Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Me personally, Im taking a vanpool from the IE to the OC. I used to commute from Jersey City to Western NJ (about an hour on insane roads) and once I moved to CT my commute went down to about 5 minutes. It works for me, for now. Im a SF Bay Area native (dont live there anymore, but my SN does come from somewhere! I would 100% ask about flex time, and if not granted, change jobs. Although the one I was listening to this morning had a character who died and it took me a few moments to compose myself before going in to the office, heh. Commuting sucks and I hope you can find something closer to you! I found this very helpful while job searching. But with the hours he was working + commute, he was basically only home to sleep and shower M-F. Yeah, I moved from a nicer and more affordable apartment to a more expensive and less nice one in order to cut at least 90 minutes out of my commute. Justwow. After this long of doing that drive, I am very resentful of losing those 2-2.5 hours of my life five or more days a week. It can be perfectly normal to have this commute in some locations, and some companies accommodate that (allowing flexibility for traffic jams/weather, offset working hours, working 4/10s.) Do you have a backup plan in case you are just too tired to drive home safely some night? I just want to point out that normal doesnt mean anything if youre suffering so much. It might not make the commute much shorter but at least you could relax and read a book. Shorter commute, but when the traffic is bad, it stresses me out more. In theory, you can have densely packed cars drive. I have friends who live in Orange County and have two hour commutes each way. Here a long commute is 45 minutes of 55 mph with no traffic jams and people complain about it. We plan on moving closer to my husbands work as soon as we hit the 2 year mark of owning our condo and can sell it without being taxed. Its the only way we can still afford it, but we dont want to move farther away because 1) my kids school is fantastic, and we want to stay in this district, and 2) my commute is really good, and Ive done the horrid commute before. Prosecutors say Fratta organized the murder-for . No amount of money is worth that kind of frustration. We practice high quality, compassionate medicine with an emphasis on client education and . Is it 1 hr, 15 mins? I loved riding the bus to work in Manhattan. For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com . My point count your blessings everytime you feel that your commute of 1 hour took too long. I live in East CoCo County and drive into the Alameda Co. Tri Valley area and it takes me almost 90 minutes one way to drive between 36-40 miles. When I was a kid my grandpa had a ranch in Mariposa, and Merced was the closest city (and it was a boondocks city back then!). I have to work in the area sometimes and I find it helpful to leave early, pick one of the major streets that stretches through from east to west, and just ride that all the way down. Yeah, I never minded the train rides from NJ to New York. I live in the city and work in the FiDi and biked to work on a good day, depending on traffic and lights, I could be from my front door to the office in 10 minutes. And you probably dont want to be driving since the parking costs downtown are redonk. I lived in Tokyo for years and 90 minutes-two hours is common but that is by train so you dont have to pay attention. Oh, absolutely agreed re the class element. We live in Shenzhen. Long commutes are the price we pay for a job sometimes. Youll just have to figure out what works for you, and is sustainable long-term. After work hours? It is working for us because most of the commute is on public transit. Im wary of any directions and side streets not given to me by locals. See what Im saying? My friends uncle did this for almost 30 years! Wake up at 5AM But since its against traffic, its 25-30 minutes of highway driving. Welcome! Enjoy! But like a lot of commenters said here already, its an individual decision based on your individual (/family/partners/etc.) Those trips are close to an hour even late at night because its not all highway. Good luck finding something that works better for you. For me, my average commute is 45 minutes driving or 1 hour on public transit (and I wouldnt take a job thats over an hour commute w/o considering relocation too.). Then there are the 55, the 57, the 22, the 405 freeways as well. Where I live now? It takes 15-20 minutes most days, never more than 30 in heavy traffic. And then the housing is even more expensive. The husband drove in to DC for work for six years on 66. But theyll pretty much all be crowded. I would need to work out some telework days, move closer or find a new job! I live 15-20 minutes from work- a mile to the interstate, then the interstate to a 65 mph highway. Depending on traffic, 10 miles can take over an hour. You already know its unsustainable for you, OP, and Im glad youve noticed that. That said, I do still miss the beach and weather a ton. Even stopping to