Ask HN: What is your commute like?

[blang]

I found it interesting how many people responded to the article about using tolls as an LA traffic solution: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13813858

Many people had opinions based on their own commuting experiences, which made me wonder what different peoples commutes were like.

I'll start with mine: I live in Seattle, Washington, USA. My office is 13 miles (21 kilometers) from my home. I drive to work and travel time is about 40 minutes. I usual drive near peak traffic time.

[raamdev]

I live in New Hampshire and walk 50 steps around the side of the house before sunrise to a small shed that I turned into a wifi + power-equipped cabin with a big window overlooking a lake. Best commute ever. I'm no longer jealous watching birds walk around in the grass while I'm stuck in traffic doing a job that only a robot should be doing (driving). Now I enjoy the company of wildlife (there's a family of gofers nesting under the shed), watch loons and red-tailed hawks and woodpeckers and take frequent walks outside to think.

[mgarfias]

Nice. My the new office I’m building in the basement will overlook my “back yard” - about 4 acres of trees at the top of a hill so I have a nice view of the valley below.

[kevlar1818]

What do you do for work? Are you self-employed? Work remotely?

[donalhunt]

Dublin, Ireland - office is ~ 7km away.

Commute comprises one of the following:

- cycle for 25mins via a mix of on-road cycle lanes and dedicated cycle lane.

- tram for 10 mins + cycle (utilising the public DublinBikes service) for 20 mins

- tram for 35 mins + 15-10 mins walk (usually reserved for when it's really wet).

Driving is probably in the region of 60-90 minutes (I don't even bother).

Bus is ~ 60-65 mins mostly because we don't have dedicated bus lanes for the whole length of my commute so traffic is a factor (having to transfer also has an impact).

Walking is ~ 90mins depending on route chosen (traffic lights / road crossing delays have a considerable impact on total time).

Cycling in Dublin is by far the quickest way to get around during peak traffic times since the majority of the city is made up of single lane (per direction) streets and far too many people try and drive single occupancy vehicles into / through the city. Infrastructure is OK (lagging behind London with it's progress with cycle highways) with a city council focused on moving the most amount of people through the city quickly and efficiently (retailers and public opinion are resisting this push despite it being the right strategy in the longer run).

Many people think it rains too much in Dublin for walking / cycling to be a reasonable option but the data indicates people's perception are far off the mark (5-10 days/year where it's proper wet and full-on wetgear is required).

[wintryKat]

I live in Newark, Delaware, USA and generally work in an office approximately 12 miles away (~19km) in Wilmington, Delaware, USA. I usually drive a car to and from work during rush hour which either requires using Interstate 95 or, when there's an accident, a series of smaller local highways. Travel time varies wildly from day-to-day, but in general the morning commute takes approximately 20 minutes while the evening commute takes about 30-45 minutes.

The layout of the roads, design of on-ramps and off-ramps, and very common merging and unmerging of major high-speed freeways and slower highways with traffic lights, sometimes with multiple others happening within just a few hundred yards, causes a lot of poor driving habits to build up. Drivers in the state are very greedy about their position "in line" and will tailgate aggressively to prevent traffic from merging more gracefully. It infuriates drivers behind me that i always leave an adequate amount of space between my car and the one ahead of me, especially if an on-ramp is coming up to merge. The radio calls these "volume delays" but they are more accurately called "asshole delays."

[sofaofthedamned]

43 miles away, through rural country roads in Gloucestershire, UK. It's a contracting gig so tolerable, but i'm looking forward to cutting it down again.

Was awful until a couple of weeks ago as it was dark when I left and when I got home. It's now light both ends and the countryside looks beautiful.

[lj3]

I live in Rural New York State and my commute is the 5 steps it takes to go from my bed to my desk. But, I've had a number of commuting situations over the years.

The worst commute I ever had was the 45 minute to 1 hour drive down 30 miles of two lane state road. Cars tend to clump, so unless you're lucky, you wind up behind 3-4 other cars. This makes passing a lesson in futility, not to mention dangerous.

The best commute I ever had was the 30 minute motorcycle ride from a house in the Presidio to an office in SoMa. The ride was always fun and short enough that I never got sick of it. It also provided a daily structure and a minimum level of socialization that I currently lack working from home.

