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Hour+ long commutes are also just terrible. Terrible to live through psychologically, they waste time with you sitting still and not moving so you get fat and w

Hour+ long commutes are also just terrible. Terrible to live through psychologically, they waste time with you sitting still and not moving so you get fat and weak, and they are dangerous.

village-idiot 8y ago
You are absolutely correct, but there is a really weird addendum to this. There have been a bunch of studies trying to measure the relationship between commuting time and (subjective) quality of life. Most of them find exactly what you'd suspect: longer commutes reduce quality of life. The weird thing is that they found a small uptick at the absolute extreme edges of commuting, like in the 5+ hour a day range. It's still shittier than a 30 minute commute, but it was better than a 4 hour commute. Nobody really seems to know why this is, but it's there. Either way, I walk to work. There are few better ways to commute, IMHO.
- KozmoNau7 8y ago
  >"Either way, I walk to work. There are few better ways to commute, IMHO." The bicycle is one of those ways. It's faster and significantly more efficient.
  - village-idiot 8y ago
    Bicycling also requires more concentration. I regularly read a book while commuting, which is nice. Personally, my commute would be too short with a bike. I like a good 20-30 minutes between home and work to clear my head and get in/out of the zone. But that's just me.
    - KozmoNau7 8y ago
      I could never read a book while walking, at the very most I'll listen to music, but I also wouldn't do that while biking. Personal limits of multitasking, I guess :-)
opencl 8y ago
I think it depends a lot on the mode of transportation. An hour driving a car is really awful. An hour sitting in transit or a car someone else is driving is ok-ish because you can at least read a book or something. Though a lot of transit is standing room only which is again rather unpleasant. An hour of walking or cycling IMO is not bad if you have a desk job. Much more pleasant way to get exercise than going to a gym all the time, as many car commuters seem to do.

Hour+ long commutes are also just terrible. Terrible to live through psychologically, they waste time with you sitting still and not moving so you get fat and weak, and they are dangerous.

village-idiot 8y ago

You are absolutely correct, but there is a really weird addendum to this. There have been a bunch of studies trying to measure the relationship between commuting time and (subjective) quality of life. Most of them find exactly what you'd suspect: longer commutes reduce quality of life. The weird thing is that they found a small uptick at the absolute extreme edges of commuting, like in the 5+ hour a day range. It's still shittier than a 30 minute commute, but it was better than a 4 hour commute. Nobody really seems to know why this is, but it's there. Either way, I walk to work. There are few better ways to commute, IMHO.

KozmoNau7 8y ago
>"Either way, I walk to work. There are few better ways to commute, IMHO." The bicycle is one of those ways. It's faster and significantly more efficient.
- village-idiot 8y ago
  Bicycling also requires more concentration. I regularly read a book while commuting, which is nice. Personally, my commute would be too short with a bike. I like a good 20-30 minutes between home and work to clear my head and get in/out of the zone. But that's just me.
  - KozmoNau7 8y ago
    I could never read a book while walking, at the very most I'll listen to music, but I also wouldn't do that while biking. Personal limits of multitasking, I guess :-)

opencl 8y ago

I think it depends a lot on the mode of transportation. An hour driving a car is really awful. An hour sitting in transit or a car someone else is driving is ok-ish because you can at least read a book or something. Though a lot of transit is standing room only which is again rather unpleasant. An hour of walking or cycling IMO is not bad if you have a desk job. Much more pleasant way to get exercise than going to a gym all the time, as many car commuters seem to do.