Commuters off to an early start

[BeansandCod]

Up at 5:00 AM - do some light stretching and weights
5:30 AM - recite the day's rosary on the radio
5:50 AM - make coffee, wash any left over dishes and any other various chores like laundry or watering the plants
6:15 take shower, do makeup/hair/get dressed
7:15 walk to end of street to catch bus
8:15 arrive at work *
4:30 leave work - home by 5:20 usually *
* extra time allotted for public transpo

And yes, jsk1983 - DH and I are usually in bed between 9:00 - 9:30. We'll read for a little bit and then it's lights out. Might as well; most TV is useless and I can listen to the Red Sox game on my headset while I fall asleep. I need my 8 hours or I'm a crabbypants!
NB: Back to the original post - yes, I've noticed over the last year or so that the AM commute around Boston has crept closer and closer to 5:00 AM. And this is more than the Monday returners from a weekend on Cape Cod. This is folks getting a jumpstart to avoid the gridlock that hits by 7:00 PM. The Big Dig was no help.

DH leaves at 6:15 AM and it's pretty bad then.

[Suburb Repairman]

Up at 6:45, out the door by 7:30. Arrive at work 7:55 - 8:00. I allow 5 minutes because of a train that runs through town at 7:57; sometimes I hit it, and sometimes I don't.

I leave work at varying times, but it usually takes 25-30 minutes.

[Hink]

For those of you who get up at 4:30 or thereabouts do you actually go to bed really early or do you just get by with not much sleep.
-Jared

I go to bed around 10pm. It depends on the TV and wife schedule. I sleep in late on the weekends.

[Tresmo]

7am - Up
Get dressed, makeup, washed up
7:20 - Breakfast
7:40-7:45 - Leave for work
7:55-8 - Arrive at work
5 - Leave work

[biscuit]

Wake-up between 5:45-6:00, and if I'm out the door by 6:20 I can be sitting at my desk just a couple of minutes before 7:00. A ten minute deviation in leaving can make a 20 minute difference on the commute, Yesterday it took just over an hour to get to work and I only live 20 miles away, and supposedly travel, against traffic. The good thing is that I get to leave at 4:00 PM, but by the time I go to the gym for an hour and then fight traffic getting back into town I still don't get home until after 6:00.

It's a good job, but I am really starting to miss my 20 minute commute on public transit.

[Tide]

I hope I never have to wake up before 7am (unless I have a special reason) for work let alone leave at 7am or sooner. In Charleston here since everything is within 40min to 1 hour depending on traffic the rush does not start that early. I don't know if anyone in Charleston commutes to Columbia everyday (90 miles), I would hate that commute, time to move.

Current Schedule
7:00-7:30 wake up (depending on how fast I can get ready)
7:30-8:00 Shower, Shave, Iron clothes as needed, get dressed
8:00-8:15 Eat cereal, check news on internet and email from night before
8:15-8:25 Pack a lunch
8:25-8:30 Take dog out put outgoing mail in box
8:30-9:00 Commute to work depending on lights and slow trucks can take 20-30 minutes

[nrschmid]

Varies when I am up, can be as early as 430 sometimes as late as 7.
12 minute walk on bike trail to work, 5 minute drive, in the office at 8
go home for lunch, sometimes i jog the track across from my home on my lunch break
Leave work at 5 or 6 (depending on flex time)
In bed by 1030-12 (unless I am out on the town, then its anywhere from 1-4 on the weekends).

live very close to work as you can tell. Chicagoland has one of the worst congestion problems in the country, you miss the gap, and you can't move in the city for several hours twice a day, thank god we don't have siestas in this MSA.

[zman]

And yes, jsk1983 - DH and I are usually in bed between 9:00 - 9:30. We'll read for a little bit and then it's lights out. Might as well; most TV is useless and I can listen to the Red Sox game on my headset while I fall asleep. I need my 8 hours or I'm a crabbypants!

This is the same with me/us. My wife and I try to get to bed around that time although I get up earlier than she does (by choice, I am a morning person, she is not).

[illinoisplanner]

When I'm working during the summer, I leave around 7:45 or 7:50 to get to work at 8:00.

However, my parents both have 1-2 hour commutes. My dad usually leaves shortly after 5:00 to get to work at 7:00.

[Jeff]

I leave the house by 6:15 am to get to work for 7, so that I can leave by 3:30ish.

Today I came in for 8:30, and it will be the last time I do it.

