How far do you commute to work?

[disney1990]

OK, his new commute is 70 miles, so how long does it take him to drive that? I have friends here in the DC area that commute about 30 miles, but it can take over 2 hours to do it.

Before I was laid off, I commuted about 35-45 minutes each way.

 

[StephMK]

When we lived in DC, DH's commute was anywhere from 40 min-1.25 hr for a 20 mile drive. That was part of the motivation for moving! Now in NE, he is 20 minutes drive, from the heart of downtown. It's usually closer to 30-40 by the time they walk to their lot & pick up his carpool buddy's kids at the corp. daycare. Much less traffic & he's way less stressed coming home now.

I have always chosen jobs within a certain radius of our house. I worked 5 min away in VA and worked 5mi/10 min away here. Now I'm an IC for my former company & work from home. I do go in to pick up/drop off work a few days but it's on my way to class.

 

[Holidaymouse]

I can communte anywhere from 25 miles to 110 miles one way on any given day. I cover a very big territory.

Make sure your hubby has a good cell phone, GREAT (don't skimp here) headset/bluetooth, CD's or MP3 he can listen to. Also, he could possibly ennjoy books on tape. Each direction could equal a few chapters.

You could also make it fun...pick an item (brown cow, blue sign, etc) that he has to find and tell you about it, where it's located at dinnertime. This way he's thinking of you and dinnertime can be about his day but in a different way then "how was work and your icky commute"

just an idea

 

[alyssa810]

I'm only about 17 miles from my driveway to the parking lot at work, but I drop my DS at day care on the way and our total trip can take 35 minutes to an hour, depending on traffic. In the afternoon it sometimes takes more than an hour.

 

[StitchFanZ]

Have you thought about using priceline to bid for an inexpensive hotel room one night per week? I had a co-worker who used to commute 2-3 hours and he'd do that once or twice a week. It gave him a break from the driving and a chance to work late and catch up without feeling gulty about getting home late.

 

[aristocatz]

44 miles each way for me... takes almost an hour. Luckily I work off hours. Rt's 93 & 495 are no fun during peak hours!

Been there, done that

When I lived in Boston, I used to commute both those highways, plus 95. The absolute worst was Rt 9 (Chestnut Hill area) to Rt 95 to Rt 2 all during rush hour

We moved thank goodness, and now my commute takes 15 minutes!

 

[jsmith]

i lived 96 miles from work for about 3 years-it was about an hour and 15 minutes in the mornings-i left at 5-and was at work around 630-but could take three hours back at night- i was driving from north metro denver to the sound side of metro colorado springs. Because of what i do sometimes my workdays are 14 hours or more long-so i got a small studio ( this can be a cheap option-my unfurnished studio was less than 400 a month) so i could stay over night a couple of nights a week or more if needed and drove the rest of the time. The one thing i iwll tell you is that we set a time frame for me to do this-and then i would find anohter job or we would move-we have since moved to colorado springs and i now have a 7 to 12 minute commute to work-its a huge relief.

 

[aprilgail2]

Our Explorer has 100,000 on it now and it's a 2005. Yes I know all about tourist season too....I work in Wash. DC. !

Wow- I am blown away by some of your commutes- I don't think I ever had one that was more than 15 minutes, and that was the worst one LOL...right now I am 6 minutes from work- I leave there at 3:50 and am in my door at 3:56! No way would I commute long- to stressful.
My second car is a crappy "commute" car-a 1999 Saturn and it has 60,000 miles on it now!

 

[Papa Deuce]

about 50 feet --- from my bedroom, to my office.

 

[a1tinkfans]

About 10'...from the bedroom to my office


The dh travels about 35 miles, which takes about hour each way!

 

[Luv2Scrap]

I live 10 miles away from work and I want to be closer! LOL!

OP, since you live in Wisconsin, you also have to take into consideration the weather in the winter. That will add time and stress on the days the road conditions are bad.

 

[SCHBR'smom]

DH commutes about 25-30 miles to work. Depending on traffic it can take between 25min to an hour. I generally figure on 45 min.

 

[DawnM]

60,000? That is all? None of our cars have that few miles on them!

