How far is your commute?

[hawkeye08]

50 feet. In the morning I walk from my bedroom to my office. I like the job because clothing is optional but I hate commuting that far -- though a good hot cup of coffee makes the trip go faster. :laughing:

Mine is about 20% further, about 60 ft. I stop and turn on coffee in kitchen, go to office and make sure computer is connected to VPN and Outlook is running, then go get the newspaper, back to the kitchen to fill coffee cup, back to office...

1999-2000, I commuted from Spokane, WA to Roseville, CA, sometimes more than once per week, many other trips thrown in. I could take the 6am flight and be on the campus by 9:38am. During a 15month period, I earned 500,000 miles on Alaska Airlines and 30,000 on United, 20,000 on Delta. I enjoyed the work very much, my family suffered so I changed jobs within the company to work from home, now I rarely travel for business.

 

[Harvey9]

30 miles return and that's far enough, can't imagine 180.

 

[jimmyj]

For the last 21 years I have had a 100 mile round trip commute (150 km). It takes about an hour if not a little more each way. When the weather is bad I work from home. To pass the time in the car I used to listen to music or talk radio but now I talk on the phone. It's a good use of time as I can get a lot of work done (being on the phone is a big part of my job) and not arrive to a backlog of messages when I get to the office. Calls on the way home allow me to make sure I return all my messages every day to keep customer service levels high. (My phone goes through the car radio).

The temptation to text is HUGE when driving, that's a tough habit to fight I will admit.

I think that the reason I can do this is that most of my drive is on remote country roads. If I had to drive in the city all of the commute I think I'd go nuts.

 

[AKwelder]

my father lives north of the twin cities and works in downtown minneapolis. I think he has a commute close to that of broken knee. His reason was he was born on a farm and moved to the suburbs, and hated it. When they could my parents moved to 15 acres in the country, and it was close to a highway that connected to the interstate, that got very close to is work. 25 years later he is getting close to 300k miles on his 3rd truck. To him it all comes down to living in the country, what price is to much for acres of happiness?

Here in AK we have it very crazy, we work weeks on and weeks off. That means that i fly or drive up to 400 miles to work, work up to 8 weeks of 7/12s or more, and then come home for 2 weeks. It really sucks, but the 2 weeks off is great.

 

[scgargoyle]

I have a 5 mile commute, but there are 11 traffic lights. It can take up to 40 minutes at the wrong time of day. My other commute, to our rural property, is 600 miles. A little too far to run up there for the weekend.......

 

[MossRoad]

And only about 6-8 sips of your coffee cup!:laughing:

Heck, I don't think coffee would cool down enough to drink before I got to work!

 

[Pilot]

In '70, '71 I worked in L.A. Commuted 8 miles in 45 minutes. That was nuts!

Back to school, became a forester, started the career in Montana, 7 mile commute, a little over 10 minutes. That was about optimum.

Transferred to Oregon, 26 mile commute up a canyon with big rocks coming down the hillsides onto the road in the winter. About 35 minutes, hair raising in the dark in the winter as the rocks in the road blended with the pavement. Never his one, but others did and took out their suspensions or did other damage. Beautiful drive in good weather. No traffic.

Got transferred to another district at the mouth of the Columbia River Gorge. The area gets ice in the winter. Easy commute, 28 miles each way on rural roads except when it got icy. Again, 35 minutes, no traffic.

Transferred again, 32 mile commute, took about 40 minutes, rural roads and highways, again, no traffic, snow and ice once in awhile, but not a bad drive.

Retired from that job, was in the Air National Guard, they asked me to put in more and more time, eventually 2 years full time. 32 miles each way, first 14.5 miles on a rural road before I hit the first stop sign. After that, it was all urban driving, 8 miles of freeway. I started work at 6 a.m., leaving home at 5:15 in order to avoid traffic, which kept the morning drive to 45 minutes, afternoon to 50 minutes.

Now fully retired! Commute? What's that?

