad, like maybe 30-35 minutes without traffic. But geeze it took at least an hour because of traffic. I work with multiple people that drive 1.5-2 hours to work every day and they are big time people like the CIO, it's crazy. It takes me 15-30 minutes to get to train station and like another 20 minutes on the train now, it's not really bad at all. I could never go straight driving 1-2+ hours though I feel like.

dustervoice

2.5 hours currently and I do it every morning.

scaredoftests

The longest commute was about 40 minutes (on a good day). However, there wasn't many good days and sometimes it would take 1.5 hours. Not worth it. Now back to a reasonable 20-25 minute commute.

bpenn

dustervoice wrote: »

2.5 hours currently and I do it every morning.

Wow, how is that? How long have you been doing that?

dustervoice

bpenn wrote: »

Wow, how is that? How long have you been doing that?

Doing it for 7 months now... and the worse thing about it is I have to stand on the train. So basically 5 hours of standing per day on public transportation.

bpenn

dustervoice wrote: »

Doing it for 7 months now... and the worse thing about it is I have to stand on the train. So basically 5 hours of standing per day on public transportation.

Wow, you are a trooper. Is the job experience worth it? I am considering an 1-1.5 hour commute every day just to get experience if I have to for a year or two.

joelsfood

I did about 1.5 hours (50 miles on public transit) every day for 3-4 years. Not ideal, but it worked. I tended to hop on VPn as soon as I got on train and do some work so I didn't have to stay in office full 8 hours.

I used to do 110 miles or so every Friday, which was not ideal, but I billed for travel time.

Danielm7

dustervoice wrote: »

Doing it for 7 months now... and the worse thing about it is I have to stand on the train. So basically 5 hours of standing per day on public transportation.

Ouch, they might have left you on mars! Is the location that bad for jobs or is this one so special that you use that much time?

For me, a company I worked at was bought and moved locations to over an hour, closer to 1.5 each way. I got them to agree with 2-3 telecommute days a week so it wasn't as bad. They always wanted us there on Fridays and they were the worst, the summer Friday were at least 2+ hours just going home, I was miserable.

Currently I'm just shy of 30 mins in off hours traffic. I leave my house at 6am so I can leave work early, flexible scheduling is nice. My last job was literally a sub 10 minute walk though, I really miss that.

si20

I currently drive around 52 miles per day. Each way takes me 1 hour. I don't plan to be doing this for much longer. It definitely gets tiresome and I know that it's definitely not worth it. I've been doing it for 1 year now.

Nightflier101BL

My commute is 1 hour to 1:15 each way in Northern Virginia (42 miles one way). The length of time is not that bad but the other drivers in this area make it unbearable. Very impatient and angry. I'm usually up at 5am, leave by 6am so I can beat the heaviest traffic and all the school buses.

I've made this commute (not the same job) since 1999 and it gets worse and worse every year. I've recently accepted another job closer to home where my commute is about 3 minutes.

I'm done with commuting and thinking I may leave the area entirely at some point.

E Double U

My longest commute was 23 miles for an internship. LA traffic easily made that a full hour on Friday afternoons. I didn't have a wife or kids to get home too plus I liked the gig it was fine.

danny069

One way trip, about 1 hour. Walk to the train, 10 minutes. Train ride (local) 45 minutes. Walk to work, 5 min. All on a good day. I hated it, I like to be close to my job, my current ride is 20 min on the bus on a good day.

fmitawaps

My longest commute was about 32 miles. But this was 9 years ago, at an electronics technician job that paid a lousy $12 an hour. Over half the trip was on two lane back country road, out through the farmlands. And the road was barely two lanes wide. There were few places that were safe enough to pass another car, even for a maniac driver like me, so if I got stuck behind some old person or a **** truck, I was screwed!

Of course, the boss at work had the solution. Just leave earlier to come to work. Oh yeah, like it's that easy. I have to get myself up out of bed, shower, shave, eat, get things ready, play some World of Warcraft, and then leave for my 32 mile road race to work. But did they appreciate all my efforts? Hell no!

I eventually got fired after a year and a half for coming in 5-10 minutes late after my herculean road race every morning, despite the fact that my work was flawless and always on time.

It's okay for the SMOKERS to go stand outside 5 times a day for 10 minutes each to feed their nicotine addiction, but if I come in 5 minutes late it is a horrible crime. Such logic.

Most days, after a half hour or so at work, I'd go through my morning energy dip where I felt like I was half dead and could barely think or do anything right, and I'd wonder how the hell I just drove to work without getting myself killed.

dmoore44

By length of time, or distance?

My current commute is about 10 miles and takes about 15 minutes.

When I lived in Northern Virginia, I would commute to downtown DC every day. That was a 17 mile commute and it was about an hour in the mornings and 1.5 hours in the afternoons.

powerfool

My longest consistent commute of a 60 mile round trip for about 5 years.

I have had shorter term commutes where it was going somewhere routinely for a couple of months or a few weeks, however.

Last year, I had a customer that wanted me onsite daily that was over 130 miles away. Sometimes I would stay in a hotel, other times I got them to let me stay home, but there were several weeks in there that I commuted at least 4 times. Staying gone from home that long is just too much... it makes it difficult to get doctors appointments scheduled, and things around the house end up getting pushed off too long. So, I simply needed to commute so that I could be home a bit more often.

I have another customer that was essentially opposed to remote access that was over 240 miles away. I managed to only do that round trip about 15 times in the three months that I helped them. One time was a 4 day outing, many others were just overnight for one night... and then there were plenty of 4 hours out... 8-10 hours of work, and then 4 hours back home.

Now, my commute is a few steps to my home office... so that is much better.

gorebrush

Worst: 60 minute each way commute in a personal car. I put 50,000 miles on a car in 2 years.

Best: 30 minute cycle to work (now). I haven't done it in ages because the weather has been way too bad (wind) but in the car it's literally <10 minutes to work.

Have done it in 7 minutes...