drop kids off at daycare, my total commute whether I take the streets or the freeway is 15 minutes. came here to ask the same question: why dont you and OP use an (electric) bike? Twice a week. There are pros and cons. Hes pretty much resigned to the fact that hes going to have a commute wherever he lands. I'd only have the radio or a small collection of CD's to help pass the time. OP, have you had bad experiences on LA transit that have led you to this anti-transit stance, or are you making assumptions? Getting home in the afternoons could take anywhere from 1.5 3 hours. It takes me an hour on a bike to public transit. All rights reserved. I was going to suggest you try driving to your parents once a week but that's not really possible at the moment. I drive 1.5 hours each way every day for work so 2 hours once a week would be great for me. Insanity. Hes finally retiring this year.). Thats the kind of analysis you have to undertake to avoid a 2-hour commute in that part of SoCal. Yuuuuuup. 40 x 5 = 200, or over 3 hours. You are lucky your BF already thinks long commutes are normal so what does he care where he lives (presuming you even need to take his opinion into account at all). The commute was just too long and there was no guarantee it was limited to just once or twice a week. Because I guarantee you that 30 min is not an average commute for 30 miles ANYWHERE in LA at rush hour. Regarding the latter, I suggest watching cgpgreys video on traffic. There is some swearing, if you worry about that thing. downtown Berkeley to downtown Oakland, or Oakland to SF). DO NOT DO THIS TO YOURSELF. Other people make different choices, though, and thats completely valid. Thats why the end of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Some of the people here choose to live in a faraway suburb, or even the next state over, and do 1 2+ hour commutes. I am job-hunting closer to home. Im lucky in that I can afford to live about 10 miles away from where I work, but before that, I had to live about 30 miles away from work because thats what my family could afford. Since the pandemic, he has only come home twice, each time with two-week quarantine. A good rule-of-thumb for LA is every 10 miles will take roughly 30-45 minutes of travel time. Eventually I was able to transition into working from home most of the time, and then I was laid off. Too many people, too much traffic.even though I learned to drive out there, I cant do it any more. Montreal here. 3 Strategies for Surviving a Long Commute. Ouchhhh. Typical and normal are two different things. do I still need to wear a suit to a job interview? I considered that a good commute it was the shortest one I had the whole time I lived there. I live in the SFV, two major freeways are short drives away. In Los Angeles if you cant bear a long commute you need a job that is very close to where you live and/or is the opposite direction than traffic. I live in The New Forest and work in London which is a 2 hour drive and I sometimes do it twice a week. A survivor of a 2-2.5 hour one-way commute who has sworn off long commutes ever since. This is a self-imposed problem. I need to take a bus (7 miles) to reach either of those. Theyve been working on widening the freeway near my house for the last TEN YEARS in an attempt to reduce traffic, its still not done and traffic is only getting worse. Hot, muggy, smoggy, YUCK. I have a sister who lives in rural Washington state, and one morning while I was visiting, she warned that wed be stuck in traffic to go to the restaurant she had in mind. This is why we are hoping Elon Musk gets hyperloop technology built beneath LA! Get More TikTok Followers Tip 2: Use SidesMedia Another great option for gaining more TikTok followers is to use the services provided by SidesMedia. Its a parking lot because theres too many cars taking up physical space for there to even be room to drive at the limit. But Ive done the 90-minute standing each way commute too. Its true, if you leave after 3pm, its a parking lot. This does not sound like a sustainable schedule. On the plus side for people in LA, the NYC subways (and also Long Island Railroad) are deteriorating in such a rapid way that although a person might normally have, say, a 45-minute commute, about once a week itll be 90+ minutes. As someone who just put an offer at $80,000 over asking on house that would be 5 mins from my partners work, I feel personally attacked, yet so validated, by this equation. I also had one experience of an urban fantasy / paranormal romance audiobook getting a little heated while I was in the bumper to bumper traffic and have mostly sworn off listening to those in the car now, heh. I saw someone mention them here the other day). My commute in Philly was like that. My gf at the time, her dad would watch all the cop chases and I hit the floor a few times because I know what gunfire sounds like. LA is 469 sq. Ive used to ride those trains (and buses) all over LA, myself, but Im a big scary looking broad and seldom get bothered in public as a rule. I learned that I am not good with long commutes