Commuting

[My Name Is Ian]

Commuting

A five minute walk to Brighton station, then twenty minutes on the train to Worthing, and another ten minute walk at the other end. It's eleven miles, I think, and it's reasonably civilised, since I'm going "against the traffic", as it were.

If I could take my cat to work, I would, but I don't think she'd like it very much.

[Femme Folle]

Commuting

My cat would probably pee and poop himself in the carrier bag. He would hate it too. Taking him anywhere in the car is a nightmare.

[A Doctor Speaks]

Commuting

My cousin in Sydney had the best commute;By ferry from Abbotsford to Circular Quay(around 20 mins), with usually just the right mixture of sunshine and breeze as required on the way.

[Guest]

Commuting

Yeah. I miss Switzerland. One guy I knew used to swim across the lake for his commute.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Commuting

I haven't commuted on a regular basis for over ten years, and even then it wasn't at the same time/place everyday. Most of my working life has been pretty much what Reed described, and when it wasn't I was traveling irregularly and made own hours. Though much better than an everyday commute it has its downside. Isolation can be a huge factor — sometimes you feel you're the only person in the world doing what you do and there's no one else to talk to about it. Domestic distractions can be a problem too, particularly if work isn't going smoothly, there's always dishes to be urgently washed, or vital vacuuming to be done.

Those things are particularly prone to happen these days. So I've a cell at the university that I go to two or three days a week. Its about 90 minutes each way on transit — invaluable reading time, especially when it includes a coffee break mid-trip — three or four hours steady writing then home again. It's pretty near perfect actually. I suppose I'm suggesting that it's not the commute itself that's the problem, its having to do it each and every day at the same time that's so debilitating.

[danielmak]

Commuting

Although this so-called blizzard of the century (or some other spectacular soundbite name) re-affirms that I should never have left LA, I certainly don't miss the traffic there. And I love living in a city with multiple mass transportation systems that cover most of the city. I live in a suburb just north of Chicago (3 blocks north or 2 El stops). It takes me 3 minutes to walk to the station as long as I don't need to do an ice skating routine and slide my feet rather than walk. I usually catch the last express train at 9:40am and am in my office at 10:30am, which is only 1 1/2 blocks from the El stop (or 1/2 block if I switch to a Red Line). The total commute used to be much shorter, but my department moved to the Loop. On days when I teach until 5:00pm, the commute home is the same length. But when I teach a night class, it takes much longer to get home because I have to take a local (Red Line) train all the way to the end of the line and then wait for the Purple Line (waiting is key because the Purple Line always leaves just before the Red line arrives). The waiting is really the only thing that bothers me about the commute because it is usually freezing on the platform, scorching on the platform during the two months of summer, or some kind of bugs are floating around. The commute itself is good because I use the time to read, grade, or listen to podcasts.

The only time I drive is in the fall, when I teach a class from 10pm-1am. It usually takes me 30 minutes to get to campus and 15-20 to get home. I don't teach this class in the Loop so the drive is much shorter. The drive home is good because WLUW tends to have an underground dance music show on at that time--a nice fit with 2am driving in the city.

[Femme Folle]

Commuting

You teach a class from 10pm to 1am? That's madness.

What kind of class is it? Prostitution 101 or something like that?

[Paul S]

Commuting

Train into Fenchurch Street then walk over London Bridge and through Borough market to my office in Southwark. I don't mind my commute though. I travel on the most reliable train line in the country, am very rarely delayed and always get a seat. My time into work in the mornings is spent reading magazines, newspapers etc.

There was a piece of work done by a Dutch fellow called Hupkes who looked at the relationship between distance travalled and time spent travelling. He found that as travel speeds rose people didn't use the time saved to do more things, instead they lived further away and used the same amount of time to travel in. In other words, increased travel speeds means we live further and further away from work. In the middle ages people used to live a maximum of 1.5 hours walk from their furthest field. Today people live on average a maximum of 1.5 hours travel from their place of work.

[Er Liquidatore]

Commuting

Fuck me Biltong, you're a brave man. I was in Nairobi last April. The traffic and driving standards there make Paris look like an advanced driving test centre.

Paris? Pansy

[Ginger Yellow]

Commuting

I'm fairly used to my commute. In the morning it's not so bad; 30 minutes tops, straight down the line from Chalk Farm to Bank, and I can usually get a seat.

Really? I can never get a seat on the Northern Line from Kentish Town. Most of the time I can't even get on the train.

[ad hoc]

Commuting

I work at home. If I'm coming from the bedroom that makes it about 4 seconds, from the kitchen probably closer to 5.

This week because my kids are off school I've been leaving the house and crossing the road to work in an empty computer lab at my wife's work. It takes about 3 minutes (longer if I have to wait for the lift)

[hobbes]

Commuting

The best thing about where I live and work is that if I want to take a long route home, I have the Thames to walk along. I'll often walk the north bank to Lambeth Bridge and head home from there, or the other way to Tower Bridge.
Last night, I walked to the West End and down through Green Park and St James Park. I was still home around the same time I used to get home when I lived in Ealing.
The second best thing is I can always say yes to drinks after work as I don't ever have to drive.

[EIM]

Commuting

hobbes wrote:

The best thing about where I live and work is that if I want to take a long route home, I have the Thames to walk along. I'll often walk the north bank to Lambeth Bridge and head home from there, or the other way to Tower Bridge.
Last night, I walked to the West End and down through Green Park and St James Park. I was still home around the same time I used to get home when I lived in Ealing.
The second best thing is I can always say yes to drinks after work as I don't ever have to drive.