 

[clemsonfor]

Changing employers is not an option for me. As I stated I have been with the same employer for over twenty years. The other reason, the one that prompted the move is the wife came down with cancer and if I were to switch jobs I don't think I would be able to get health coverage for the wife's "preexisting condition".

Obama care has fixed this for you. IF the congress does not succede in repealing it you now may be free to look for a new job. This is what obama wanted, you to be free to move careers and not tied down, so you can now become an artist or something. :laughing:

Sorry i just had to, now back on topic. I think if we had more big city folks on this forum we would hear of crazy cross town commutes that are multi hours long. But due to the content nature of this site those big city types are probably not on here.

 

[skent]

As of today, I have a 76 mile round trip commute, but my employer is moving in 4 weeks to a site 28 miles further away, (134 Round trip @ day). I've been here 31 years, have a few more to go for retirement, have to do it for a couple of years. Not very good prospects for > 55 years old and looking for a new start. . . . .

 

[riptides]

My commute starts at 4am. I drive 82 miles one way. Usually takes 2-3 hours, one way.
In the evening, I reverse this.

Thursdays and Fridays it is not uncommon to have a 3.4 - 4 hour home trip.

My job takes me places where I'd rather not live.

I have stories to share, those in the greater Washington DC area have probably lived through them all before.....

 

[brin]

My commute starts at 4am. I drive 82 miles one way. Usually takes 2-3 hours, one way.
In the evening, I reverse this.

Thursdays and Fridays it is not uncommon to have a 3.4 - 4 hour home trip.

My job takes me places where I'd rather not live.

I have stories to share, those in the greater Washington DC area have probably lived through them all before.....

God bless...the worse commute I have ever had was 1 hour each way and I did that for 10 yrs. until we moved our office...now my commute is about 10 minutes...each way...That is one long commute you have...how much longer do you have to do it and how long have you been doing it ?

 

[riptides]

..That is one long commute you have...how much longer do you have to do it and how long have you been doing it ?

Started as about 62 miles one way, twenty three (23) years ago. So that was better than today. I figure another 25 years and I am done.

You may interpret done as you wish.

 

[brucew44guns]

I am semi retired now, but have a business I operate 47 miles from home. The ride is all 2 lane country roads, I don't mind. 5 days a week might eat on me though.

 

[arpt209]

My roundtrip is slightly under 3 1/2 miles. This morning it took me almost 45 minutes and nearly 30 miles to drive the less than 1 3/4 miles to work. It's tough to have to check all the trails looking for coyotes to shoot on the way to work. I used to have to work 16 hour shifts quite frequently & would hustle home jump into bed & sleep fast to go do another 16 hours. It was a true blessing to be able to drive my land-rocket & be able to be at home in 1.5 minutes from work.

 

[techwrtr2]

50 feet. In the morning I walk from my bedroom to my office. I like the job because clothing is optional but I hate commuting that far -- though a good hot cup of coffee makes the trip go faster. :laughing:

I'm betting I have the smallest commute. Due to renovations reducing our living space, my desk is 3 feet from my bed.

Rural people measure commutes in miles, city folk measure it in minutes.

100' for me or a trip to the clients location which could be anywhere.

Pete

All of the above for me right now.

My "commute" to my home office is maybe 30ft though if I could walk through walls I'm about 3ft from my pillow as I type. However... on any given day, I drive from 60 to 300 miles. I may have a day planned where I'm doing "only" 150 and without warning I have another 160 onto the day when a critical issue comes up. The best is a day where I've done the above and am on-call... I might get to do yet another 240 miles.

After Christmas, this is changing to a steady gig at a set location 29 miles away. On the plus side, I have a predictable commute every day. On the negative side, no more days where I leave home at 10AM and am done by 1:30PM. Yes, those do happen once in a while.

I won't miss those long miles.

 

[riptides]

My commute starts at 4am. I drive 82 miles one way. Usually takes 2-3 hours, one way.
In the evening, I reverse this.

Thursdays and Fridays it is not uncommon to have a 3.4 - 4 hour home trip.

My job takes me places where I'd rather not live.

I have stories to share, those in the greater Washington DC area have probably lived through them all before.....

