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Your work commute and commuting history

Jacob

Out on the slopes
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Oct 13, 2017
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777
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Maui
When I lived in Moscow, I used to ride the crowded metro. Including the walk time to/from the station, it was probably an hour.

When I moved to DC, it was a 45-min drive opposite the flow of traffic, so pretty consistent.

When I moved here to the UK, I found a place within walking distance of my office. So my commute's been a 15-min walk at a leisurely pace for the last 13 years.
 

jmeb

Enjoys skiing.
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Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Posts
4,490
Location
Colorado
Minneapolis for 7 years total (grad school and time in a research institute): biked to work year round.

Had a short stint (3 months) commuting from bus to Boulder to Denver.

Then 3 years of 1.5mi bike riding a bike to work near downtown Denver.

Now another 3 years of 4.5mi each way to work. About 25min ride. 75% bike, 20% bus, 5% car. Bike on the average day. Bus when it is actively crap conditions out (more because I distrust drivers here in snow). Car for when I ski before work, have midday meetings that aren't reachable by bike within the time I have, or have post-work errands that require a car (groceries are mostly done by bike.)

I've never commuted by car. I'm now in my mid 30s. When buying a house (in Denver which was/is a pretty hot market) my location was based on bikeability. My SO and I have talked at great length about what sort of salary increase would be required for me to even consider a job I have to auto commute to.
 

Dwight

Practitioner of skiing, solid and liquid
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Central Wisconsin
Usually 30 min, rural Wisconsin. Lately, two rooms away too home office. Next opportunity will strongly need to be remote.
 

Posaune

sliding
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Joined
Mar 26, 2016
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1,913
Location
Bellingham, WA
In 31 years of teaching I never had a commute that took more than about 10 minutes. Free parking everywhere I worked. Now I'm retired, so it's 0 minutes.
 

David Chaus

Beyond Help
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Team Gathermeister
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Nov 12, 2015
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Stanwood, WA
I drive about 25 minutes to my office, which is only possible because I arrange my schedule to avoid typical commute hours. The first half of my drive is on rural roads with little traffic, the other half on a freeway.
 

EricG

Lost somewhere!
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Joined
Sep 16, 2018
Posts
1,331
Location
VT
Right now If I drive to the office it’s 26 miles. There are 2 stop signs and I usually see 4-5 cars on my way in. On the way home I see 10-12 cars. There are 6 miles of dirt roads and the rest are decent 2 lane Vermont byways. Some days I work from home, some days from the condo and other days from the patio. But if I drive to the office I get the milage reimbursement which is nice. I luckily only work 4 days a week on a long week. Lol.

In the past, I commuted from NJ to lower Manhattan (don’t miss it). For a decade I commuted from Lakewood to DTC or Denver-downtown. Traffic sucked, but the rail system was great.

I’m happy with my current commute except on snow days. Once I finish my PhD I’ll try to cut back in my regular work and go do some teaching & more consulting.
 

Ken_R

Living the Dream
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Joined
Feb 10, 2016
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5,775
Location
Denver, CO
What is your work commute and commuting history?


Thought it might be kind of fun and/or enlightening to share commuting stories from around the US. What is your current work commute and how has your commuting pattern evolved over time? If you work at home, that is cool too. How did you pull that off? The more varied the commute stories the better:) If you no longer commute tell us some past war stories.


The Wash DC area has really bad traffic and rush hour lasts about four hours every morning and evening. I have done it all in the way of commuting to work in the Wash DC area over the last 40 years; private car, carpool, 15 passenger vanpool, commuter train, subway, public bus, and bicycle. Currently, I am semi-retired and do a pretty reasonable 15 mile/30 minute commute each way two or three work days per week. I drive myself in my own vehicle. From Apr-Oct I do about 50% of my commutes by bicycle and enjoy that as a decent form of exercise. Been doing the fair-weather bike commute thing for a dozen years now. From 1986 to 1999 I commuted 70 miles each way mostly on I95 in northern Virginia. UGLY commute with horrendous traffic, once saw two angry commuters jump out of their cars and brawl on exit ramp asphalt, but the pretty community I lived in was great on the weekends and was a cheap place to raise kids. Best commute I ever had was from 1999 to 2005, 18 mins by my own vehicle to free parking at office.

A lot of you here know this but my "commute" is quite different, I have to drive to the Denver Airport and take 2 flights to get to Puerto Rico and 2 to get back. I do this every week or two, since 2016. It has been fun, might get tired of this in a few years. The rest I do remotely.
 

laine

I ski like a girl. Fast.
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Jul 31, 2016
Posts
729
Location
Palm Springs
Spent a little over four years commuting about 1-1.5 hrs each way (about 30 miles). That was rough. For my first six months, I drove, but then starting alternating a bus in there. Definitely takes it out of you to commute between 2.5-3 hours per day.

Now my commute is two BART (public train transportation) stops. About 30 mins door to door and much more enjoyable. My husband is now doing the Silicon Valley commute, 34 miles each way. But at least his hours are staggered - 6am to 2pm, so he misses the morning traffic. The afternoon, not as much. Bay Area traffic sucks.
 
