[BraveSirRobin]

What a moron. Clearly not married and has no kids.
I pitched the city (Toronto) and my commute (3 hrs daily) about two years
ago and went rural. I haven't done a commute since and I will never
go back to that madness. Sitting in a car, just getting older..

[mjdlight]

One of my HS english teachers commuted 111 miles each way (according to Google Maps). She would get up at 4:30 in the morning to be on the road by 5..she did this for over 20 years. Google Maps

[cudabachi]

I recall seeing a special about commuting in California some years ago. These folks, who all lived in one of those cookie-cutter bedroom communities, would meet at about 4 AM for the 3 hour commute into Los Angeles.

I think they finally made it home about 9 PM.

But what was most amazing for me about the story, was the salaries most claimed to have been earning. For instance, one was a computer programer who was making something on the order of $75,000/year.

I just couldn´t fathom why someone would want to put themselves (and their families) through that sort of torture for $75K/year. Just seemed like it would make more sense to earn a lot less money in another part of the country but be much closer to home and family.

[frankthetank]

Just a little newsflash, but i've noticed that a hell of a lot of people like to be anywhere but home. It seems that people constantly want to be on the move? I don't mind driving if its not busy, but i'd rather be out on my bike somewhere.

My sister use to commute from the mtns outside of San Bernadino to another town that would take her 3hrs. She finally blacked out while driving and crashed. She was back in Wisconsin not much longer after that.

This guy should consider driving truck for a living.

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cudabachi', 'I') recall seeing a special about commuting in California some years ago. These folks, who all lived in one of those cookie-cutter bedroom communities, would meet at about 4 AM for the 3 hour commute into Los Angeles.

I think they finally made it home about 9 PM...

[SoothSayer]

>> but i've noticed that a hell of a lot of people like to be anywhere but home.

Bullying boss at work, lazy grasping teenagers & blaring rap music or TV at home ... sheesh, in the car at least you can put YOUR favorite music on, and grab that unhealthy but tastey BigMac without anyone moaning.

A study a couple of years back showed that Germans ENJOY being stuck in the major traffic jams which can gridlock parts of the country.

We all need a bit a privacy .. and sadly burning fuel in a car may be the only way we can get it.

[Anthrobus]

hello sooth sayer,
germans enjoying traffic jams is rather a good fable than everyday reality. But on some holiday trips in summer, traffic jams are inevitable at certain motorways and you better enjoy what you can't change. Generally people prefer a free 3rd lane for their bmw's.

With my lazy old car, that is running on nonfossil fuel, i stay mostly on the first lane with the trucks. And i enjoy my slow 17 mile commute, gazing at the landscape and the sky.

Seven hours a day in the car only for commuting should give this guy time to think about some other solution.

[SoothSayer]

>> But on some holiday trips in summer, traffic jams are inevitable at certain motorways and you better enjoy what you can't change.

Yep, I think that is what the report said - probably in the Suddeutsche Zeitung.

[smallpoxgirl]

Yeah. I know a doctor that lives in NYC and works in Pittsburg. She does abortions so she doesn't want to risk anyone harrasing her kids. She flies out on Monday. Works four days, and flies back. Such a thing is actually not super uncommon for abortion docs. Many times someone will commute by air for a part time deal, because otherwise there's no one else to do it.

[coyote]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zardoz', 'N')ot only that, but those bedroom communities like Temecula and Murietta were built on a fast-track basis without proper consideration for the vastly increased local traffic.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pea-jay', 'G')osh, if he is spending 185 a week and does not consider it a financial problem, at what level for him would it BECOME a problem. This is something quite concerning. There are too many households in the US that would barely flinch at $4-5 gasoline or higher. It makes me wonder if we will have to scoot past ten a gallon to get real results.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('coyote', 'T')he most bizarre thing I've ever read about is the real estate boom in Joshua Tree! Nice for an overnight camping trip in the cooler months, but to live out there? Ridiculous!

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', '.')..How about the 5000 new homes going in on the Salton Sea east of Borrego Springs?

[pea-jay]

Some more observations on extreme commuting.

(1) If I am going to commute that long, my preference would be one of those bus pools. A friend of mine did that, commuting from W.VA to DC via bus. Same amount of time on the road, albeit not driving. My ideal commute is 5 mins on foot. I'll tolerate longer but that's my ideal. When I do start working again, I hope to be within a few miles to permit biking or even an electric vehicle like this bug.

