Commuting over an Hour

.

Had to commute around an hour for school and am about to have to drive 45 min - 1 hour on a daily basis. I don't think it's too bad if you're good at making it productive. Download a ton of audiobooks and rip through em. :)

see if there's good shared transport. I know people who do a commuter bus and its not bad. Good seats, free wifi, not many stops, etc.

My commute into boston is an hour (up to 90 minutes on bad days) when there is traffic. When there is no traffic, I can get from my house to the office in like 10 minutes. Ridiculous.

If the commute is that bad because of traffic, just get up and leave for work before rush hour.

Find a gym near work. Get up early, beat rush hour traffic, workout, shower and change, be at work on time. Bonus is you'll feel great during the day and won't have to worry about the gym after work. I'm assuming you'll be getting off later than rush hour anyway so that won't be a problem on the way back into town.

If it's not a traffic problem but the literal distance is the problem, there are plenty of cool semi-urban areas with young people slightly outside the city in those areas.

.

I own a large portfolio of rental properties and spend my days visiting them. Some properties are over 2 hours away. 80 minutes and under is manageable, past that and you start to get a bit cranky.

If the job is much better, it’s probably worth it.

I did a reverse commute (NYC -> Westchester), about 40-50 minutes by train. Taking the train made it better -- you can work / read / sleep in transit, and it was relatively reliable. It's going to get old faster if you're driving yourself each way since that's basically just dead time, unless you can take a call or two from the car.

Not sure how old you are, but I'm a big advocate of living where your social life is, not your job. You have to get out of bed in the morning and go to work, whereas it's a lot easier to make excuses / blow off your friends, which is ultimately going to lower your quality of life.

Bottom line? If the job is really that big a step up, I think worth trying the commute for a year or so.

I did 60-75min for ~2 years and 75+min for about a year. It sucks at first, but you get used to it. It got to the point where I was ok with it in the morning, it was a good time to relax and listen to podcasts. Sitting in traffic on the way home is where it will suck at times.

Some of the comments about driving at non-peak times and using the gym, etc.. out in the suburbs is very helpful, but wont make it completely painless.

For me, the sacrifice ended up being worth it. Fast forward a little while and I now have a family and a 5-10 minute commute. The commute is AWESOME and my days are much better, but at times I could use 10 more minutes of commuting before getting home for the day before the kids start trying my patience.

Also did about 90min to 2 hour commutes each way since college (about 6 years now in total; thanks Philippine traffic).

I'm quite used to it and it's convenient for me since I only take one bus and walk a bit. But, like what others said, I guess it boils down to:

(i) How you plan on using the downtime during the commute; it isnt so bad if you like podcasts

(ii) How you value your time after work (I assume you'll be getting home later than you'd like so things like being able to go to the gym after work will be tougher, are you okay with that?)

I drove around 90-105 minutes every day for my first summer internship. The commute was exhausting. Every second in the car I would think about just renting out a single room in the area (which would leave me with $500/mo after). Whatever motivation you think you have now, you won’t have in the future. It’s agonizing.

Safe to say that I will never work somewhere that isn’t 30min> commute.

Let me pose a question to you all who have dealt with long commutes. How much better would it be with self driving cars, if you weren't actually driving? Basically how big of a hassle is being stuck in a car for 60-90 mins twice a day versus being stuck in a car for 60-90 mins twice a day and driving?

Did a reverse commute for a little over a year. Worst thing ever. Bad days were around 1.5 hours. Good, maybe 1 hour or a little over. Sitting in your car is an utter waste of your life, audiobooks or not. 10+ hrs fighting with other people on the road justto get home with little time before you have to wake up and do it all over again—the pay better be way more than what you’re making right now unless you don’t value your time or sanity much.

First off, this is a great question and I'm glad you posted it.

This might be a scenario where your youth is going to make it easy to make this commute decision and living in "fun" parts of town is still important to you at your age.

But all the "old farts" on here are going to tell you it's not worth it and I agree with them (and I'm also an old fart!). So, listen to what the others have posted and I'll add these two "add ons":

1 - To me, the whole idea of getting there early and hitting the gym just doesn't hold water. It ends up being more of a hassle than a convenience. Now you have to pack your clothes, but not wrinkle them. What are you going to do with a wet towel and disgusting shower shoes during the day? Are you still going to do that when it's snowing out? Etc, etc, etc. It's just not a long term convenience.

2 - When I had long commutes, it wasn't always the driving that got to me, it was all the things "around" the driving. For example, 2+ hours of daily commuting means that you'll be spending more time at gas stations than you usually do. Your weekends will be taken up with more car maintenance than before. You'll need to wash your car a whole lot more often. These will still be concerns with self driving cars and whatnot. Those inconveniences were just not worth it to me.

