commute times, threshold of pain

[Alistair]

I'm curious as to what commute times people find to be acceptable?

My commute times in Washington DC area are quite long (~90 minutes for ~38 mi (36 miles as crow flies) - each way). Not as bad as it sounds, as this is 6 miles driving; 1 hour commuter rail and 25 min walk to office. Makes for a long day, but not a stressful commute. I spend non-driving time napping, reading a book or listening to podcasts/music. Combination of housing costs and schools drove us further out from my office. Driving is a bit of a nightmare, unless you can carpool (HOV). Having worked in Los Angeles in a previous life, I'm no fan of long, traffic filled drives.

That being said, I'm a fan of 30 mins or less commute and a big fan of public transport / walking / biking to work.

One of the reasons I'm considering NZ is the better work / life balance. Moving to DC (actually northern Virginia) wasn't in my plans as of six months ago, but so it goes with work. I do like the green here though (vice the normally dry/yellow plains of Colorado).

[omymai]

I'm also from the DC area, and used to do similar commuting, then moved to Alexandria to cut down the commute to 15 min walk and 30 min on the train.
Now I live in Blenheim and have a 7 minute commute. I could never go back to a long commute. I make less than half the money I would if I stayed in the states, doing a new career I love (wine), wouldn't change it for the world. I do miss the paycheck *sometimes* as the cost of living vs wages here is higher. I don't think I could live in a big city again, so maybe my experience is not applicable to your situation. After living in a small town, I get serious culture shock when I visit DC/NOVA.

I'm curious as to what commute times people find to be acceptable?

My commute times in Washington DC area are quite long (~90 minutes for ~38 mi (36 miles as crow flies) - each way). Not as bad as it sounds, as this is 6 miles driving; 1 hour commuter rail and 25 min walk to office. Makes for a long day, but not a stressful commute. I spend non-driving time napping, reading a book or listening to podcasts/music. Combination of housing costs and schools drove us further out from my office. Driving is a bit of a nightmare, unless you can carpool (HOV). Having worked in Los Angeles in a previous life, I'm no fan of long, traffic filled drives.

That being said, I'm a fan of 30 mins or less commute and a big fan of public transport / walking / biking to work.

One of the reasons I'm considering NZ is the better work / life balance. Moving to DC (actually northern Virginia) wasn't in my plans as of six months ago, but so it goes with work. I do like the green here though (vice the normally dry/yellow plains of Colorado).

[breeze]

When we were living in
- Singapore: 50 minutes (two buses) each way for only 9km journey (each way). Standing in the crowded bus mostly. Go-stop-go traffic. I can't do this anymore.
- New Plymouth: 10 minutes walk each way. Or 5 minutes drive each way. I love this but there's no more job opportunity for me in NP.
- Wellington: 8 minutes walk, 17 minutes train, 10 minutes walk (total 35 mins) each way. Able to sit in train. Quite manageable. But Wellington windchill is too cold for me. I'm from the equator!

We're moving to Auckland. I'm hoping to drive to work (estimate 20 mins). It'll be increased cost for parking but I don't want to do the 'walk - bus - train - walk' >1 hour route to work. It'd be nice to be able to take just a bus to work but we don't want to pay for the exorbitant rent nearer to the city.

[dharder]

My commute is 13km, I cycle to work here, which takes me around 35 minutes (+ time for shower at in the office). The same by car can be anything between 25min and 1h20 min. Public transport would be over an hour (walk-bus-walk).

I occasionally have to drive (child pick up/drop off) and hate it. I don't know how people drive here regularly, it would drive me absolutely insane, and costs for parking are quite silly.

I know people here with extremely long commutes who live far outside of Auckland but are fine with it, and also people who try to work slightly off rush hour hours to avoid the worst traffic. In general, I think public transport is fine as long as you live and work close to a relatively direct line. Once you have to start doing the walk-bus-train-bus type thing, it would quickly become too time consuming.

[dede]

I used to commute 1 hour 20 minutes each way in NY. Now it's a 3 minute drive to the ferry, 25 minutes of good company and then a 5 minute walk to work. There is a bar on the ferry which BTW crosses a serene harbour, sometimes stoppping to watch the penguins and dolphins and even orca in the early spring. In short, it's diametrically opposite to the hell of the MTA followed by the crushing 4,5 subway downtown. I'm never going back to that.

[Alistair]

I used to commute 1 hour 20 minutes each way in NY. Now it's a 3 minute drive to the ferry, 25 minutes of good company and then a 5 minute walk to work. There is a bar on the ferry which BTW crosses a serene harbour, sometimes stoppping to watch the penguins and dolphins and even orca in the early spring. In short, it's diametrically opposite to the hell of the MTA followed by the crushing 4,5 subway downtown. I'm never going back to that.

Nice! Didn't think ferry would be in someone's commute, but for Wellington Harbour, it makes sense.

[rogercruse]

I used to commute into central London from Herfordshire using a combination of Walk-Overground Train-Underground Train-Walk taking about 90 minutes per journey on a good day.

I now commute into the CBD via the North Western Motorway in less than half of this time.

My journey is far less stressful even with the road works going on to upgrade the SH16 at the moment.

[Azkateaz]

When we lived in Wellington I did walk > bus > walk = 30-45 minutes (mostly depending on weather)
Now we live in Hamilton. Unfortunately I have to drive here but the commute is between 10 - 15 minutes depending on whether I time it right.

I am pretty intolerant to commuting - I preferred my 45 minute bus ride over my 15 minute drive but I'd rather have a 2 minute walk

[dbonnett]

In the US, I was driving 60-75 minutes, depending on weather and traffic, each way (70km) from Boulder into Denver along highway and city streets. The commute was so stressful due to the crazy drivers, speeding cars and snow/ice in the winter that I spent the last month happy to have survived that day's drive and counting down the number of times I had left to go.

Here I work from home but when I do have to go to a client in Nelson I try to do it on bike whenever possible. My wife bikes to and from her job almost every day - 5km each way, mostly on cycle ways or quiet streets. 5 cars queued up is a big traffic jam to us now

[jawnbc]

I lived in NYC in the late 80s: out in south Queens then in mid-Brooklyn. From Queens it was walk-subway-walk for 95 minutes each way if the timing was perfect--2 hours if it all went pear-shaped (10 minute walk, 80 minute subway,5 minute walk). From Brooklyn it was 5 minute walk and 25 minute subway.

In Auckland I work in Grafton and live in New Windsor. Initially it was walk-train-walk, but that entailed 15 minutes walk (1.4km), 25 minutes train, then another 20 minutes walk (1.7km). I was exhausted by Thursday night! I bought a wee car and it's now 20 minutes door-to park, then 10 minutes walk to my office outside of peak traffic.

I used to commute 1 hour 20 minutes each way in NY. Now it's a 3 minute drive to the ferry, 25 minutes of good company and then a 5 minute walk to work. There is a bar on the ferry which BTW crosses a serene harbour, sometimes stoppping to watch the penguins and dolphins and even orca in the early spring. In short, it's diametrically opposite to the hell of the MTA followed by the crushing 4,5 subway downtown. I'm never going back to that.