Ask HN: What is your commute like?

17 years ago I worked in santa clara, lived 7 miles away in milpitas. It took me 1h15m to get to/from work.

These days, I walk downstairs to the kitchen and turn right into the office. I am, however, about to double my commute. This office is sometimes hard to work from when there is lots happening, so I’m building an office in the basement to stay away from the chaos.

Dublin, Ireland - office is ~ 7km away.

Commute comprises one of the following:

- cycle for 25mins via a mix of on-road cycle lanes and dedicated cycle lane.

- tram for 10 mins + cycle (utilising the public DublinBikes service) for 20 mins

- tram for 35 mins + 15-10 mins walk (usually reserved for when it's really wet).

Driving is probably in the region of 60-90 minutes (I don't even bother).

Bus is ~ 60-65 mins mostly because we don't have dedicated bus lanes for the whole length of my commute so traffic is a factor (having to transfer also has an impact).

Walking is ~ 90mins depending on route chosen (traffic lights / road crossing delays have a considerable impact on total time).

Cycling in Dublin is by far the quickest way to get around during peak traffic times since the majority of the city is made up of single lane (per direction) streets and far too many people try and drive single occupancy vehicles into / through the city. Infrastructure is OK (lagging behind London with it's progress with cycle highways) with a city council focused on moving the most amount of people through the city quickly and efficiently (retailers and public opinion are resisting this push despite it being the right strategy in the longer run).

Many people think it rains too much in Dublin for walking / cycling to be a reasonable option but the data indicates people's perception are far off the mark (5-10 days/year where it's proper wet and full-on wetgear is required).

~35 minutes. I barely notice it most days because I'm usually reading or listening to a podcast. It's also vastly superior to the 90 min drive I used to have.

Despite having the same job since late 2014 my commute sure has changed a lot... Office was originally in Seattle, I've been moving around on the eastside between Redmond/Renton(south side)/Bellevue and now the office is in Bellevue. At first it was ~10 minute drive to a park and ride (or sometimes unofficially WageWorks' parking lot across the street when the p&r was full, or MS's underground parking, depending on which p&r I went to...) followed by ~25-45 mins (again depending on p&r on the bus, but the shorter one almost always meant no seat). Saved me from the 520 toll, which at a previous job was absent and then a reasonable fee at the beginning but I always took the non toll bridge home.

Anyway at my current job my whole team became remote so I just started working from home, and that lasted for a little over two years and a couple moves. It's nice rolling out of my bed and slumping over to the next room to begin the day though. When I was in Renton for a year, just driving to work took ~45 minutes, I never tried taking the bus since that would have easily taken at least 90 minutes and that would be after driving 10-20 mins to a p&r likely to be full. Renton wasn't great for going out. My housemate worked in Bellevue at the time, and the new toll lanes on I-405 screwed him (and everyone really) over. Still causes traffic problems today I think. It was bad enough he wouldn't leave the house until 10 or 11am and not come home until past 7pm and the traffic still wasn't great.

Moved back to Bellevue a year ago, and while I still worked from home at least I could get to the office reasonably quickly again via going to a p&r and taking a short 20-30 minute bus ride, or drive if I had to. (Paying for parking sucks.) The office moved to Bellevue in January and I started coming in again, alternating carpooling with my housemate (he gets free parking) & taking the bus. Still 20 mins at the right time or 45+ respectively.

Just wrapped up another move and now I'm a short 7 minute drive away, or 5 mins of walking plus a 12-15 min bus ride and another 4 mins. When it's warmer I can probably walk the whole way in ~45 mins.

I walk about 25 steps to get from my bed to my office. I used to take the train into NYC from SE Brooklyn which took anywhere from 35 minutes to 2 hours.