Who's got a long commute to work?

[Jimbo]

I drove a vanpool for two years, 75 miles each way from LAX to the Space Shuttle plant in Palmdale. This was in addition to the eight miles from my home to LAX.

This was a drive over a mountain range, with occaisional snow in the winter. The city portion through West LA in the afternoon was pure h***.

The Dodge Ram 3500 drank $300 worth of gas a month (in 1994), and a brake job about twice a year.

 

[blupupher]

I have a 52 mile commute each way. Going to work I leave early enough that I hit little if any traffic, usualy 60-65 mph the whole way. Coming home I get some traffic, but not much. About 10-15 min difference between coming and going.

And how did I deal with it, I sold my Trailblazer, gave my wife the Jeep, and bought a Hyundai Elantra. On weekends, I get about 40mpg, weekdays is around 33, compared to 13 with the Jeep and 18-20 with the Trailblazer.

 

[Ben Boyle]

I drive 50 miles each way to school but it's almost all rural highways and I can cruise at a comfortable 60 MPH for almost the whole distance and it's not too bad. I'd rather still live in the country than live in the city that my school is on the outskirts of. I also have 3 cars that I can mix up the driving with, a '74 VW Super Beetle, '86 Citroen 2CV, and a '99 New Beetle. The 2CV is the roughest car of the three so I put alot of the miles on it and save the VWs.

 

[paulo57509]

I commute about 62 miles door-to-door, one way. Been doing this since 1999.

Because of traffic patterns, I have to leave the house at 4:00am. I arrive at work in about an hour. I leave work around 2:30pm and it takes me about 90 minutes to arrive back at home.

FWIW, my route to work is one of the worst commutes in Northern California; Central Valley to Silicon Valley...and it's getting worse with the amount of people now moving out to where I live...not to mention the recent rise in fuel prices.

Some people can manage to deal with long commutes and some can't. I put up with it until early 2003 when I started taking public transportation. I've been riding the bus to and from work going on three years and I couldn't be more pleased. My commute time is the same and for $135/month it doesn't kill the budget either. I get in at least two 60 minute naps a day while riding the bus and I'm not as beat up as I used to be.

BITOG related: When I was driving the car, I extended my OCI's to 5k miles and switched to Delo 400.

 

[Pablo]

10 miles now!! Yes. All relative I guess. BUt for me this is a short commute. Takes about 15-25 minutes.

 

[airbus]

235 miles per round trip. It's all highway driving.

 

[Brett Miller]

Man, I feel lucky. I'm only 8 miles away and can go home for lunch.

 

[H2GURU]

In the Northeast I think alot of these long commutes arise from house-hunting on the weekend and by trying to get MORE HOUSE FOR THE MONEY ,the ride gets farther & farther from "civilization". The 35 minute commute from southern N.H. on Sunday to Boston suburbs can be a tortuous 2 hr.ride on Mon. AM..For snowfalls over 1 inch and 50% to the time!

 

[Frank D]

I commute 60 miles one way since April 2001. Before then it was 71 miles one way that started in June 1987. Same company, different work location. Most of the people that I know that make the long commute to NYC and Westchester county are doing so because the housing market is not affordable in the areas closer to NYC and Westchester. Like everything else, you get used to it. Now with the price of gasoline pushing up to the $4.00 a gallon range, the commute will get painful.