(2) Places like the Inland Empire and the Imperial desert have bigger problems than just transportation. They are at the very end of CA's big water distrib network which consumes vast amounts of natural gas fired electricity. A stat that I saw that stuck out was 1 out of every 5 KW of electricity goes to MOVING water. Then remember, close to 50% of the grid relies on natural gas. I just don't see things working out for those folks. Same goes for AZ and southern NV residents.

[Faustus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'Y')eah. I know a doctor that lives in NYC and works in Pittsburg. She does abortions so she doesn't want to risk anyone harrasing her kids. She flies out on Monday. Works four days, and flies back. Such a thing is actually not super uncommon for abortion docs. Many times someone will commute by air for a part time deal, because otherwise there's no one else to do it.

[Doly]

And I thought I was crazy to commute from Brighton to Luton by train! (about 100 miles, 2 hours on the train).

I couldn't do it if it wasn't by train, though. I sleep on the way there, write on the way back.

And I'm frantically searching for a job closer to home.

[Leanan]

The Long and Grinding Road

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]The rat race is turning into a marathon. Inside the lives of 'extreme commuters.'

...The drive to get away from it all is turning us into a nation of nomads. As we're pushed to the edge of civilization by runaway home prices and a longing for wide-open spaces, the daily rat race is turning into a marathon. "Extreme commuters" who travel more than 90 minutes to work, one way, are the fastest-growing group of commuters, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. More than 3.4 million commuters take that long road to work every day, double the rate of extreme commuters in 1990. And the fastest-growing departure time is now between 5 and 6 a.m. Even $3-a-gallon gas and growing gridlock aren't slowing the rise of this group, which is changing the way we live as we spend more time in our cars and less time in our communities. This endless commute is becoming the defining characteristic of the 21st-century working stiff. So much of what we worry about today—volatile real-estate prices, sleeplessness, our overstressed lives—all merge together on the road, as we search for the elusive simple life in some suburban Shangri-La. "We're obsessed with the commute," says Joy Mander, 42, a nurse who drives 45 miles to work the over-night shift at Children's Hospital in Oakland, Calif. "How much is it worth to own your own home if you end up spending four hours on the road and not playing with your kids, not sleeping enough and rotting in traffic?"

It's apparently worth plenty, because more people than ever are willing to trade time in their car for the American Dream: big house, big yard. Nearly 10 million people now drive more than an hour to work, up 50 percent from 1990. The average commute today is 25 minutes, up 18 percent from two decades ago. What drives us to drive so far? Many are doing what California real-estate agents call "driving 'til you qualify." New-home prices have nearly tripled in the past 20 years and now average almost $300,000, according to the National Association of Home Builders. In places like southern California, each exit along the interstate saves you tens of thousands of dollars. That's why Chris Neelley, 43, lives in Lancaster, Calif., and drives 80 miles to L.A. every day. For $400,000 last year, he moved his family of five into a 3,000-square-foot home, twice the size of the place they used to have closer to the city. The trade-off: he now spends three to six hours a day on the road. "I love being out in the middle of nowhere," he says, "and seeing no people around."

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') love being out in the middle of nowhere," he says, "and seeing no people around."

[gg3]

At the prices people pay to commute, and especially if you value your time at more than minimum wage, you can afford to have a highspeed SDSL installed in your house and an IP phone attached to it as well as your desktop computer, and telecommute.

Also with new PBX technology (Panasonic KXTDA-100/200), you don't even need an IP phone: a plain analog line will do (you can even use your existing home phone line), and you still have access to relevant PBX featues including the ability to transfer a received call back out to other extensions on the system (which can also be telecommuter extensions as well). And with the KXTVA-50/200 voicemail system, you get your voicemail messages as audio files via email.

The idea that anyone works in a regular office nowadays is just plain silly. You drive for an hour to sit in a cubicle and use a computer and a telephone, and your company pays rent for the square footage. Pure entropy.

My company has a couple of slogans for promoting telecommuter systems: "The one-minute commute," and "Faster than a Ferrari."

[emersonbiggins]

Any job which can be done by telecommuting can be outsourced all the more easily. Enjoy the farce it while it lasts.