<p>I am in the process of looking for a new job. My current commute is approximately 30 miles driving; there is no mass transit available. The jobs I see available are 50-60 miles away, again, no mass transit. Do you think that’s too long a commute? I was spoiled in that for 11 years I worked 7 miles from home, so even the 30 miles seems long to me.
I could also do a mass transit commute into the city, but time wise that’s about 1.5-2 hours each way…I’m so confused. I hate my current job, but don’t want to jump to a commute that I can’t live with.
What do you think? Is a better job worth the trade off of a longer commute?</p>
<p>It depends where in NJ you are driving 50-60 miles. Also how early in the morning are you able and willing to leave home? At night you can expect many days to take 2 hours to travel 60 miles.</p>
<p>Your question has too many variables and subjectiveness for anyone to answer for you but 1.5 to 2 hours of travel time each way is a lot of time taken out of your day and hassle with the drive - imagine it during NJ winters. Most people wouldn’t want to do a commute that long.</p>
<p>I had a 2 hour commute to school for a while once and it was okay, but exhausting and made my back sore-- and it wasn’t during rush hour, which I think would have made it impossible. I have a 20 mile commute now, and it’s only the first week on the job but I think I can comfortably say that I could only do farther than that if I started later in the day and it didn’t mean getting up earlier-- I’m at my desk by 8:15. The traffic is extremely hair raising, especially with the massive amounts of construction that go on around here during the summer-- I shudder to think of the winter-- and the level of latent stress that would build up if I had to be in the car any longer would kill me, I think. It already takes me an hour and a half to get home in it (40 minutes on the way there.) When making your decision, I think you have to remember that 2 hours in the car is quite a different ordeal during rush hour than it is at other times of day.</p>
<p>I had a 90-minute commute each way back before I started a family, and I really felt the loss of time it involved. It was nearly impossible to do any kind of errand on weekdays, and this was made worse by the fact that my husband had a comparably long commute in a different direction. </p>
<p>If we had children at that time, it would have been impossible.</p>
<p>At my current job, though, I know people with long commutes who don’t have such a hard time because the company allows them to telecommute two or three days a week. Might this be possible for you?</p>
<p>Goodness, I thought the title of this thread was “time travel to work”. That would make an interesting discussion and solve your problem, too.</p>
<p>I used to travel 1.5 hr each way to work. I did it for 5 years. I got kind of used to it. My commute now is less than 15 min, and I got used to it too. You do what you have to do. I would rather do longer commute than to be unhappy at a job.</p>
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<p>Exactly. I did a 40 mile commute in 50-60 minutes because it was mostly Rt. 80 and I was going the opposite way of the traffic.</p>
<p>Several times in my life I commuted close to an hour…and grew to hate it. That’s two hours out of your day in a car going to and from work. My favorite job was about 10 minutes. I’ve spent the bulk of my career driving about 30-40 minutes and that feels OK to me. But it really depends on the individual. The type of roads. Is this in snow and ice country (which can make the drive twice as long on bad days). On the traffic. The hour freeway drive, no stop lights only one place where it backed up was most awful in the winter when the speeds would drop, the roads were slippery, it was dark and the hour became and 1 1/2 hours but was tolerable in the spring/summer and fall. I also hate having to gas up more than once a week…just a quirk, but something that is meaningful to me.</p>
<p>I commute 1 1/2 hours each way. I implore you to find another option if at all possible. Commuting that long sucks the life out of a person and causes a cascade of problems. One of the most acute was, for me, a series of kidney infections during a period in which there was construction that increased the commute exponentially.</p>
<p>Mantori, unfortunately, a group of researchers in Hong Kong just confirmed my worst fears: time travel is indeed impossible. :(</p>
<p>I second what zoosermom said. My commute is 1 hr out and 1 hr 30 min back, but I get to enjoy a comfy bus seat for the most of my ride with one transfer. I spend only 10 min on the “bum tram”. Anything longer than that, and I’d be looking for a new job (or selling the house).</p>
<p>Most of my commutes have been 15 minutes or less. My current one is less than 15 seconds. I did commute for a little over an hour, but I didn’t mind it as it was all on public transportation and I could read. I don’t think I’d like that long a commute if I were driving myself.</p>
<p>During the 20+ years I lived in northern New Jersey, I commuted to Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel, either by bus (often standing-room only) or by car, for the 13-mile trip to and from the Port Authority bus terminal/garage on the Manhattan side of the Tunnel. It took anywhere from 45 minutes to several hours each way (my personal record was 4 hours to drive home one night), depending on weather and traffic, plus the time to get from Port Authority to my office on the East Side and back again. The stress was overwhelming. Once my son graduated from high school, I moved to Washington Heights in Manhattan and now take the subway to work. The positive difference in my life has been amazing, and I’ll never commute by highway again if I can help it. It isn’t so much the savings of time (it’s still 45 minutes each way), but the predictability – not having to worry about traffic (and/or just missing a bus and having to wait half an hour or more for the next one) – and resulting absence of anxiety. Not to mention that I can read or nap during the trip, neither of which would have been a good idea when I drove.</p>
<p>I’m amazed I lasted as long as I did, and my commute was only 13 miles each way!</p>
<p>My longest commutes outside of consulting were 40 minutes. My current commute is 20 minutes of traffic-free driving. I can work at home, Starbucks, Panera Bread or the office but I usually go into the office.</p>
<p>There are so many that work from home 50% to 80% of the time that you can become a hub for conversation if you come in regularly.</p>
<p>I would consider moving, telecommuting or getting a small apartment if faced with a 1-hour commute.</p>
<p>It takes me 2hrs to get to school, and 2hrs back. I have to take 2 buses and one train.</p>
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<p>Hopefully you can be productive on those rides, either with sleep or work.</p>
<p>Back in the early 80s, we had vanpools which could take two hours - basically the person that drove didn’t have to contribute to the vanpool but the others in the pool could sleep or work on the way to the office. The company kicked in a good part of the cost of the van and I’d guess that there was some tax benefit for doing that.</p>
<p>I don’t take reports of high gasoline prices seriously in the last ten years - when people go back to vanpools, then I’ll take them seriously.</p>