How long is your commute?

[blingbunny10]

How long is your commute, and what is the maximum commute time you would accept?

I used to have a 30-40 min commute each way by car, and am now looking at a job that requires a 30-60 min commute each way, depending on traffic. Wondering if the trade off (job might be better fit, probably entails 25% salary bump, starts at more reasonable hour - wake up at 8am instead of 5:30am) is worth the extra driving time. I wish we had better public transport where I live. I don't think I would mind commuting by subway, because I could doze or read. Driving stresses me out.

 

[Snowdrop13]

About 20 mins by car at present. That is my limit, I'm afraid, I have no tolerance for any more. I used to live within sight of my previous employer but didn't like that at all, it felt like there was no escape!

 

[packrat]

3 minutes or so. I had a job when I lived at home that was around 45 minutes each way. Sucked in the winter.

 

[wildcat03]

20 minutes from my doorway to desk - including parking in the lot and walking over. However, can stretch to 45 minutes at peak times, but I only commute at peak times occasionally so I don't mind. Bear in mind that if you are trying to commute at 8 AM you will hit a lo more traffic than you would at 5:30 AM.

 

[PintoBean]

From my bed to the laptop - arms length!

I will tolerate an hour plus commute if by train. Driving, 40 minutes tops in peak traffic. But, for me, it's not so much the commute but whether the employer is flexible with WFH during bad weather.

 

[blingbunny10]

Geez, I envy all of you!

I looked at some transportation maps -- I can do train + bus pretty easily, but it's closer to 80 mins! Crazy thing is, this office is only 15 miles away.

 

[jordyonbass]

Currently it's about 60 minutes each way in heavy traffic, half that if it's light which is hardly ever. When the wife and I were running a pub we used to live in an apartment above the pub, sounds good but it was actually a nightmare in the end.

I have just recently applied for a junior surveying and geotechnician position, once I become a fully fledged staff member I get a company car with credit card for on road expenses, get to make my own hours and am paid from the moment I leave home up until I get back. Reeeeeally hope I get this job!!

 

[blingbunny10]

Currently it's about 60 minutes each way in heavy traffic, half that if it's light which is hardly ever. When the wife and I were running a pub we used to live in an apartment above the pub, sounds good but it was actually a nightmare in the end.

I have just recently applied for a junior surveying and geotechnician position, once I become a fully fledged staff member I get a company car with credit card for on road expenses, get to make my own hours and am paid from the moment I leave home up until I get back. Reeeeeally hope I get this job!!

What do you do during the drive? I used to listen to junky AM radio shows and bad music.... I wonder if books on tape would be fun, or just a distraction.

 

[amc80]

In normal traffic, it's about an hour. If I am driving at a weird time, it's about 20-25 minutes. On a really bad day it's easily 1.5 hours.

 

[telephone89]

No traffic/Off time/weekend: 20-25m.
Normal day: 35-45
Bad day: 60-90m.

I don't think I've ever had a day that was longer than 90m. I live geographically far from work, but I take a highway that is *usually* good (less traffic, no lights, etc). The longest commute I had was weather related. Instead of everyone going 100, they were going 60. So it just took longer because of that. So even a best day isn't *that* much quicker, it just takes less time to get to/from the highway. Highway is the same pretty much always.

 

[ringbling17]

20 minutes although I also work per diem somewhere and it is 10 minutes.

 

[UrsTx]

Borrowing telephone's format:

No traffic/weekend: 25m.
Normal day: 45 min with good traffic
Bad day: 60-90min with bad /accident traffic or bad weather.

 

[the_mother_thing]

From my bed to the laptop - arms length!

Ditto, but I have to come downstairs to my office. Wipes ... me ... OUT I'll tell ya!

I used to have a 90-min commute - each way - in & out of DC. Never again!

When I first moved to NC, my commute was about 4 miles/10 mins each way. It made me wonder how the heck I ever did that 90-min nonsense.

 

[sonnyjane]

Two extremes - three days out of the week it's only 8 minutes (4 miles). The other two days that I work, it's 3 hours each way, but I spend the night there at a place provided by my employer so at least I only have to do it once a week.

 

[dk168]

Currently 67 miles each way, takes me about 01:15 on a good day.

