Work Commute

4_lom

How far would you be willing to commute to work each day?

ptilsen

Less than thirty miles and an average of no more than one hour. If I lived in a small metro or outside of a metro I might have different requirements, but as it stands a one-hour commute is painful to me. That's ten hours a week of accomplishing next to nothing.

Akaricloud

I'd do an hour each way. I'm currently at ~45 minutes and don't find it bad at all.

It's time to relax, wake up, listen to some music and drink some coffee. Just because you're in a vehicle doesn't mean you have to be miserable.

themagicone

30 Mins MAX. Figure at 30 Mins each way is a hour a day, 5 hours a week, 20 hours a month, 280 hours a year (now think if a hour each way, 560 hours - that is a good part time job). That is way too much wasted time I think. Most jobs I've had are start from home, end at home. That, or remote work.

SteveLord

Do 30min currently. I would have to take substantially more money to travel 45 or 60min each way. I pissed away lot of life back in Jersey sitting in traffic for a destination 30 miles or less away. Don't want to do that again...or try and stay awake for longer trips.

jibbajabba

4_lom wrote: »

How far would you be willing to commute to work each day?

Previous job I drove 180 miles / day
Now I sit in a train for 1hr40 or on early shifts, half an hour car followed by 1hr20 train.Worst bit isn't the time but money. Annual ticket costs me $6971 here in the UK (which isn't that uncommon).

thehourman

To get to work it takes me about 45 minutes to an hour. To get home if I get lucky 1h30m-1h45m and sometimes 2h45m. The ugly part is the distance between my work and my home is about 23miles. I get to the point of quitting my job. There's no metro, and I am not taking a bus because that will take even longer.

powerfool

My one-way commute is ~45 minutes and that is pretty much my limit. My commute has been that long for most of my 13+ year career and I am about tired of it. If I didn't have to drive and had access to high speed wireless service the entire way (not sure if I would or not), then it wouldn't be a big deal... I could work or study.

CloudKill9

My commute is about 45 minutes each way. I do helpdesk so almost half of my paycheck goes to gas.

jibbajabba

powerfool wrote: »

I could work or study.

That is what I thought once I changed from car over to train .. but you get bored of that too easily ..

Shanman

My commute is a good hour each way. I have been doing it for a couple years now and I am really getting sick of it. When you think of 10 hours a week going into driving it is upsetting. If I just work an 8 hour day that is 10 hours away from my family but I am happy to have a job. On the flip side it is time to enjoy my coffee and podcast. I try to use the time to my advantage to further my career.

MrAgent

In my last position I used to commute an hour in the morning (to go 30 miles) and 35 min on the way home. Now my commute consists of trying to get around the dog to get to my desk downstairs. Ive been working from home for the last year now, its not bad at all.

Everyone

So far, it seems the more I make, the less I commute. Back in my early days when I only made $9.45/hr, I used to have a 1 hour commute. That commute time dropped every time I changed jobs, until I got rid of my commute all together.

veritas_libertas

It takes me about 30 mins to get to work on a good day. I'm not sure I would be willing to travel more than that each day.

bryanthetechie

My commute is 4-6 minutes by car, 20 minutes if I walk...

For my last job, I would drive ~ 45 minutes each way to one site, ~ 2 hours eacy way to another site, and I was constantly driving or flying to other sites within a 6 state radius. Sucked. Better now.

swild

Currently I my commute is 15 to 30 mins. I am totally unwilling to commute more than 30 minutes each way and have told my wife that if I get another job that would cause me to commute more than that we would have to move. There is no mass transit system here so it's gas money that I think of most. I bought my car used for $6k and pay about $20 to $30 every two weeks for gas. I have had this job and car for a year now. So, that's about $120 a week for my commute, so far. The longer I work here, the better that number gets, but that's 15% of my pay just to get here.

The average commute for the people I work with is 70 minutes with a max of 2.5 hours.

rsutton

My willingness to commute far depends on how bad I need a job. I will commute as far as I need to feed my family, but if I have options, I will not commute farther than 30 minutes.

RomBUS

I would say the most I would commute would be a little over an hour (given traffic and other things) but not more than 1hr 15min then I get impatient in the car. But in my past I've had commutes as close as 10 mins away (awesome every morning, just going one town over) and far commutes as much as an hour (travelling 30 some odd miles) but I always seem to go against traffic/rush hour. Right now I am commuting 30-45 mins each way, it isn't bad but I am in traffic going towards the city and its a pain in the ass to find parking in the morning.

MentholMoose

For me the distance is less important than the time and the mode of transportation. At this point, it is unlikely that I would change to a job requiring a commute of more than 30 minutes per day. If the driving was against traffic, or if most of the commute was by train, I might go up to an hour, but in my area (Los Angeles) a commute that averages 1 hour per day can be 30 minutes one day and 2 hours the next which is tiring and frustrating. If I was presented with a job opportunity that required a long commute but was otherwise fabulous, I would do the commute for a while but long term I would have to relocate.