I just added another 32 miles to any given day during the week. I'll need a trip planner if this keeps up.

 

[Reverend Blair]

My commute changes with what I'm doing. In the winter, it's often just a few steps. When I do travel in the winter, I tend to set aside a day for it so it's not a commute. Being self-employed I have that luxury. In the summer I often have to drive to job-sites all over the place, although I try not to take jobs more than an hour from the city.

My worst commute ever was in a past job. I was based in Winnipeg, but I woke up in Thunder Bay, flew to Winnipeg for a meeting and did some phone work, flew to Calgary for a couple hours of work there, and ended up in Vancouver to attend...this is the best part...a time management seminar. 3 provinces, 3 time zones, a 14 hour day...all dictated by my boss...and I need a time management seminar? He used to do that kind of thing to us all of the time too. It was ridiculous.

 

[Redneck in training]

my father lives north of the twin cities and works in downtown minneapolis. I think he has a commute close to that of broken knee. His reason was he was born on a farm and moved to the suburbs, and hated it. When they could my parents moved to 15 acres in the country, and it was close to a highway that connected to the interstate, that got very close to is work. 25 years later he is getting close to 300k miles on his 3rd truck. To him it all comes down to living in the country, what price is to much for acres of happiness?

Here in AK we have it very crazy, we work weeks on and weeks off. That means that i fly or drive up to 400 miles to work, work up to 8 weeks of 7/12s or more, and then come home for 2 weeks. It really sucks, but the 2 weeks off is great.

At least your life is predictable. I also work 12/7 but I have no schedule. I might do it 90 days come home for a week and do it again somewhere else. I left home November 6 and flew to Korea for a week, then they sent me to offshore rig in Australia for two days but it took two weeks, then I flew home for three days and was sent to offshore in Emirates where, I am guessing, I will spend the holidays. I do this anywhere between 180 and 270 days a year. And here is kicker. My employer requires that we show up in the office between jobs. It is tolerated that we don't show up unless there is a reason for it.

 

[Financegal]

In my case, I got transferred by my employer (federal gov.) to work out of the DC central office. No way I could cope with metro living ... no way the wife would have stayed with me if I had moved into that craziness. We both need our space to decompress. Also had kids I wanted to have a more healthy setting than metro DC environs. Knew I'd never handle a drive-in commute, so found out where the rail line ran & headed toward the far end!

Nick

Hey, I certainly "get" it. I lived the nightmare that is DC - lived about a half hour away and worked in the city for 25 years till they moved our jobs to MD. That commute was 90 miles one way. Truly nuts - rise at 4am, meet the vanpool at 5 am for the 1.5 hours (many times more) to work. Get to do it again in reverse at end of the day. After doing that for 2 months, a few of us decided to rent a condo across from work. At that point we lived out of a suitcase till we all retired. We'd leave Friday after work and head to our homes in VA and come Sunday night make the long drive back again.

For those of you here from large snowfall states, trust me when I say ya ain't lived till you've been to DC when they get snow. First snowflake the city empties and they don't have a chance to treat the interstates BEFORE the snow accumulates. There were days when 4 or 5 inches snowfall while at work easily meant a 7 hour commute home. Nothing moves on I95 south, north or in any direction. Retired, moved 65 miles outside DC in a very rural area and life's all good these days.

 

[scoutcub]

At least your life is predictable. I also work 12/7 but I have no schedule. I might do it 90 days come home for a week and do it again somewhere else. I left home November 6 and flew to Korea for a week, then they sent me to offshore rig in Australia for two days but it took two weeks, then I flew home for three days and was sent to offshore in Emirates where, I am guessing, I will spend the holidays. I do this anywhere between 180 and 270 days a year. And here is kicker. My employer requires that we show up in the office between jobs. It is tolerated that we don't show up unless there is a reason for it.

Ahh...you beat me to it!
My commute takes approx 12.5 hours traveling approx 500 MPH to get to work. Fortunately, I'm on more of a set schedule (6 weeks on, 6 weeks off) so only have to travel 6 times a year. But....the commute itself is definitely getting old!!