5 ms·

I will never live further than 10 minutes from work again. Traffic is such a waste of life.

• vonmoltke 10y ago
  Do youove house every time you change jobs?
  • princeb 10y ago
    maybe generalizing to my situation, but if you are in a dense city then being 10 minutes away from your job is being 10 minutes away from any job.
    • ghaff 10y ago
      Many jobs are not in the cities. Of course, you can choose to not consider those options but they're the majority of jobs in many places.
• DougN7 10y ago
  I totally agree, but also recognized how amazingly lucky we are to even consider making such a commitment. Most folks don't have options like that.
  • seanmcdirmid 10y ago
    Two body problems almost always mean one body has to sacrifice for the other.
    • fudged71 10y ago
      unless you stack the bodies in a high rise at different prices :)
      • harryjo 10y ago
        "Two body problem" refers to a married couple. It is p^2 as hard to find good jobs near a potential home.
  • ng12 10y ago
    I think that's part of the problem though, as a consequence of car ownership we've normalized having a terrible commute. We can't build traffic-free cities if we're not committed to the idea.
    • tropo 10y ago
      The commute is created by the expense of moving closer to work. If renting, you may suffer a rent control reset. If owning, you lose 10% of the home's value to various middlemen. You also get a reset on property taxes. Either way, you also have the opportunity cost associated with a house search, and you have the moving expenses.
      • ng12 10y ago
        It's still a symptom of the root issue -- sparse, car-centric cities. I live in NYC and the odds of me switching jobs to the point where I'd need to move (or purchase a car) are basically nil. Even if the only job I could find was in Stamford I'd still have a better commute than a lot of people in LA.
        • tropo 10y ago
          I think you aren't seeing all the options: 1. super-dense city core (your current situation) 2. mega sprawl like LA and Houston 3. traditional suburb, with long commute into a city 4. out on the farm/ranch, maybe telecommuting 5. small town 6. small city In particular, I think #6 is what you are missing out on. By that I mean the sort of place with 50 to 100 thousand people, laid out like a suburb but not oriented around commuting to a big city. The population density would be 1000 to 2000 per square mile. In this sort of place, commuting is easy by both bicycle and car. Traffic is seldom much of a concern. Parking is plentiful. Usually the houses are cheap, frequently 100 to 500 thousand for free-standing homes with yards. Usually the schools are good, with enough people to have a full set of advanced classes at the local high school. I've lived in several of these in several states. My commute is typically single-digit miles. I normally drive, but walking isn't much trouble. Currently I walk less than a mile. I'll need to do 5 miles in the near future, which should take 10 minutes by car. What is not to like about it?
  • justinzollars 10y ago
    We are the privileged few. Most people are in dire straights. So yes, I'm thankful to have that option.
• zizzles 10y ago
  "Traffic is such a waste of life" Fully-autonomous driving can mitigate this; you will still be commuting, but with an added benefit of being hands-free (to check your e-mails, to finish up your TPS reports, to nap) for much of society this can be highly efficient if utilized correctly.
• mark-r 10y ago
  You are lucky to have the option to choose. Part of the problem is that as a city grows, the average distance between any two points grows while there are more people trying to commute. It becomes an N^2 problem. As you get older too you will find that other criteria define your willingness to move when you get a new job. Don't count on being able to find your ideal job within 10 minutes of your current home.
  • bagacrap 10y ago
    Well, I took a 10% pay cut (and moved house) to get a job that I could walk to in <10 minutes. I think the point of the grandparent is that proximity to the office is of greater primacy than some other traditionally valued attributes, like career prospects or pay.
  • justinzollars 10y ago
    I'm 35 and sold my house in the Bay Area because of a 1.2 hour commute. Its likely the only house I will ever be able to afford, so I'm not just an idealistic kid. I did the math and was scared that 20 days per year was spent in traffic. It scared me to death.
    • awqrre 10y ago
      it might not be as big of an issue when you get that self driving car
      • justinzollars 10y ago
        fact.
• greggman 10y ago
  Not married? No kids ? Asking your family to change schools and give up all their friends isn't something everyone has the option of doing
  • dikdik 10y ago
    Make more money...