Blah blah blah, look at me, blah blah.

I'm going to beat the shit out of you next time I see you. And then blame it on the traffic.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Commuting

steveeeeeeeee wrote:

I used to live...on Darfield Road, right next to the station.

I should imagine that was.......noisy.

[hobbes]

Commuting

I'm going to beat the shit out of you next time I see you.

Oh come now EIM. Door to door for you is what? 5 miles? You could walk it in 90 minutes. Or cycle it in 30.
And just think how good you'd feel. And you'd look just peachy in a cycling helmet.
Anyway, Your jellified, bus-coddled muscles couldn't hurt me. But you're welcome to buy me a pint soon and give it a go.

[evilC]

Commuting

hobbes wrote:

Last night, I walked to the West End and down through Green Park and St James Park. I was still home around the same time I used to get home when I lived in Ealing.

That's a great little walk. It's one I used to do if I ever had to kill time after the clubs closed and before my first train home.

...Errr, in the Summer, mostly!

[evilC]

Commuting

hobbes wrote:

Oh come now EIM. Door to door for you is what? 5 miles? You could walk it in 90 minutes. Or cycle it in 30.

"I could cycle 30 miles in 10 minutes!"

"That'd be an average speed of 180 miles an hour."

[Femme Folle]

Commuting

Ginger Yellow wrote:

I'm fairly used to my commute. In the morning it's not so bad; 30 minutes tops, straight down the line from Chalk Farm to Bank, and I can usually get a seat.

Really? I can never get a seat on the Northern Line from Kentish Town. Most of the time I can't even get on the train.

Ah, so you haven't tried his pregnant woman disguise, then?

[ursus arctos]

Commuting

You could also do what my grandmother was known for, which is picking the most psychologically vulnerable person in the carriage (usually a young woman) and then planting herself directly in her/his line of vision, while looking perturbed. She almost never had to wait more than one stop before the target offered her a seat.

It does, however, help if you are over 60 and under 5 feet tall.

FF, how far are you from one of the NY waterway ferries or the PATH?

[Lucia Lanigan]

Commuting

My Name Is Ian wrote:

A five minute walk to Brighton station, then twenty minutes on the train to Worthing, and another ten minute walk at the other end. It's eleven miles, I think, and it's reasonably civilised, since I'm going "against the traffic", as it were.

If I could take my cat to work, I would, but I don't think she'd like it very much.

True, eleven miles would be murder on the paws.

[Femme Folle]

Commuting

UA: To use the PATH from where I live, I would have to take the Pascack Valley Line to Hoboken. Then, when I got to other side, I would have to switch to either the 8th Ave or the 6th Ave trains to go to either PABT or Grand Central (which is closest to my office).

I did that commute, minus the NJ Transit part, after we moved our office from WTC to 3rd Avenue near the Chrysler Bldg. in 2001. I was younger and in better shape back then. Today I think it would kill me.

The NY Waterways option is more expensive than the Park & Ride option, so if I'm going to have to leave the car and cross the river by means other than driving, I'll take the bus. Unless someone has come to visit and then I use it as a sort of quasi-sightseeing opportunity. That, too, was a better option when I lived in Hoboken.

[West End Zuma]

Commuting

So whatever happened to the brave new world of telecommuting all the futurists were banging on about? Only 3 OTFers (so far) have the luxury of working from home?

I'm basically retired so I don't have to deal with the rat race anymore, thank Christ. After 20 years at the Enormo Record Company I decided if I can't work from home, then fuck it, I'll live on the very small pension they kissed me off with. I have to really stretch the budget and I don't have all the luxuries and electro gizmos that seem so necessary for modern living. But you know what, I don't need much. I'm happier, healthier and stress free. I get to do all the reading I like and I live steps away from the library. The funny thing is, time still flies, but these days I live on my terms and I wouldn't exchange that for all the money and stress of working for the Man no matter how big they pay.

[Reed John]

Commuting

The perils of working at home:

http://m.youtube.com/index?client=mv-google&desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US&rdm=73#/watch?xl=xl_blazer&v=co_DNpTMKXk

[ursus arctos]

Commuting

Thanks, FF. I hadn't realized that you moved. My in-laws live in Bergen County, and the Pasack Valley Line drives me nuts on a periodic basis.

I've also never really understood NY Waterways' pricing model. It's a great way to commute, but seems to be priced for people who have drivers.

I sometimes work from home, but actually prefer to come to the office. I've always preferred keeping my work and personal lives separate that way.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Commuting

ursus arctos wrote:

You could also do what my grandmother was known for, which is picking the most psychologically vulnerable person in the carriage (usually a young woman) and then planting herself directly in her/his line of vision, while looking perturbed. She almost never had to wait more than one stop before the target offered her a seat.

It does, however, help if you are over 60 and under 5 feet tall.

I have the opposite problem. Over the past few years I've noticed almost no one will sit next to me, even on a crowded bus or train.

I bathe regularly, don't have any obvious cuts or scars and I'm rarely drunk in public these days, so can't quite figure it out. I realise many unaccompanied women don't like sitting next to strange men. I'm also on the largish size I guess, so given the paucity of seat area there's a greater chance of physical contact than if I was — say — of Toro's stature. I can look sort of intimidating sometimes I suppose — heavy forehead, piggy eyes — nevertheless I don't think that would entirely account for it. I'm non-plussed and more than a little dispirited about it TBH.