so I have always chosen to live fairly close to where I work (in the same town). Are you living with your boyfriend? And if your car breaks down, it's gonna be a difficult and lengthy public transport commute to work. Ah, Id never go back to this huge commute. Miss the bus, catch the one 10 minutes later, and have another 30-45 minutes added to the commute. Be careful of the cost implications though, increasing mileage might bump your insurance costs up. Welcome to the coast without much public transit. Total travel time: 12 hours. I would have left a merely very good job a couple of years ago. The comment lacks compassion but I dont see how its a big red flag. Good luck! Ive been clicking through to different infographics for like half an hour now. Its 8 miles away against the flow of traffic. A few of my senior bankers have 90-minute one-way commutes, and I just don't understand why people go through that. Los Angeles commuter reporting for duty! Some of those areas are now considered commutable, but theyre not considered to be part of the Bay Area proper. What works for one person doesnt always work for another, so its important to figure out what works best for your sanity! Theres no bus/transit that does a straight line between home and work, so I either have to take one bus into downtown then switch to another to get to Soma, or take a bus downtown then walk 20 minutes. one hour is my limit for commuting and I managed to make that work (although with a fair amount of compromise along the way). For me, that makes the commute worth it for now. My husband is a Hong Konger and works in Hong Kong. Im a slight woman, Asian, in my mid twenties and took the train from LB to DTLA for work. I currently live between OC and LA and love where I am its cheap, quiet, pretty and all my friends are here. And the reason why people live 30 miles away from work is because its not affordable to live close to work. That leaves 7 to 8 hours free time- let's be generous and call it 8 hours. If not, I would have a frank and awkward talk with your boss. Hi, OP! Now lets imagine 1000 cars: the delay for the last car 2000 seconds if theres any stoppage whatsoever. Maybe some TV but I would be way to exhausted to make any enjoyable use of my evenings. Anything under an hour I am okay with. Living in San Francisco has skewed so much my sense of whats expensive that my first reaction to you saying this was Only $2000?!. I could leave at a certain time and usually expect that everything would work out, but sometimes the world said Nah, lets make a car careen off the road today.. I decided to move to a location thats 20 minutes by bus from work. In the 1980s, my mother drove 45 miles to her job in Closest Big City. I could read, listen to music, or even shut my eyes for a moment. Check out audiobooks! Transit trips tend to be longer on average than driving commutes, which can be because of the added time of transfers/connecting/slower travel, but also because people are willing to tolerate longer transit trips than driving trips since they can zone out/sleep/read/work en route. 30 miles where? I live in LB too. That and sleep leave four hours of free time a day at most, if you call it free time when youre getting up, getting dressed, going to bed, cooking, eating, or going to an appointment. I guess the silver lining is that The commute became too much for me seemed to be a commonly-given reason for leaving a position in Los Angeles, so hopefully interviews will accept that without question. Yeah, unfortunately as an EA with two very needy execs theres no way I could do 7 am to 3:30 pm.. anything thats not those times will still have me sitting in 2 hour traffic every day. It would only help for one way, but it would still give you back an hour or so. But thank you. Really test it. My bf lives in SF, and has been commuting to Mountain View, and it can easily take him 2 hours by car if traffic is bad. ! I did not own my part in natural selection. Theres no way I could do 2 hours. Now that I work in DC, I leave my house at 6:28am to catch a 6:35am train and get to work at 7:45am, but I take a commuter train and get to sleep for another 45 minutes. Traffic IS horrendous, and many, MANY people commute 2 or more hours to work. Moving closer to his job would mean being farther away from mine. Sure, it was nice to sometimes get home early but being able to reliably plan dinner cooking, meeting up with friends, errands and appointments, etc fits much better into our life. Traffic in Southern California is just a fact of life. Horror or smart comedy (like George Carlin and seinfeld)! You likely have a job you're required to be at for 8 to 9 hours a day, minimum. Its worth it for the commute for me. I commuted from the IE to West Hollywood for the first 2 years of my job out of college. :). Id say your 2 hours commute is definitely on the LONG end for LA commutes, but its also not out of the ordinary, considering how bad our traffic is. I misread it, I thought she meant she was getting up that early to go to the gym and THEN commuting to work! Ive never worked more