[biscuit]

However, my parents both have 1-2 hour commutes. My dad usually leaves shortly after 5:00 to get to work at 7:00.

I find that to be absolute insanity. I have co-workers who travel 60 miles or more (1 hour + without traffic jamming) just to get to work. I'm getting aggravated with 20 miles at 30-40 minutes and wonder how these other people do it. Especially if they have kids and other things to accomplish other than go to work and be in bed by 9:30. .

[Fat Cat]

Currently have a three hour commute:r
Have been doing this for a couple of years

[jmello]

This brings up an interesting point: do people everywhere else in the nation start work at 8:00am, except in the Northeast? In Boston, almost every professional job began at 9:00am and if an employer suggested otherwise he wouldn't have many employees. Down here in NC, every professional job (government included) seems to start at 8:00am.

That being said, I have been working a compressed work week, so I leave for work at 6:45am and arrive at 7:00am.

[mendelman]

This brings up an interesting point: do people everywhere else in the nation start work at 8:00am, except in the Northeast? In Boston, almost every professional job began at 9:00am and if an employer suggested otherwise he wouldn't have many employees. Down here in NC, every professional job (government included) seems to start at 8:00am. Many here in Chicagoland (at least municipal planning jobs) start at 8a. I do, but I leave at 4:30p - yay for the 37.5 hour week.

[Bear Up North]

Bear schedule, normally.....

4:30 AM Up
4:31 AM Take new puppy out to doggie yard
5:00 AM Usual leave home time
5:20 AM Arrive at office

The early start thing has always been in my blood. I do get a lot done in that period before the tired, hungry, and poor begin to mass around my door.

Before my bone marrow stem cell transplant I could easily get by on 4-6 hours of sleep, and catch-up (a little) on weekends. My body changed, though.....now to get up that early I have to force myself into bed about 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM.

The above schedule does not include the couple of times each night that I take the puppy out for a bit of bladder relief, stick-biting, and tail-chasing.

Bear

EDIT: Forgot to mention that my 20-minute commute is primarily country roads and through a heavily-wooded rural area.

[TOFB]

I flex in 30-45 min later to miss the rush minutes on my bike. It is a big difference.

[Salmissra]

6: 45 Rise up - reluctantly
7:50 - 7:55 Out the door
*drive is only 10 miles, but there's road construction at two places*
8:15 - 8:20 parking in the garage
8:25 at my desk

5:30 Leave if I'm lucky
5:50 - 6:00 Home
6:01 Taking doggie out for her relief

I like the short commute. Previously, I had a 45 minute bus ride. Add on to that the 5 minutes it took to get to the park & ride, and the uncovered nature of the bus stops, and the commute could be pretty bad.

[Brocktoon]

545am Alarn goes off
600am out of bed
600-620am 3 "S"'s
620-635am Brush teeth get dressed
635-645am Rummage for breakfast, make tea and head to work
730ish arrive at work
Depending on the day I leave between 5 to 10pm

[CJC]

Leave for work sometime between 7 and 8, arrive at work ten minutes later...at the end of my ten minute walk. (Takes longer on days I stop at a coffee shop along the way)

[illinoisplanner]

I find that to be absolute insanity. I have co-workers who travel 60 miles or more (1 hour + without traffic jamming) just to get to work. I'm getting aggravated with 20 miles at 30-40 minutes and wonder how these other people do it. Especially if they have kids and other things to accomplish other than go to work and be in bed by 9:30. . The sad thing is that their commutes are only about 30-40 miles, but with traffic it usually takes about an hour to an hour and a half. Gotta love Chicagoland...too many suburbs and not enough limited access highways to serve them.

[jsk1983]

The sad thing is that their commutes are only about 30-40 miles, but with traffic it usually takes about an hour to an hour and a half. Gotta love Chicagoland...too many suburbs and not enough limited access highways to serve them.

Given that we longer create new cities, only sprawl outwards from existing ones these transport problems are bound to happen. Sure we could build more highways but is generally agreeded upon that this is not really the solution to the problem. Public transportation can help, but is really only useful for a select number of journies (generally commuting into the central business district). Cities that offer decent alternatives to driving generally tend to be places with heavy traffic.

[tsc]

Alarm: 5:15
Feed dogs: 5:30
Shower, coffee, iron clothes walk dogs...etc.
Leave house: 6:45 am. 30 mile commute with NYC traffic
Work: 7:30 am

Yesterday I started work at 9:00... it took me over an hour to get to work. I park in a garage across the street from where I work...so that takes me about 10 minutes to park, etc.