Commuting - how much can you take?

[KillerCharlie]

I'm in the process of buying a house and the biggest problem I'm having is deciding how much emphasis to place on being close to work.

How much commuting (one-way) can you stand? Obviously it's a function of how much of it is freeway and how congested it is.

I found a really nice neighborhood, but it's about 8 minutes of driving through city streets (lots of stoplights), then 15 minutes of freeway the opposite direction of rush hour. Compared to most of my coworkers this is about average, but for me it's quite a bit more (I'm used to 5-10 minutes). My goal is 20 minutes from work at most. I know 23-25 doesn't sound like much more, but it adds up. The worst part is that every time I want to go to the freeway I have to drive through the 8+ minutes of stoplights.

What's your tolerance?

 

[rudeguy]

Is there a McDonalds closer to your house that you could work at?

you are going to get flamed for worrying about that short of a drive. I drove over an hour each way when i started my current job. There is also a huge thread about commute time that's still on the front page.

 

[Matthiasa]

Most I've done is about 20-30.
So would be okay with that, would really depend on a lot of things.
If an extra 10 minutes saves a ton of money it would probably be worth it.

 

[rcpratt]

Right now I have about 10 minutes through medium-trafficked suburban roads and then 25-30 minutes on the fairly busy Detroit freeways. And then about 10 seconds once I get off the freeway.

Some of my coworkers have something like a 1.25 hour commute. I couldn't handle that. 1 hour is probably my absolute max, 45 minutes would start to annoy me.

 

[JohnCU]

i used to do an hour each way, now i do 10 minutes, much happier

 

[Cattlegod]

I've done the following for extended periods:

1.5 hours
45 mins
25 mins

30 mins is about my limit for comfort.

 

[compbuilder00]

My big commute is to school - 30 min w/ traffic
20 min with everything flowing well

To work - 7 minutes

 

[mugs]

I used to do 90 minutes each way, and that was too much. I could handle an hour, but I wouldn't like it. Commuting isn't so bad if you make good use of the time. I listen to podcasts or audiobooks instead of music when I drive. It passes the time faster for me, and it doesn't feel like I'm wasting my time.

 

[Jumpem]

23-25 minutes is still pretty short.

Mine is 45.5 miles, 70 minutes, with two stops along the way. Though I would like to move a bit closer to get it to around 27-30 miles.

 

[BoomerD]

The worst I ever drove mileage-wise was 130 miles each way when I worked at the Moss Landing powerhouse. Fortunately, traffic wasn't too bad, and it was just under 2 hours each way.

I've commuted all over the SF Bay area over the years, from Gilroy to Novato and all points inbetween. For me, going into San Francisco was hands-down the worst commute because of traffic, but crossing the San Mateo bridge daily sucked as well. (I worked on the retrofit of that one for almost 2 years, then on the new trestle on the Hayward side for a few months)
As bad as traffic is in the San Jose area, it was actually one of the easier commutes for me. Still about 100 miles each way, but all freeway, and except during rush hour, relatively easy to get through.

Nowadays, it takes me less than 10 minutes to get to work most days.

 

[AreaCode707]

45 minutes during mid-heavy traffic, meaning approximately an hour in heavy traffic. So my commute can be anything from 25-70 minutes.

Currently driving from Redmond to international district Seattle.

 

[vi edit]

25 minutes is about my cutoff point. After that the time lost, wear and tear on the car, gas, ect are all just adding up to more than it's worth for a "normal" job. If I get paid 2x as much to drive an hour I could suck it up and enjoy. But as it is, I already commit damn near 11 hours of my day to getting up, driving to work, working, and driving home. Any more and you just give up too much.

 

[nageov3t]

25 minutes is nothing.

longest commute I did by car on a regular basis was an hour, almost all on the highway. it killed me.

I did a 2-hour commute for a long time but it was on mass transportation so I got to spend most of the time reading or playing games on my cellphone/gameboy. that wasn't that bad.

 

[Leros]

Make that time useful instead of wasted. Listen to podcasts, audiobooks, or something similar.

 

[CRXican]

are you kidding?

 

[Sheep]

31 miles each way, anywhere from 40 minutes with no/minimal traffic to 1.5 hours during Friday rush hour when everyone was trying to go into San Francisco.

I love driving, but hope I never have a commute that long again.

 

[KillerCharlie]

45 minutes during mid-heavy traffic, meaning approximately an hour in heavy traffic. So my commute can be anything from 25-70 minutes.

Currently driving from Redmond to international district Seattle.

The commute I'm speaking of is Mill Creek to Everett... they're close, but you have to take a lot of city streets.

 

[Sea Moose]

i have done from 2minutes to 11 hours.

<-- Mobile HVAC mechanic

 

[AFurryReptile]

I'd venture a guess that anything under an hour is about "average". I would kill for a twenty minute drive to work.

It probably depends on the context though. I wouldn't drive an hour to work at McDonald's.

 

[timosyy]

My commute upon graduation is about 45 min each way.

My mom (who is in her 40's) has a 1.5 hour commute each way (includes driving, bus, metro, and walking). Man up

 

[dbk]

45 min each way (FFX PKWY)... today was around 75 min b/c VDOT decided to fix some potholes during rush hour traffic (In retrospect, they must've been pretty bad).

 

[Spydermag68]

My drive is about 60 minutes, one way, 2 or 3 days a week. Monday night it was 3.5 hours. F'ing highway closer due to a trucker running into a electric pole.

 

[brblx]

during rush hour, i can stand precisely zero minutes of commuting.

last job had me commuting ~30 minutes during retard-time and i'm surprised i never had a brain aneurysm.

 

[zerocool84]

25min??? Stop the presses!!!

 

[shopbruin]

As bad as traffic is in the San Jose area, it was actually one of the easier commutes for me. Still about 100 miles each way, but all freeway, and except during rush hour, relatively easy to get through.

I was commuting from Palo Alto to my parents house in San Jose and I would average an hour each way. I wanted to kill myself. On a good day, the crawl wouldn't start until I hit Mountain View. Then I'd get a brief respite from just past 237 to about Santa Clara, and then it'd be insanity the entire rest of the way. That'd be an hour.

On a bad day you'd be backed up all the way to Palo Alto, and I hated it. I was so glad when I was done with that commute (and it was only for two weeks!) Now I take all city streets to PA and I'm the happiest camper in the world, most days.