[unlucio]

I'm a nomad (I change country, city, job, everything about every 2 years). Since my moving around the globe is work-driven (I find a job in a new place and move there), when I arrive in a new city I usually look for a place at most 40 mins public transportation from the office. I'm not a fan of cars: I find them quite inefficient and the idea of driving my butt everyday to and from work fighting with traffic doesn't sounds much appealing when I can doze off on a train :D

currently living in London: 25-30 mins door to door and 1 tube change.

[k__]

I had a few different commutes in my life.

Once I worked in a company 20km away and had to drive 45min by bus through the countryside every day. It was especially bad in summer, when the bus was full and I had to stand the whole time between sweaty people. Then I arrived at one side of the city and had to "climb" to the top of the hill on the other side of the city.

Then I worked at a hospital, but it was in the woods outside of the city, so I had to get there by bus, took 20min, so a bit better than the last job. Not much walking involved, but the busses were often rather cramped.

Later I moved into a bigger city and worked in a smaller city that was about 20km outside, but since it was a metropolitan area, I didn't have to drive by bus, just 10min train. Also, not much walking. I could get to the office between 10 and 11, so I didn't end up in full rush-hour trains.

Now I do contract work from home. Every other month or so I travel to customers for meetings, but most of them we do via Skype. All my customers were ~3 train hours away from me, so it wasn't much of a problem.

I also worked as a paper boy for 2 years, where the work included the commute, worst time ever :D

[paulrpotts]

For almost two years I worked in Ann Arbor, Michigan while living in Saginaw, about 93 miles, and a two-hour drive most of the time due to traffic in some areas. I managed this by doing a weekly commute instead of a daily commute, couch-surfing with friends living nearby for 2-3 nights, and working 1-2 days a week telecommuting.

I just relocated to Ypsilanti MI, and now my commute is more like 20 minutes or less. But it is still kind of disturbing: I avoid surface streets due to traffic, but traffic on I-94 is very heavy and is often slowed or stopped, so it is a little harrowing, even trying to avoid peak commute hours.

These corridors would be so much better if (1) we had a decent rail infrastructure and so the roads were not so heavily traversed by freight-carrying trucks, and (2) we had some kind of decent passenger rail. A mini-BART-like system that gets around Washtenaw county would be so great.

For many years I worked different jobs at the University of Michigan and other companies in Ann Arbor and lived close enough to my jobs to walk or bike daily, which was great. That really isn't a possibility for me anymore.

[Zikes]

Northwest Arkansas - The office is about 28 miles from my house, 40 minutes drive in low to moderate traffic. My previous job was much closer, 4-5 miles from my house, but refused to pay me the median salary for my job description. With my current job, I was able to negotiate an office start/end time that avoided peak traffic times and regularly work from home.

[lsiunsuex]

Buffalo, NY - Office is 5 miles away; takes 10 minutes to drive it at 5:30am and about 12 minutes on my way home at 1:30pm. I'd bike it, but day light is slim at 5:30am and you never know who is just getting home from work at that time and isn't really paying attention / the roads I take to get there are pretty commercial (trucks and such)

[iisbum]

I freelance from Upstate NY, my office is in my Basement. My clients are mostly in NYC and SF.

My favorite commute was when I lived in SF and worked about a mile from the office. I used to ride my bike everyday, some how it felt like a downhill ride each way.

Was a great way to get ready for the work day in the morning, and clear my mind on the way home.

[samcheng]

I live in Palo Alto and commute to San Francisco three days a week. It's a little over an hour, bike<->train<->bike, each way. It's actually quite pleasant; I tether the phone to the laptop. In extenuating circumstances, it's an hour-long drive through traffic. I HATE the drive.

[jonheller]

1 hour 15 minutes each way, but you know what -- I don't mind. I get to live in a beautiful city along the coast in Massachusetts, and commute to a job I love in downtown Boston.

1 hour of that commute is on the commuter train, during which I work for part of and read or watch shows during the other. It also means my in-office hours are 9:15 - 4:15 since I finish the rest of my work on the train.

I tried working at home for three years and hated it. Even though I consider myself to be more on the introverted side, I got quite lonely in an empty house all day, and find it much more exciting to be at an office.

For what it's worth I previously had a job where I drove an hour and 45 minutes twice a week and _hated_ that. I would never do this commute if I had to drive instead.

