Commute Time

[Seabishop]

How long are your average commutes? Any of you doing some real long hauling? This is the chance for all you hardcore planner types to tell us how you bike 5 minutes to the light rail line and work above the used record shop. Me - 30 minutes, moderate traffic.

 

[donk]

This is really embarrassing.

I live a 10 minute walk/5 minute bike ride from work or a 3 minute drive, and I drive almost everyday as I need my car for work.

If I worked with tranplanner my house would be considered a prime parking space, but I live in a small town where you are expected to drive.

 

[Downtown]

7 minutes door to door drive and I do carpool (ok - with my husband who works in the same building).

 

[NHPlanner]

30-40 minutes (faster in the morning). Mostly Interstate. Friday afternoons are awful with all of the Massholes and tourists clogging up I-93. I'm now up to 6 differnet routes between home and work to compensate for traffic.

Still better than my old job which was an hour commute (state roads, no highway). Even when I was staying with my then-girlfriend (now wife) in Maine, my commute to my old job was an hour. Yes, my job was the mid point between my girlfriend and home for over a year.

 

[el Guapo]

10 minutes tops.

 

[Floridays]

I live exactly 12 miles from work but it takes me about 40-50 minutes, no highway driving. Typical south Florida traffic from hell. A consultant recently told our commissioners that if this continues, we will all be carrying a microwave in our car.
However, our offices will be moving in about a year, and I will be less than 10 minutes from work!

Before moving here, I took the train to work and loved it.

 

[prudence]

Wheeeee!!!

25 minutes, reverse commute.

 

[gkmo62u]

35 minutes if I leave by 600am
50 minutes between 600am and 630am
60 minutes after 630

always about 50 minutes on the way home.

It is the Dc metro area.

 

[Mastiff]

2 minutes... 1 minute, 30 seconds if I speed.

 

[statler]

Normal day:
5-7 min walk from apt. to commuter rail stop.
20-25 minute train ride.
3-5 walk from station to office.

If late for train or train is running late:
7-10 minute walk to bus stop.
5 min bus ride to Orange Line (subway).
25-30 minute subway ride.
5-7 minute walk from subway stop to office.

 

[JNL]

20 mins, reverse commute

This seems short to me as I used to do 1 hour each way last year. The old route was much more scenic though - coastal roads, sea views. It was more fun too - lots of hills and few passing opportunities unless you knew the road really well... Now it's motorway most of the way. Boring.

 

[nerudite]

20 minute reverse commute, up to 45 minutes when snowing heavily.

 

[kms]

I work from home, but when I do have to go to one of the offices, it takes me 20 - 25 minutes to drive there.

 

[Tranplanner]

55 minutes by public transit...

Once a week I drive (carpool) in with a hockey buddy. Then it only takes about 40 minutes.

I liked the 10 minute walk I had at my old job. Shame the job sucked though!

 

[Cardinal]

Five minutes. Now that I have moved out into the country that commute is nearly double the 2 minutes it took when I lived just outside our downtown. Still, that is a small price to pay for getting out from all that congestion.

 

[Habanero]

It takes about 20 minutes coming and going- although after the installation of those pesky lights for the I-10 entrance ramps, and our huge problem with red light runners, it can take up to 40.

 

[Jeff]

45 minutes to 1.5 hours to drive 13 miles depending on traffic. No route to bike it or I would.

 

[Seabishop]

Normal day:
5-7 min walk from apt. to commuter rail stop.
20-25 minute train ride.
3-5 walk from station to office.

Man, I wished I lived in Boston.

NHPlanner: I can't believe that in almost 30 years of living within 10 minutes of Mass I've never heard of "Massholes." It will pepper my conversations from now on. But I still wish I lived in Boston.

 

[PlannerGirl]

20 min if i get on the road at 7:30 14 miles most of it on I66 but the real buck is spent on chain bridge road *read stop and go burb hell*

going home if i walk out at 4:30 it takes 35 min, if i leave at 4:35 it can take 45 or longer

now if it rains those number go out the window. i hate to see what it will be like here when the snow flies.

oh yes and mine is all reverse commute.

 

[Dan]

The old job: 12 to 15 minutes.
The new job: 25 to 30 minutes.

 

[El Feo]

In to Boston

12 minute car ride to station
40 minute ride on commuter train to Back Bay Station (sleep, read, whatever)
10 minutes on T to my office

Same thing in reverse on the trip home.

 

[BKM]

10 miles, 15-20 minutes door-to-door. Unless there is an accident on the freeway.

 

[pandersen]

Last Job: 5 minute walk
Current Job: 5 minute drive (+ 5 minutes to scrape the windows in the winter)

 

[Nancy]

1.25 hours/ on average, but I do commute. It was 1 hour when I started 2 yrs. ago. That's Northern Virginia for ya!

 

[nerudite]

(5 minutes to scrape the windows in the winter)

Hey, and do I get to count the time I spend going out to turn on the car to warm up whilst still in my jammies? This even precedes the de-icing of the windshields (or occasionally door handles). Sheesh!

 

[el Guapo]

So, what happened to the promise of telecommuting? I know I could phone at least two days a week of this job in. Current planners, your screwed, but us visionary guys, why we were just designed for that telecommunting.

Mike G - If you could haul a Lap Top into a certain hang out of yours would you ever go back to the office?

Should this be its own thread?