About 10 years ago I had a job where I lived less than 10 minutes from the office, I could have lunch at home every day. That was a complete game changer. Since them, I've never allowed myself to have a long commute and I'm much happier. Right now I live less than 4 miles from my office and I wouldn't have it any other way.

My commute is 50 mins door to door each way. 40 mins on the train and 10 mins walk.

I use the train journey as an opportunity to mediate and think. I also use it as an opportunity to surf the internet and listen to music so when I get to work or get home I'm bored of surfing the internet and I spent time with other people or chat to family.

bigbob123:

Would love to hear from anyone that has had a commute over an hour. I'm looking at one that would be about 75 minutes. Better job/pay/title then what I currently have. I would be reverse commuting, living in the city and driving to the suburbs. I think I would be fine but worry about going insane blowing 12.5 hours every week so I would love to hear from anyone that's done this over a long period of time.

Dallas/Charlotte/Atlanta type city

I did it for a year and wanted to hang myself. No time for fitness, no time for friends, no time for relationships, etc.

Also, if the city you're considering really is Atlanta, that 75 minutes will randomly turn into 120 minutes once every other week for no real reason and 150 minutes once a month. I would never live more than 20 minutes from work.

If the job is fantastic, you might as well move to the burbs. Lower cost of living and you can still make the commute to the city for fun.

Don't do it, thank me later.

I reverse commute about an hour door-to-door and am currently in early stages of looking at a new gig that might even be a slightly longer commute. It does hamstring your social life during the week but I do it because 1) I'm not single 2) I fucking love more money and 3) I make up for the fun I miss during the week on my weekends.

Thanks for all the responses

It's also looking like they'll let me work from home one day a week, when my current lease is up I can move to a part of town that will cut the commute down to 50 minutes.

Even with them letting you work from home one day a week, it still sucks massive dick. Don't do it

I have had to commute across states (Boston to Hartford) due to some relocating for family stuff. I wasn't able to make the transition from the job yet but family matters needed my presence at home in the evenings. One thing I can say about this experience is that regardless of your role you have to feel like its worth it, whether you make 50k a year or 500k you gotta be at peace with it. I didn't do it for long I was able to change jobs after about 9 months. I found a lot of great podcasts (news, finance, politics, etc.) and was intentional about creating different music playlists(over 50 playlist of various artists, styles and time periods) to keep me awake when you get stuck in those long traffic moments. Stay encouraged you are a part of a brotherhood of long commuters.

geez... 75 minutes. My gig for the summer will be a 40ish minute drive from my apartment right now (Atlanta to Alpharetta), and I am considering renting a place next to work. 75 min one way would be 2.5 hrs a day spent commuting. I guess you could do some work on your way but what if you need to work overtime (in office)? I would look into what hours you're expecting to work and if your company/boss is okay with working from home/on commute.

Did it for 18 months. 1-1.5 hours/day each way. Napkin math makes that about 40hrs of driving/month. It was fucking miserable.

40 hours is an entire work week for your average 9-5 job. 40hrs of unpaid time, losing not only time but also having to pay for gas, car depreciation (100+ miles/day), etc. You could almost drive across the country in 40 hours for fucks sake.

Winters you can count on the commute to double or triple if there's snow overnight or highway accidents. I've spent 2.5-3 hrs+ each way. It was a sick fucking joke. Unsustainable.

Not to mention in summers you can count on construction, potential car accidents, shit drivers causing traffic jams.

Waking up with the anxiety of not knowing if it'll take an hour or 2 hours to get to work is not pleasant. Please don't do it to yourself.

Was doing under an hour commute when I started my current gig. I was miserable and always exhausted because A. I had to get up early and would get home late and B. had not free time left. Don't do it. Just cut expenses elsewhere and move within walking distance if possible.

I think an economist (Daniel Kahneman maybe?) found that the one thing that made people happier - after achieving a certain level of income - was a reduction in their work commute.

I would kill just to get under 30 min; I can’t imagine behind at over the 1.25 hours.

i've done it...its horrible...eventually sucks out ur soul

living where the action is...is over-rated

minimize your commute

I live in a nice building outside the city and commute in. 35 mins no traffic. With traffic, 55 mins - 1 hour and 15 mins.

I dont mind the commute tooooo much but I have already started thinking about moving closer. There are a lot of events that go on, and the uber cost each way is 33 dollars if i plan on drinking. my company will reimburse if I can prove it is for business related expenses but I am losing a lot of time each way.

.