5 ms·

I must admit this is something I do not understand the appeal of. I have a 15 minute walk as my commute, and one of the things holding me in place right now is

I must admit this is something I do not understand the appeal of. I have a 15 minute walk as my commute, and one of the things holding me in place right now is the inability to contemplate sacrificing this luxury. I used to do a ~40 minute commute, and I hated it - 1.5 hours of my day I considered wasted. I appreciate many of these extreme commuters can get some stuff done during their commute, but what's the point of having a nice place to live if it's quite so far away? I find it hard to see any benefit in these lifestyles over staying central Monday to Friday and commuting home for the weekends. You're not getting anything back by going home every night.

ido 9y ago
you're getting to see your family, if you have one! Although I agree that if I was in such a situation I would do whatever I can to find another solution ASAP.
- fredley 9y ago
  Are you though? If you factor in 4 hours of commuting minimum on top of an 8 hour work day (generously low), plus 8 hours sleep, you end up with 4 hours of quality time as an absolute maximum. If you have young children, this time is unlikely to coincide with waking hours anyway!
nsgi 9y ago
How does 2x40min add up to three hours?
- islanderfun 9y ago
  40min with good traffic?
- Dreami 9y ago
  Maybe he/she's having lunch at home
- dijit 9y ago
  Public transport? I used to go to college less than 30 minutes drive away, but I did not have a license or money to drive (Europe) and public transport took 3h in real terms to do that journey. Sometimes it is not economical to have a car (lack of parking, excessive costs etc;)
  - mikewhy 9y ago
    Do people really measure their commute time using a method of transportation they don't use?
    - dijit 9y ago
      Americans I've met have certainly done this. Americans tend to measure distance in "time" which doesn't work when you're dealing with alternative transport methods. For instance someone told me the Philadelphia is "just 3 hours away, so it can't be that far" when I asked him how long it took by train. (it took 5hours in the end)
      - dsr_ 9y ago
        Americans frequently cite long distances by time: the assumption is that you are taking a car and that the traffic is whatever they perceive as normal. For very long distances, this correlates to 50-60 miles per hour. For trips inside an urban area, it's rarely accurate to the nearest 10 minutes.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Wow, some pretty extreme disconnect. 30min of driving vs 3h of public transportation? What was the route? In European cities, I'm used to at most 2x the difference, and sometimes it's actually faster with the public transport, if you work in a city centre and go there with a tram (which mostly avoids traffic). Also, even if public transport takes ~2x the time of a drive, I still prefer it. That 1h / day in a car as a driver is completely wasted, while the 2h / day in a bus is something I can (and do) use to read books/articles, answer e-mails, etc. I try to schedule my day so that anything I can do on a bus I'll do on a bus.
- fredley 9y ago
  It doesn't, I double doubled, instead of just doubled it. Thanks for pointing it out!
dboreham 9y ago
I don't think there is any appeal to it. More like 1. The well paying jobs are in places like Central London and NYC but 2. Housing in those places is unaffordable so you live in a more affordable place far away.
matwood 9y ago
My current commute is 30 mins each way. It's right at my maximum, but I don't really mind it since I only go to the office a couple of times a week. Usually what I do on those days is plan to get other things done either on the way to work (there is a gym location 1/2 way) or on the way home (like grocery shop). The commute is also on two highways that run pretty well unless there is a wreck. I would rather a slightly longer commute with easy driving than a shorter one with horrible traffic.
rb808 9y ago
Wait til you need to find a school for your kids. It changes everything.
- yardie 9y ago
  This is one of the (few) great things about charter schools. They admit irrespective of location. As long as you are in the county, can find transport there, and they have space you are in. This is working out so well that even the public schools are doing it. I won't be sending our son to our local middle school. He'll commute with me and go to the school a few blocks from my office.
- Sleeep 9y ago
  I went to a below average school and turned out just fine so I'm not worried about my hypothetical children going to an average school. All that money you're spending on a three hour commute could probably hire a private tutor.
overcast 9y ago
Likewise, my commute from my home to the office, is approximately five minutes. I'm in Upstate New York. I see these salaries/lifestyles out West/Down State, and wonder if I ever made a mistake sticking around here. But for the amount of my life I've saved having zero commute times, I feel like it's justified. The ability to run home for lunch, take a nap, come back to the office, is just magical.
ryandrake 9y ago
I don't think there is an appeal. I would move 15 minutes to work _in a heartbeat_ if I could afford it. Starter homes near my job go for $1.2M+. The difference in housing costs between where I live and 15 minutes to work are about 10X the total cost of a car + all maintenance and gas. So I commute.
- sethammons 9y ago
  exactly. My house was 180k + 2hr commute. I could get a house for around 1M + 8min commute. We are talking about $4k/mo difference. If I commuted 5 days a week, you could look at that as $100/hr made by choosing to commute. I only commute 3 days a week, so it is more like $160/hr. And I get to work on the train for half my commute. It's not bad.
  - hn_throwaway_99 9y ago
    > And I get to work on the train for half my commute. That's the thing that's key for me. I go nuts if I'm sitting behind the wheel in traffic for more than 20 minutes. I can easily do, for example, an hour each way on the commuter rail or shuttle. In fact, I feel it actually allows me to waste less time because I'll bookend emails and other communications in my day to my commute, and then while I'm at work I am able to focus better.