We have 2 Saturns and a Toyota. Our oldest car is a 1996 Saturn with 150,000 miles on it....the thing won't die! We also have a 2002 VUE with 70,000 miles on it....still in perfect working order! The Toyota is a 2004 and we consider that NEW!

HA!

Dawn

BTW: I am also blown away by the long commutes. 20 miles is max for me and 25 is max for DH.

Wow- I am blown away by some of your commutes- I don't think I ever had one that was more than 15 minutes, and that was the worst one LOL...right now I am 6 minutes from work- I leave there at 3:50 and am in my door at 3:56! No way would I commute long- to stressful.
My second car is a crappy "commute" car-a 1999 Saturn and it has 60,000 miles on it now!

 

[Disney Doll]

10 minutes. 7 if I don't hit any lights.

 

[monkey68]

On average, 25-30 minutes. It's only about 10 miles, 2 miles on the highway, the rest on a main road with lots of long red lights. And there's no way to catch a green wave in the morning, believe me, I've tried. At least my drive is along the ocean, so if I look to my left, I have nice views and I can ignore the ugly streets to my right.

70 miles is insane, there is no way I would be able to do that. I would literally go crazy after a week.

 

[Experiment_626]

I drive about 25 miles each way to work and I'm really lucky to have such a short commute compared to lots of people who live around here. It's not uncommon for people in our area to commute 70 or 80 miles in each direction to work. Of course we live in the woods and that is one of the things that we just deal with, I would much rather commute than live in the city or suburbs

This was my situation, but we need to move into town the way things are now. My wife is in school and our little boy is in pre-K. We all ride together and sometimes trade-off who has the car during the day. We're driving 80-100 miles per day now, depending on who has the car and when. Plus, my wife and son are done by 12:30 every day, but they have to wait until 4:30 to pick me up and go home, because going home and then coming back to get me would be an additional 50 miles on the car. On top of all that, our son starts kindergarten next year and the schools in our county are absymal.

We (really just me) went through a bankruptcy a couple of years ago, which is all paid off now. Still, the credit union says it will be December before I could get any sort of home loan. We'll just about have to try, though -- my little boy's education is important and my wife needs to go to school (she's trying to become a dental hygienist and we eventually want to be in the Orlando/Tampa area, but that's still a few years away). Our mortgage payments will nearly double at best, but the difference won't be all that great when you consider what we'd save on gas.

SSB

 

[tomthebarncat]

167.2 kilometers each way! after a year of doing this 2-4 times a week, I decided to rent a room in Frankfurt. I knew it was only a matter of time before I died on the autobahn, the commute was killing me and taking my car with it. My DH did the same thing when he got a job in another city, rented a room during the week and became "weekend dad". So far, this arrangement has worked well for us, but we do not have kids and the dog has two residences. My sisters husband drove from Rochester, MN to Minneapolis every day for his federal job. It almost cost her her marriage and she finally encouraged him to leave his gov't job and just find something else. It also helps that she has a 6.5 figure income. Just as he was about to quit,a job opened up in his town, which saved the day!! He did it for 4 years, and went thru 2 brand new trucks. I asked him why he didn't just rent a room and come home on weekends? it was because my sister was not really understanding of how this commute was really affecting him and just would not even process the idea of him becoming weekend dad!! What works for some will not work for others, I personally have no problem with geographical separations for work!! as my DH currently lives and works in Abu Dhabi, is it hard, yes, but I am grateful that he has a job! Do what is right for your family but do not underestimate the real expense of such a long daily commute.

 

[eliza61]

I'm 42 miles each way. Luckily I'm going out of the major city so traffic is non existence. I can do 65 mph all the way.

 

[Robinrs]

The people at my job call my commute a NON commute. I live 5 mins from my job and that's a RARITY in Atlanta.

With the bad drivers and the traffic I can STILL take up to a half hour to get there, but I know every possible route!

 

[GeorgeG]

Before I retired my commute was about 6 miles each way (10-20 minutes, depending on time of day/night). When I work now, it's as a musician or DJ so the drive varies a lot. Sometimes it's only a mile or two, other times it's 40-50 miles each way. Occasionally, it's longer. Sometimes I can even go by golf cart if it's within The Villages and depending on how much equipment I need to take (also the weather).