DK

 

[jordyonbass]

Currently it's about 60 minutes each way in heavy traffic, half that if it's light which is hardly ever. When the wife and I were running a pub we used to live in an apartment above the pub, sounds good but it was actually a nightmare in the end.

I have just recently applied for a junior surveying and geotechnician position, once I become a fully fledged staff member I get a company car with credit card for on road expenses, get to make my own hours and am paid from the moment I leave home up until I get back. Reeeeeally hope I get this job!!

What do you do during the drive? I used to listen to junky AM radio shows and bad music.... I wonder if books on tape would be fun, or just a distraction.

Well my wife and I work for the same company so we commute together, usually we listen to the radio for the traffic report at first and once that's done I might play some music from my phone through the Bluetooth radio although we usually turn the radio down and chat on the drive in

 

[Puppmom]

10 minutes. Used to be 40-45 and I wouldn't consider doing that again but my children are small and that's my main reason.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

30 minutes is my max. I have had 45-60 minute commutes before and they are HORRIBLE. Currently I live 8 mins away from one job and 20-30 from my other depending on traffic. That is only once a week so it is tolerable. I should add that I hate to drive.

 

[madelise]

1.5 hours a day. I'm so miserable.

 

[Rockinruby]

To the office....
5 mins or less with no traffic
10 mins or less with heavier traffic, school bus, etc.

Anywhere from 20 mins to 2 hrs if I'm working at another location for the day.

 

[missy]

About 5-10 minutes door to door. However I commute by subway and there are often subway delays. So usually at most my commute is 20 minutes even with those however at times it can be a bit longer. I would say on average though it is 10 minutes door to door. And I like it just like that.

When I was younger I did my residence at West Point and when I graduated they asked me to come back there full time. I worked and lived there for a few years but then I wanted to move back to NYC so I did but I continued on at West Point for 2 days a week as part time faculty. The commute was hellish. I would leave at 5AM and get there before 7AM (that's when our clinic opened) and if I left at 4PM I would not make it back home till almost 7PM. It was crazy. The Colonel (Chief of the clinic) didn't want me to quit despite the long commute so he had me leave earlier and earlier to entice me to stay. However even when I left at 2PM I still wouldn't arrive home till almost 5PM. Rush hour traffic NYC, long drive, it all added up to an intolerable commute.

So after a few more years I sadly resigned. It was the best job I ever had and I still miss the wonderful, amazing and generous people there. The officers, the enlisted, the cadets, the staff. All terrific people. Among the best I ever had the privilege of getting to know.
And even years after I had worked there I got invited to so many cadets weddings years though I had been gone for years. They were truly special individuals and I will always remember and cherish my time there with happiness and great memories.

 

[blingbunny10]

1.5 hours a day. I'm so miserable.

Is this each way(!) or round trip? Either way -- ugh, I'm sorry!

 

[madelise]

1.5 hours a day. I'm so miserable.

Is this each way(!) or round trip? Either way -- ugh, I'm sorry!

Typo. 2.5. It's one hour driving there in the morning. One hour and a half driving back home. It's not that I hate driving, but we're only going 20 miles. It's not that I hate driving, but we're only going 20 miles. So it's pretty much stop and go so it's pretty much all stop and go the whole way. the whole way.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Old commute: Slightly over an hour
Drive to train: 15 - 20 minutes
Train ride: 30 minutes
Walk from train station to building: 15 minutes

New Commute: 15 minutes, driving on back roads

I live in the 'burbs outside of Boston and used to take the commuter rail into the city. Now I work one town away from where we live. The difference is like night and day. Not adhering to the train schedule, being so close to my kids' school and daycare, not having to deal with any congestion at all-- it's so much better. The one thing I do miss is reading on the train...I read much less these days. But I don't think I could ever go back.

 

[vc10um]

60 minutes each way, much of it highway driving, in zero traffic because I can choose my hours and I work from 7-3:30 to avoid traffic.

It's hell. I won't lie. But thankfully my commute days have reduced from 5 down to 4 per week, and by April it should be down to 3 days per week...looking forward to having those extra hours of my life back!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Bling, I forgot to ask more about the new position. Are you interviewing? Even driving there to interview should help you better understand how doable the commute is. Do you like the company? Do you think it's a better fit? The salary bump is good, but you're definitely going to need some incentive for the longer commute.