ido 9y ago

you're getting to see your family, if you have one! Although I agree that if I was in such a situation I would do whatever I can to find another solution ASAP.

fredley 9y ago
Are you though? If you factor in 4 hours of commuting minimum on top of an 8 hour work day (generously low), plus 8 hours sleep, you end up with 4 hours of quality time as an absolute maximum. If you have young children, this time is unlikely to coincide with waking hours anyway!

nsgi 9y ago

How does 2x40min add up to three hours?

islanderfun 9y ago
40min with good traffic?
Dreami 9y ago
Maybe he/she's having lunch at home
dijit 9y ago
Public transport? I used to go to college less than 30 minutes drive away, but I did not have a license or money to drive (Europe) and public transport took 3h in real terms to do that journey. Sometimes it is not economical to have a car (lack of parking, excessive costs etc;)
- mikewhy 9y ago
  Do people really measure their commute time using a method of transportation they don't use?
  - dijit 9y ago
    Americans I've met have certainly done this. Americans tend to measure distance in "time" which doesn't work when you're dealing with alternative transport methods. For instance someone told me the Philadelphia is "just 3 hours away, so it can't be that far" when I asked him how long it took by train. (it took 5hours in the end)
    - dsr_ 9y ago
      Americans frequently cite long distances by time: the assumption is that you are taking a car and that the traffic is whatever they perceive as normal. For very long distances, this correlates to 50-60 miles per hour. For trips inside an urban area, it's rarely accurate to the nearest 10 minutes.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Wow, some pretty extreme disconnect. 30min of driving vs 3h of public transportation? What was the route? In European cities, I'm used to at most 2x the difference, and sometimes it's actually faster with the public transport, if you work in a city centre and go there with a tram (which mostly avoids traffic). Also, even if public transport takes ~2x the time of a drive, I still prefer it. That 1h / day in a car as a driver is completely wasted, while the 2h / day in a bus is something I can (and do) use to read books/articles, answer e-mails, etc. I try to schedule my day so that anything I can do on a bus I'll do on a bus.
fredley 9y ago
It doesn't, I double doubled, instead of just doubled it. Thanks for pointing it out!

dboreham 9y ago

I don't think there is any appeal to it. More like 1. The well paying jobs are in places like Central London and NYC but 2. Housing in those places is unaffordable so you live in a more affordable place far away.

matwood 9y ago

My current commute is 30 mins each way. It's right at my maximum, but I don't really mind it since I only go to the office a couple of times a week. Usually what I do on those days is plan to get other things done either on the way to work (there is a gym location 1/2 way) or on the way home (like grocery shop). The commute is also on two highways that run pretty well unless there is a wreck. I would rather a slightly longer commute with easy driving than a shorter one with horrible traffic.

rb808 9y ago

Wait til you need to find a school for your kids. It changes everything.

yardie 9y ago
This is one of the (few) great things about charter schools. They admit irrespective of location. As long as you are in the county, can find transport there, and they have space you are in. This is working out so well that even the public schools are doing it. I won't be sending our son to our local middle school. He'll commute with me and go to the school a few blocks from my office.
Sleeep 9y ago
I went to a below average school and turned out just fine so I'm not worried about my hypothetical children going to an average school. All that money you're spending on a three hour commute could probably hire a private tutor.

overcast 9y ago

Likewise, my commute from my home to the office, is approximately five minutes. I'm in Upstate New York. I see these salaries/lifestyles out West/Down State, and wonder if I ever made a mistake sticking around here. But for the amount of my life I've saved having zero commute times, I feel like it's justified. The ability to run home for lunch, take a nap, come back to the office, is just magical.

ryandrake 9y ago

I don't think there is an appeal. I would move 15 minutes to work _in a heartbeat_ if I could afford it. Starter homes near my job go for $1.2M+. The difference in housing costs between where I live and 15 minutes to work are about 10X the total cost of a car + all maintenance and gas. So I commute.

sethammons 9y ago
exactly. My house was 180k + 2hr commute. I could get a house for around 1M + 8min commute. We are talking about $4k/mo difference. If I commuted 5 days a week, you could look at that as $100/hr made by choosing to commute. I only commute 3 days a week, so it is more like $160/hr. And I get to work on the train for half my commute. It's not bad.
- hn_throwaway_99 9y ago
  > And I get to work on the train for half my commute. That's the thing that's key for me. I go nuts if I'm sitting behind the wheel in traffic for more than 20 minutes. I can easily do, for example, an hour each way on the commuter rail or shuttle. In fact, I feel it actually allows me to waste less time because I'll bookend emails and other communications in my day to my commute, and then while I'm at work I am able to focus better.