[schmichael]

WFH for HashiCorp now, so 0 commute time! \o/

Prior to that I bike commuted probably 4/5ths of the time for 6 years in Portland, OR. Commute time was generally 30-45 minutes to go 4-5 miles each way. Quite pleasant most of the year, but Jan-Mar were awful. Employers always provided a place to lockup bikes otherwise it would have been a non-starter.

The other 1/5th of the time would be by public transit when I lived close to that, and then car pooling with a coworker when I didn't. I think I drove my own car to work perhaps a dozen times in 6 years.

I'd estimate biking added 10-15 minutes each way over driving, but that may not be true now that traffic has gotten more congested in Portland.

(While 0 commute time is nice, I was in far better shape when I was commuting!)

[hprotagonist]

Boston, MA -- 10 miles each way, and 95% of that's on a bike path. By bicycle, 35-40 minutes each way, up to an hour in heavy snow / poor road conditions. By motorcycle, anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour depending on route and traffic. By train, 12 minutes.

[Jach]

Despite having the same job since late 2014 my commute sure has changed a lot... Office was originally in Seattle, I've been moving around on the eastside between Redmond/Renton(south side)/Bellevue and now the office is in Bellevue. At first it was ~10 minute drive to a park and ride (or sometimes unofficially WageWorks' parking lot across the street when the p&r was full, or MS's underground parking, depending on which p&r I went to...) followed by ~25-45 mins (again depending on p&r on the bus, but the shorter one almost always meant no seat). Saved me from the 520 toll, which at a previous job was absent and then a reasonable fee at the beginning but I always took the non toll bridge home.

Anyway at my current job my whole team became remote so I just started working from home, and that lasted for a little over two years and a couple moves. It's nice rolling out of my bed and slumping over to the next room to begin the day though. When I was in Renton for a year, just driving to work took ~45 minutes, I never tried taking the bus since that would have easily taken at least 90 minutes and that would be after driving 10-20 mins to a p&r likely to be full. Renton wasn't great for going out. My housemate worked in Bellevue at the time, and the new toll lanes on I-405 screwed him (and everyone really) over. Still causes traffic problems today I think. It was bad enough he wouldn't leave the house until 10 or 11am and not come home until past 7pm and the traffic still wasn't great.

Moved back to Bellevue a year ago, and while I still worked from home at least I could get to the office reasonably quickly again via going to a p&r and taking a short 20-30 minute bus ride, or drive if I had to. (Paying for parking sucks.) The office moved to Bellevue in January and I started coming in again, alternating carpooling with my housemate (he gets free parking) & taking the bus. Still 20 mins at the right time or 45+ respectively.

Just wrapped up another move and now I'm a short 7 minute drive away, or 5 mins of walking plus a 12-15 min bus ride and another 4 mins. When it's warmer I can probably walk the whole way in ~45 mins.

[ljnelson]

I grab a cup of coffee on my way to my basement.

[scarface74]

Atlanta suburbs - 18 miles. One hour if I leave at the wrong time. 40 minutes otherwise. I don't really think about it. It's a straight shot commute and I listen to podcasts to keep occupied.

Strangely enough, I missed the commute when I had a 15 minute commute to work and could work from home most of the time. Driving gives me a chance to decompress and not have to deal with people for a little while before getting home. I'm not naturally a people person and it's mentally draining having to act like I'm one for eight hours a day.

[madcaptenor]

North suburbs of Atlanta, GA; 17 miles, about 40 minutes on average. It's probably shorter in the summer - Atlanta traffic is notoriously more clogged when kids are in school - but my department moved to our current location when the school year was starting so I haven't seen that summer difference yet.

I find this superior to my previous commute (which was similar time, shorter distance, bus-to-BART in San Francisco) but feel guilty about it. I like not being so reliant on a car but Atlanta doesn't exactly make that easy.

[ryck]

London, UK I live around 13Km (~8 miles) from the office. I need to walk 10m to one of the two near trains stations and then do 25m in train plus 20m walking. I can also get a combination of tube and train, and that would be around 40m in total. Driving would be around 50m / 1h, but no one would try to drive into Central London... So, in the end, I am lucky, because in London if you have less than an hour of commute, you should be thankful...