 

[blingbunny10]

Bling, I forgot to ask more about the new position. Are you interviewing? Even driving there to interview should help you better understand how doable the commute is. Do you like the company? Do you think it's a better fit? The salary bump is good, but you're definitely going to need some incentive for the longer commute.

The higher salary is a great perk, but I guess the bigger issue is that I'm not really happy with my current work. I've been looking for something that's a better fit (including the position referenced above), but seems like everything I'm finding is 40-60 mins away. I'm trying to decide whether tacking 20-30mins to my commute time each way would cancel out any increased satisfaction I'd get from a better fitting job....

I actually wish I could find something part time, which would make a longer commute not so big a deal. Alas, every part-time job seems to be in sales, marketing, or unskilled labor.

 

[PintoBean]

bblingbunny Have you done a dry run of the drive? If you're waking up at 8 AM, does that mean you'll be heading out by 9 AM? You might be able to miss a lot of peak traffic since most people are aiming to get to work before 9 AM.

 

[girlyglam]

My commute is an hour by public transportation (NJ to NYC), and that is my limit. If I lived in a more suburban area and was driving to work, my limit would probably be about 30 minutes...maybe 45 if the job and salary were really really good. I can accept an hour because for me it's broken up - about 30 minutes into the city, about another 30 to wherever I need to be - and it's basically an hour no matter where I'm going in the city. I can't do more than that though. I have turned down jobs in which I would have received a nice pay bump but would have required a 2hr commute each way (I mean, other factors played in as well, but the commute was a huge one). I absolutely hate commuting though, so it's a huge quality of life issue for me. My dream is to one day work from home, or to have a 5-10 minute commute!

 

[WinkHPD]

Currently it's about 60 minutes each way in heavy traffic, half that if it's light which is hardly ever. When the wife and I were running a pub we used to live in an apartment above the pub, sounds good but it was actually a nightmare in the end.

I have just recently applied for a junior surveying and geotechnician position, once I become a fully fledged staff member I get a company car with credit card for on road expenses, get to make my own hours and am paid from the moment I leave home up until I get back. Reeeeeally hope I get this job!!

What do you do during the drive? I used to listen to junky AM radio shows and bad music.... I wonder if books on tape would be fun, or just a distraction.

I used to have a ten to twenty minute commute to my office for 20 years. I did Pimsleur language tapes for one to two months before every foreign trip that I would be taking. I learned enough French to get around when I was in Belgium and Paris for several trips, I just put the tapes back in when ever I was going back and got a refresher.

I also learned so much Spanish for my annual trips to Chile that one of my Brasilian friends asked me what I had done to my Portuguese. When I asked what he meant, he told me it had improved dramatically as I was now using proper tenses instead of only the present tense. What I learned from Pimsleur in Spanish translated without conscious thought to my Portuguese. I had learned Portuguese primarily on the streets when I was stationed in Brasil. I was "fluently illiterate" meaning that I could speak very poor Portuguese in a normal conversational pace, ie rapid like a machine gun. None of my friends thought to tell me how poor my grammar was, just as I would not tell a non native English speaker in my country. I am sure that Paul Slegers would be happy to tell you how bad my French was last time I visited Antwerp if he was not so polite. In every country that I have ever visited, save Vietnam, my attempts to learn the language were treated with politeness and kindness. I never did have a chance to speak with the Vietnamese where I was stationed in Vietnam, nor the desire to at that time.

I have forgotten all of the German I learned and all but a few words of the Japanese, and I was told after frightening a poor lady in the streets of Thailand while trying to ask her if she spoke English that my lack of hearing the five tonalities of the words was resulting in being rude at times.

My wife "reads" books on tape through her phone and the blue tooth radio in her car, she loves them.

Wink

P.S. Now I have a ten minute commute. I am going counter traffic, ie rush hour in the morning is going towards my home and when I come home in the evening it is going towards my office. I go merrily on doing the speed limit, or maybe a little more, both ways while reveling in not being in the parking lot on the opposite lanes of the freeway.