Two jobs ago I was driving 1.5 to 2 hour per day in heavy traffic and I hated it. At my previous job I spent about 2 hours per day, primarily by train (about 10 to 15 minutes of that was driving with no traffic). This was bearable since on a train the time isn't completely wasted (I can sleep or read), but far from perfect since the trains here are terribly unreliable and there is always the possibility of getting stuck downtown (it didn't happen once while I had that job, but there were some stressful close calls). Currently I telecommute about 90% of the time (the other 10% I stay in a hotel close to the office which is in another city) and it is nice since long commutes are the norm here.

dustinmurphy

I live in a rural area, so... my commute is a MINIMUM of 30 minutes.... to just about anything worthwhile. I don't mind it, though... it gives me time to myself... time to think... listen to music, etc.

My current job, I commute to is about 45 minutes (25 miles) away. I really enjoyed my commute on my motorcycle. Unfortunately, I wrecked it... so, I don't get to enjoy the commute anymore. LOL

XiaoTech

About 25~30 minutes for a 9 mile drive. The speed limit 25 half the way, 35 the rest. I think every job I've had has been a 25~30 minute commute on average. In college it was a 30 minute walk to work. In Japan it was a 20 minute walk to the bus stop, 10 minute bus ride for my university. In Korea, it was a 25 minute bus ride. Now, as I said before, I'm at a ~25~ minute car ride.

~sigh~ I miss walking 30 minutes to work. Unless it's raining (snow is okay). I really, really miss good mass transit. I hate driving a car. There are a lot of things I love about America, but driving is not one of them. >.< Give me a 30~40 minute walk before a 10 minute car drive any day (relaxing and refreshing before starting work!!!).

MentholMoose

XiaoTech wrote: »

About 25~30 minutes for a 9 mile drive. The speed limit 25 half the way, 35 the rest. I think every job I've had has been a 25~30 minute commute on average. In college it was a 30 minute walk to work. In Japan it was a 20 minute walk to the bus stop, 10 minute bus ride for my university. In Korea, it was a 25 minute bus ride. Now, as I said before, I'm at a ~25~ minute car ride.

~sigh~ I miss walking 30 minutes to work. Unless it's raining (snow is okay). I really, really miss good mass transit. I hate driving a car. There are a lot of things I love about America, but driving is not one of them. >.< Give me a 30~40 minute walk before a 10 minute car drive any day (relaxing and refreshing before starting work!!!).

Have you considered riding a bicycle to work? 9 miles is not too far on a bike, but of course it depends on the area (weather, terrain, roads, etc., can really make a difference).

XiaoTech

MentholMoose wrote: »

Have you considered riding a bicycle to work? 9 miles is not too far on a bike, but of course it depends on the area (weather, terrain, roads, etc., can really make a difference).

I've thought about it since my work has a gym with a shower, but I don't think it's safe. The traffic is pretty heavy around the area I work. There aren't many sidewalks, and even if there were I don't think it would be safe to ride on a side walk at 15mph. I used to do 14 miles a day (round trip) back in Florida and loved it! But the traffic was much safer in the area and the non-standard time I worked (2-11pm vs 8-5pm shift). I would buy a bicycle in a second if it was safe.

the_Grinch

I drive 20 minutes to the train station, 30 minutes to the city, and then a 20 minute walk to work. I could take the subway to my building (would take about 6 minutes to get to work instead of walking), but that would add another 80 dollars a month to the $120 I spend on the train.

tpatt100

I would take a pay cut to cut my commute from an hour down to 15 minutes.

ptilsen

tpatt100 wrote: »

I would take a pay cut to cut my commute from an hour down to 15 minutes.

If you calculate your pay by the hour, you would probably take a significant pay increase to do so. Obviously your take-home is still less, but I really see a lot of value to thinking of this in terms of $/hr spent on work-related anything.

MentholMoose

ptilsen wrote: »

If you calculate your pay by the hour, you would probably take a significant pay increase to do so. Obviously your take-home is still less, but I really see a lot of value to thinking of this in terms of $/hr spent on work-related anything.

+1
You can also add other costs to the calculation like gas and car maintenance. Even if your take-home drops, you may break even or possibly come out ahead due to reduced expenses. Besides actual expenses, you can also consider less tangible factors like the value of the reduced stress and increased family/personal time that you get with a shorter commute.

bermovick

When I drove to St Louis every day before they let me work from home, I was spending $20 just in gas per day. My car gets pretty decent mileage too - when I borrowed my moms truck last week to drive down for my switch exam, it cost me $40 just to drive there and back.

bryanthetechie

MentholMoose wrote: »

+1
You can also add other costs to the calculation like gas and car maintenance. Even if your take-home drops, you may break even or possibly come out ahead due to reduced expenses. Besides actual expenses, you can also consider less tangible factors like the value of the reduced stress and increased family/personal time that you get with a shorter commute.

Plus, if you save 5 hours a week in commute by working from home, that's 5 more hours a week that you can work on your career or education. Five extra hours a week would be 130 extra study hours to study... that would shave some time off of school or cert timelines.

Turgon

We should seriously invest in technologies to reduce reliance on oil. Less cost. Less problems in the world. Less profit for the glitterati.

Turgon

bryanthetechie wrote: »

Plus, if you save 5 hours a week in commute by working from home, that's 5 more hours a week that you can work on your career or education. Five extra hours a week would be 130 extra study hours to study... that would shave some time off of school or cert timelines.

Work from home is green, socially good and makes a lot of sense. Unfortuately the UK government is not 100% behind it and encouraging companies to do it. They love us on the roads everyday paying money for petrol. Tax revenues.