than a 20-25 drive away, and once had a commute that was 2-3 minutes! That was years ago. I am from California and some time ago I decided to move about 30 miles away from work. For some years, I commuted from the SFV (San Fernando Valley) to the SGV. I live in southern MD and commute two counties north of me for workon amazing days (think unicorns farting rainbows rarity) its 45 minutes each way. The New Englanders are so so so jealous of your weather! As for Cali traffic, I experienced it when I went there for a business trip a couple years ago. I did take the bus up and back once when my car was in the shop. This is so spot on. I learned that I was not cut out for that kind of commute. Im on the east coast. By 630AM, the 28-year-old project engineer is out the door of his Bishan flat and in his car, on his way to work. It was part of the reason I ended up quitting that job. If Id had to drive for 2.5 hours each way, Id be a very sad puppy. Oh no! Im in the Tulsa, OK area and our average commute is 20 minutes so 2 hours is absurd given my frame of reference. General comment, not intending to Monday morning quarterback the LW: doing a test run of the commute before accepting a job is really, really helpful if you can manage it. Even if you ignore that a more or less direct route from (for instance) Huntington Beach to LA (30 miles) would take the OP through some pretty dangerous areas, like Compton, so cal drivers tend to be hostile to bicyclists in general, and the communities do not have well maintained or even designated bike lanes. I mean, Im screaming inside and my commute is regularly an hour and a half! I hate to sound like an ass about this but the train LB to DTLA goes through all the neighborhoods I dont really feel comfortable going through that early in the morning (Im 51 and look super young despite being 30) esp. I dont think Id be able to handle more than half an hour driving. Blue line to red line, and then ride share or bus would also work. Yeah, I already do the gym thing. It is. Yeah easily if only once a week. Or if you rely solely on bus and are coming from an outer city in the direction of traffic. Also, people who work in offices I think are much less likely to take public transportation, which means they can sometimes get around quicker (especially if its outside of rush hour, which a lot of service work is). Commuting 1 to 2 days a week If you're a part-time commuter who needs to be in the office only once or twice a week, you can choose from a wide range of ticket types, based on the flexibility and affordability you need. Yes! I live in NE LA and work in North Hollywood, which is about 17 miles and usually takes between 30-45 minutes. Ironically for us that meant moving to San Francisco (the actual city). I loved my one-hour, door-to-door commute when I took Metra (just under 1/2 mile walk from my house to metra and then a little more than 1/2 mile from Ogilvie to my office). For the right job, I once commuted 3 hours a day (round trip) and 150 miles a day. My commute is now about 20 minutes (a little worse in the afternoon, but I dont have to take the freeway). I cant imagine wasting 2-3 additional hours of my day just getting to/from work. I live in Brooklyn and my commute to downtown Manhattan is usually 40 to 50 minutes. So, yeah, something can be typical for a region, but that doesnt mean you have to leave the region to get a better commute. In my line of work, there are not many opportunities closer to my house and if there are, the pay would not be nearly what it is in the city. Some traffic corridors move and some are parking lots (probably based on whether there are lots of viable alternate routes). My home is only 31 miles away from my office, and my commute takes me 1.5 hours door to door on a good day (no railroad or subway issues). Whats better spending 2 hours on the bus, or 1 hour in the car and 1 extra hour at work? This is my current reality. Also a New Yorker. I used to commute between Pomona and Costa Mesa, which was roughly 2 hours each way on the 57, and it was awful. I dont want to turn people completely off of public transportation but you do have to be aware of your surroundings, dont make eye contact with people who seem to be looking to cause trouble, try to be invisible (essentially). Public transportation was never an option here.). He mostly works an 11am-7pm schedule so his commute is only 45 min. Anything else and Im moving or getting a new job. LA does have public transportation systems, HOV lanes and toll roads to help ease traffic, but they are really inefficient, inadequate and expensive as you get further away into the suburbs so there isnt a big incentive for people to use them. But depending on your field it is just something we sadly have to deal with. Dont you and OP use an ( electric ) bike day, minimum s be generous and call it hours... Is some swearing, if you leave after 3pm, its an individual decision based on your (. I experienced it when i went there for a moment, too much traffic.even though i that... 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