What's the Longest Commute You Could Handle?

May 19, 2009

Unless your home is your office, we all have a commute to get to work. The weak job market has caused many workers to take jobs hours away from their homes, which means very long commutes or even living in another city during the week.

What's your commuting time threshold?

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41 Comments

2 years 27 weeks

First off, commute time is the time it takes from your home/apartment to your work place(clocking in), not just the parking lot. Anyway, I used to do a 1.5 hour each way commute, and it was so not worth it. My threshold is 50minutes to 1 hour each way.

3 years 22 weeks

awsome topic, just bookmarked your article for future referrence

kythera 3 years 51 weeks

Luckily with most of my jobs I lived within a 5 min walking distance, but one of my jobs took me 45 min and 1 bus change. Not bad at all, I either read a book, listened to a cd, or read the newspaper. I miss that about the East Coast. Oklahoma has the worst mass trans system I've ever seen.

debbswan 4 years 8 h

When I lived in DC, some of my co-workers took the train in from MD and it would literally take 2+ hours one way. They would sleep, read, work, knit, etc. Not for me, especially since I am now retired.

Gdeeaz 4 years 3 days

it takes me 30 mins to drive to school, my max would be 1 hour.

4 years 4 days

2 hours by public transportation is fine for me for school since the school day is shorter than the workday. Of course for the workday it would NOT be fine.

green socks 4 years 4 days

I think it would depend on whether I was driving or using a train. I could only do about 30 minutes by car, but could probably do up to an hour if I was sitting on a train, getting a chance to unwind after the day.

stoopeed 4 years 4 days

Am trying for a job that's 2 hrs away by train. But once I do get the job, I'll pick up a small studio there, and only commute back to the Hubs once or twice a week. Though I agree with whoever said that if it was driving throughout, I would never be able to sustain a 2 hr commute. Short term, maybe.

carhornsinapril 4 years 4 days

1 hours & 40 minutes is my current commute (via public transport--and shave that down to 1 hour and 15 minutes on the way home). it sucks, but you do what you have to do, right? it beats not having a job at all.

Spectra 4 years 4 days

I live in an area where a lot of people are very spread out, so most people have a pretty decent commute. Since there were no jobs in my city, I looked for jobs that were up to a 1 hour commute, but after driving to and from the interviews, I decided I couldn't do a commute longer than probably about 30 minutes. Right now, my commute is pretty sweet--30 minutes each way (actually, it's more like 25 minutes at night because they turn all the traffic lights off) and it's all highway miles. I kind of wish I could do a public transit commute so I could read or do Sudoku puzzles during the commute, but the driving isn't usually too bad. When I lived in Madison, I worked with a guy that drove into Madison from Oshkosh every day...that was a 2 hour commute. He had to leave at 5 am and he didn't get home until 6 or 7 pm every day. Sorry, but that'd get really old really fast for me.

millarci 4 years 4 days

I used to drive about 1 hour and a half to work everyday (both ways). It's not that I don't care about global warming, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Luckily I now live closer to work, so it's now a 15 min commute.

Allytta 4 years 4 days

I live in London and sometimes I take 2 hour commute and it's fine.

WeTheLiving 4 years 4 days

I work in Houston & live in a suburb, my current commute is 45 min-1 hr 15 min, depending on traffic & weather, most commonly an hour. I don't think I could handle more, some days it just drives me crazy and I think how can I do this day after day?

brilliance13 4 years 4 days

yes chicago.... awful traffic. I take local 45-50 min each day. I also refuse to take the highway during high traffic times. it would take over an hour!

syako 4 years 4 days

I guess I don't get the losing productivity comments, especially when talking about public transit. I have been doing a long commute for more than half a year now and I've flown through about 2-3 novels a month, which is something I've always wanted to be able to do but never made the time to sit and read for that long each day. It's really a great time for "me" and I think that makes it very productive.

tarall10 4 years 4 days

I commute roughly 45 minutes door to door, on the metro. I reverse commute (live in the city, work in the burbs), but it's not bad. It's my reading time/studying time. I am still productive, so it's not a waste. When I drive, it takes almost as long, so it's not even worth it.

lemonbars 4 years 4 days

I agree with hithatsmybike. I've been spoiled because the last few jobs I've worked, my commute has only been 15 minutes or less (at my current job, it only takes me about 8 minutes by car and consists of a left, right, then left turn, haha). I think I could deal with it being up to 30 minutes but anything more and I'd have to seriously reconsider if I didn't absolutely love the job and/or the pay and benefits weren't great enough to justify it.

bengalspice 4 years 4 days

I used to commute for up to 2.5 hours each way ... and then I went crazy and moved closer to work.

starangel82 4 years 4 days

One hour max. I used to have a 45 minute commute driving by myself. I finally moved just to be closer to my job.

sorrowja 4 years 4 days

I live in NYC and my commute on the LIRR is about 30 mins which I LOVE. The longest commute I can handle is 1 hr. Next month my train ticket will increase by $44 so I might be going to the regular trains ;-(

SillyGirl 4 years 4 days

I actually dont mind the commuting time of a long commute - i read on public transportation or listen to audio books in my car. But I cant stand the time it takes away from the few precious hours left in my day. When I had an 1.5 hour commute each way last year I felt like a zombie: exercise, drive, work, drive, sleep, over and over again. No time for anything else.

bingbingboom 4 years 4 days

I BART to work and I enjoy reading a book on the train. However, I don't think I can handle more than an hour of commute each way.

specialksgurl 4 years 4 days

My husband used to commute from Columbia, MD to Alexandria, VA 2 hours each way each day by train and subway. It was hell!! Plus I drove him to the station every day at 6am. Then I had an hour + drive to work in Baltimore. We worked in two different cities and lived in between. We had no choice and we couldn't afford to live near either of our works. The DC corridor sucks for commuting times.

mek123 4 years 4 days

My current commute is about 5 mins but in the past it has been up to an hour which is probably the max I could handle.

wren074 4 years 4 days

I drive 45 minutes each way in the morning and I take the surface streets. I refuse to take the freeway. If I did, my commute would be over an hour each way. There really isn't decent public transportation in Vegas which is incredibly frustrating.

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