 

[Mastiff]

Hey, and do I get to count the time I spend going out to turn on the car to warm up whilst still in my jammies? This even precedes the de-icing of the windshields (or occasionally door handles). Sheesh!

Buy a remote starter.

Not that I wouldn't want to see you running around in your jammies...

 

[mike gurnee]

4 to 7 minutes. Depends on whether we have a tail or a head wind. Cross winds can be the worst. I tried to bike one time, but too old to face a 30 mph head wind.

 

[mike gurnee]

Hey Guap,
telecommuting is worth a thread. may work in some instances, but the last time I tried to work at home for a couple of days to get a product out, I was told not to. I was "expected" to be in the office.

 

[nerudite]

Buy a remote starter.

Not that I wouldn't want to see you running around in your jammies...

It's on my Christmas short list... I'll cross my fingers that I've been good enough this year that I get something nice from Santa.

 

[Chet]

Re: Wheeeee!!!

25 minutes, reverse commute.

And Prudence now has the longest commute of anyone in our planning office (although our GIS Coordiantor is practically his neighbor, and I used yo be also).

My new and improved commute is down to 10 minutes with rush hour traffic (also still technically a reverse commute I guess).

 

[seannelson]

20 miles and 25 minutes each way.

 

[donk]

While my commute time is short, my travel time to do anything fun is really long (minimum 1:45 each way) Some times I wish i could live someplace where my commute time was longer but the travel time to amenities was shorter.

 

[Planderella]

Re: Wheeeee!!!

25 minutes, reverse commute.

How about a 50 minute reverse commute!

 

[Andy Dobson]

30 min. more or less. Plus a long walk from the parking lot.

I really need to take the bus again...picks me up a block from my house and drops me across the street from the office. If only there weren't night meetings, errands, haircuts, sick kids...

Stupid non-transit oriented city. Did anyone know Cincinnati defeated a light rail tax referendum recently? In our brilliance, we turned our backs on a 3X match from the state and feds to construct a robust light rail/bus transit system.

 

[pandersen]

Complain all you want about our Canadian weather - coming originally from the U.S., you should take the opportunity to savour NOT having to dodge bullets on the way out to the car as is the case in many parts of the U.S.A.

Before you take a strip of my ass for the preceeding remark, I might just mention that I have worked in the U.S. and have have already walked a mile in those shoes.

 

[nerudite]

Complain all you want about our Canadian weather - coming originally from the U.S., you should take the opportunity to savour NOT having to dodge bullets on the way out to the car as is the case in many parts of the U.S.A.

Before you take a strip of my ass for the preceeding remark, I might just mention that I have worked in the U.S. and have have already walked a mile in those shoes.

My complaints are all tongue in cheek... the Canadian weather is fine for about hmmmmm... 10 months out of the year. In about a month I'll be thinking "why in the hell did I move here???" But most of the time it's just fun to complain about the weather... it's the #1 conversation topic of most Canadians, so I figure I'll just fit right in.

As for dodging bullets, didn't you work in Detroit? I don't think that's indicative of the entire U.S. Whereas freezing your ass off is pretty much par for the course in most of Canada.

But, yes, I have been held up in a 7-11 at gunpoint (or rather the 7-11 was held up and I was in it) and mugged three times. And I don't miss fearing driving at night (except for hitting black ice and spinning into a ditch) and all the other extra precautions I had back in L.A. So I'll give ya that much.

 

[Seabishop]

Stupid non-transit oriented city. Did anyone know Cincinnati defeated a light rail tax referendum recently? In our brilliance, we turned our backs on a 3X match from the state and feds to construct a robust light rail/bus transit system.

Just imagine what the city would still be like if Jerry Springer was still mayor.

 

[Andy Dobson]

Just imagine what the city would still be like if Jerry Springer was still mayor.

I don't know...most of the clowns in our City Hall aren't much better than a chair brawl between Transvestives Who Love Their Boyfriend's Goldfish, or whatever the hell gets on his show.

I've grown attached to this city in my time here. But man, our city leaders need to take a page from George Costanza's book and play "opposite day" for a while--where they read their intuition and instincts, and do the exact opposite. Maybe then cops wouldn't be killing quite so many suspects, population loss could be stemmed, schools could be funded, the Bengals wouldn't suck so much...

 

[mike gurnee]

Hey Andy,
Was it not Cincy/Northern KY that built a subway system decades ago...only to find that the trains were too big to fit in the already constructed tunnels?

 

[SGB]

I drive solo about 62 miles each way for work. Mostly through rolling hills and farmland, where I see as many tractors, deer and turkeys (the feathered type) on or near the road as I do other cars.

Why the distance?
- Wife's employment in no where near mine.
- For conveinience sake, our home is near both child care and her job.

In a prior job, work was a lovely 12 minute walk away. And our daycare provider was midway between work and home. Those were the days.......

 

[Andy Dobson]

Hey Andy,
Was it not Cincy/Northern KY that built a subway system decades ago...only to find that the trains were too big to fit in the already constructed tunnels?

I think the whole thing fell apart in the 20s because of rampant political machine corruption. Massive kickbacks, patronage, that sort of thing.

http://www.cincinnati-transit.net/subway.html

That in part led to the reform movements in Cincinnati, and establishment of the Charter Party and loads of planning innovations. Unfortunately, that progressive spirit has eroded since then

But hey, all is not lost!

http://www.communitycompass.org/