I'm very lucky in that I can drive to work, and doubly so that I'm on flexi time so can leave home before the traffic gets heavy. 20-30 mins tops from door to door (though that can double going home). We actually moved house a few years ago as the commute (in both miles and time) was double what it is now, and once the journey went beyond an hour it began to eat more of the day than we were prepared to cope with.
Sometimes, during roadworks or moments of road rage, I think how much less stressful it would be to get the train and bus, I could just chill and read or listen to podcasts - but then I do this every once in a while and realise just how fucking soul destroying it is, surrounded by ignorant wankers and unable to get a seat, plus it takes twice as long as a routine drive to work so there's just no incentive to give up the car.
What Bewaldeth said, TEV - what method(s) do you use?
I'm lucky/unlucky in that I can't drive, but ride a motorcycle. Lucky in that it probably halves the commute time (Farnham-Guildford - 12 miles) to just under half an hour. The jams across the A31 (Hog's Back) have always been bad, but are noticably worse since the train fare rise. 45mins+ just seems like an insane amount of time to travel the short distance of my commute. However... Unlucky in that riding a bike can be cold (or very hot) and is always frustrating and dangerous. Nearly every day someone pulls out in front of me, drives a foot from my tail at 70+ mph, etc, etc. I know that one day someone will succeed in one of these attempts on my life - it's only a matter of time.
But that is the trade-off. I take that convenience and slight financial saving over the immense frustration of unreliable and overpriced public transport any day. Sharing a train carriage with dozens of screaming children at 7:30am is my idea of hell. (edit: Plus, the combination of bus-train-bus for the same 12-mile commute then rises to an hour & a half!)
Now obviously, riding a bike (or scooter, as I do) isn't for everybody, but it might be one option worth considering if you don't mind its limitations, don't mind the fact that you'd only re-coup money in the long term and would only really enjoy it if you live in an area with decent roads and not terribly high winds or other adverse weather conditions. (Sounds silly, but you'd be surprised what a factor that is. If you lived in the Shetlands it really wouldn't be such an attractive proposition, I reckon!)
I walk to work. It takes me a little under 20 minutes from locking my front door to logging in to my computer.
I am fully aware of how lucky this makes me. The extra cost of rent is offset by the savings in transport cost and the extra hour or 2 a day I get to call my own.
...and the extra hour or 2 a day I get to call my own.
This is a huge, huge factor for me, too - possibly the biggest of all. I may not end up doing much with those extra two hours I save each day, but life is so much more bearable.
The ocmmute to work is the main reason I don't want to live in London any more. An hour to go about three miles? Nuts, man.
Too many people have misunderstood life, and don't really get what it's about. This is fair enough, it was always going to happen, but when it starts inpacting on my enjoyment of my time on this little rock hurtling, then I'm going to have to do something about it, I'm afraid.
Also, London road people, stop digging up my route to work, causing temporary traffic light chaos. You're making me ANGRY.
The ocmmute to work is the main reason I don't want to live in London any more. An hour to go about three miles? Nuts, man.
You say that about twice a month. And you always come back. You're trapped man, trapped.
Oh and, get a bike. Or walk. You can walk 3 miles in an hour, easy.
The problem there seems to be "living in the wrong part of London". I cover about seven miles in 30 minutes every morning, the tube being amazing and all.
It's taken a decade to mastermind, but I've currently got my favourite commuting situation: a 20-minute tube ride (reading time) to and from a doss job I can turn up late for without recrimination. I walked to work for years, but got tired of seeing nothing but my local area in the end.
The worst of all london situations is relying on overland trains.
This is true. I switched to buses ages ago when I realised that the overground trains were making me suicidal and it was a crap reason to be suicidal.
But I'm with EIM, of course, on the inherent shitness of London as a place to live & work. I looked at moving to Woolwich so I could get to work easily, maybe even walk, and it was so grim I just didn't in the end and now it takes hours. but I use them as writing time as at least most buses you can sit down on for most of the journey.
I think how much less stressful it would be to get the train and bus, I could just chill and read or listen to podcasts - but then I do this every once in a while and realise just how fucking soul destroying it is, surrounded by ignorant wankers
Oh, fucking THIS. My commute, by London standards, is pretty tame - 10 minute walk to Crofton Park, 15 minutes by train to Bromley South, then a 15 minute walk to work.
I HATE it.
Overall I like living in London though. Despite the unprovoked assault I was the victim of just after Christmas.
One hour, by car, from the eastern fringe of the GTA to just west of the downtown core. I love driving, and it's an hour of solitude and radio. I could also take a 30-min. commuter train plus 10 min. walk, but the schedule is rigid and unforgiving.
Luckily I don't have to commute anywhere in Rome, as I would probably end up kill everyone. There are two metro line for a city of four million people; TWO. People in London complaining about the public transport network - fuck off.
Heh, isn't the urban myth that every time they dig another metre of tunnels under Rome, they find that many archaeological artefacts that it shuts construction down for another twelve months?
The same was probably true of Victorian London under the City, but thankfully in those days they just ignored that and chucked all the spoil into the Thames.
A commute of 1 hr 15 mins door to door in the morning, same or a bit longer at night ... for the last 8 years. And really I don't mind it at all.
Ten minute walk to the station. Train from Estoril to Lisbon, along the prettiest bit of coastline you can imagine. Very efficient and comfy tube (unfortunately with a change in the middle), ten minute walk to the office at the other end.
I like to think, people-watch, read (on the train, not the tube), kip (on the train, not the tube), listen to music on my iPod.
It's really pretty painless. When I have to bring the car in (rare) and get stuck in traffic on the A5, then it's a different story - horrible.
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