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luliski

Making fresh tracks
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May 17, 2017
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California
My commute for the past 19 years is the best I've ever had. I live about 3 miles from work. I used to bike commute until I started working 12 hour days. Thinking about starting to ride in again. I need to be outside more on work days.
 

surfsnowgirl

Instructor
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May 12, 2016
Posts
5,768
Location
Magic Mountain, Vermont
I just started a new job that's temp to perm that's 11 miles from home and I'm pretty stoked about that. I have an interview today at 1230pm that just came up that's about 8 miles from home. I've historically had large commutes so this is a downright treat for me. I'm going to be hard pressed to leave this temp to perm job because not only do I like what I'm doing it's for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation so I feel very good going to work every day. My interview today is with an insurance agency (snooze)..... Not complaining and am grateful for the opportunities but am thinking my heart is with the MMRF. Either way it's wonderful to be able to take back roads to/from work so it doesn't matter if there's an accident on the highway.
 
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EricG

Lost somewhere!
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Sep 16, 2018
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1,331
Location
VT
Today’s commute was tough. Had to grab the laptop and go outside to enjoy my coffee and get some work done. It’s been a tough 4 days, lol.
 

Dwight

Practitioner of skiing, solid and liquid
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Dec 13, 2015
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Ha, sat outside this morning for skype meeting. The birds were louder than me. :) Definitely needed to mute when not talking.
 

UGASkiDawg

AKA David
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Nov 12, 2015
Posts
1,760
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CO
Last 15 years I lived .75 miles (5 minutes) from my office and commuted 1 to 2 times per week to my ski/bike/hike house. As of last Tuesday,. I now live at my ski house, sold my place in Denver and commute 70 miles each way 2 to 3 times per week. Happy with it so far, ask me again in April 2018.
Two years later and I'm still happy with it although the 2 to 3 times per week is down to pretty much 2 times per week.
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
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Joined
Oct 26, 2016
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4,804
Location
Whitefish, MT
Currently retired, so there's zero commute.

History

  • Worked in NYC, commuting via train and subway to and from Stamford CT.
  • Worked in NYC, commuting from Central Jersey via train (1.5 hours inbound, 2 hours outbound, assuming everything worked) and PATH (World Trade Center)
  • Lived and worked in New Jersey, traveling 45 minutes each way assuming no accidents and resulting back road excursions
  • Lived in NJ, worked in PA, sixty mile trip each direction. Threatened to exercise my right to relocation at company expense, was given split work force, allowing some days in New Jersey
  • Maternity leave
  • Lived in NJ, worked in PA. Back to that sixty mile drag. Looked for new job out of organization, given tech group (I was in finance up to that point, knew nothing about tech stuff) in NJ
  • Stayed in that job 12 years, worked various locations around NJ, twenty to 45 minute commutes
  • New job, now in Murray Hill, 45 minutes. Given more locations, now four different locations, from Whippany down to Holmdel. Four offices (where's my scissors?)
  • Retired with no interest in working remotely, I'm out of here.
 
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surfsnowgirl

Instructor
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May 12, 2016
Posts
5,768
Location
Magic Mountain, Vermont
I've been at my temp job for 2 months now and I really like working for my company. It feels good to work for a company with such a good cause. We just sent out a press release about a new clinical study we are doing and I felt a beam of pride knowing I facilitated all the legal agreements and getting them signed with all these big named clinics. I am a small but important cog in this awesome wheel. I was happy temping but it's a temp to perm role and I want to stay here. Hope I get that chance. That aside, I'm really digging working close to home again. I have 2 highway choices and any combination of backroads if either are bad. Only 20 minutes away from home on a good day and 45 away on a bad day. I hated working in Greenwich and I'm much happier nowadays. Since I'm still a temp I am considering other perm positions if I'm approached for them. I'm very bummed that this one job I was about to go on a 2nd/final interview for just pulled the plug on everyone and suddenly the position is on hold. This one was in westport and even closer to home which added to the happy factor. Now I have to put it out of my mind. hat aside this company called Tonox reach out to me and we had a phone interview yesterday. They want me to come in next week for a face to face so working on scheduling that. I'm not actively posted anywhere and any activity I have is from word of mouth. I will ride out Tronox and see what happens there. Things may just be working out that I stay here, sort of divine intervention if you will seems to be happening. My 3rd month will be in July and that's usually the perm conversion time so things will work out as they are meant to but it should be an exciting few weeks ahead. My SO is on his work countdown and he will be laid off at some point I think. Either this or he'll retire in 5 years whichever comes first. Given that I wish to make a good job choice because this will likely be my last job down here in the Fairfield curtain. We are eventually looking to get up to Vermont full time at which point the SO will be retired and I will fullfil my ski industry career ie working in a ski shop/ski mountain and in Vermont style maybe another supplemental job in the summer :)... I'm so over corporate life that this will be wonderful. I can't wait for this day.
 
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crgildart

Gravity Slave
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Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
16,325
Location
The Bull City
Driving time/commute logistics was actually higher on my priority list than money was last fall when I was "out there" for the first time in 12 years. I turned down quite a few things that would have been a 45 minute drive one way on a good day, things that paid considerably more than I was making at the previous gig. Free time gets more valuable to me the older I get.

Landed back at the same place but with much better telecommuting options and a 2nd office halfway between my house and the main office... and with a 15% pay bump, far better benefits, etc. Getting laid off last fall and being out of work 3 months was the best thing to happen to me in a long time.

Having a 9 hour day on their time door to door is sooo much better than having an 11 hour day on their time.
 

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