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Commuting Kills

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Re: Commuting Kills

#61

Post by wanderingstan »

frequent wrote: post #15

I started to walk to work more than a year ago (5km one way, about 45mins). Makes a world of a difference, as it gives me more or less two hours of exercise per day, time to get my mind on/off of work, call family/friends and other stuff. Bottom line for me - it's less the time spent commuting, than whether you can spend it in a useful way.

Exactly. I have a ~30 minute commute by bike. It is built-in exercise for the day and a major stress reliever.

Not to compete, but a 2013 study found bike commuters to happiest. Walkers were #2. :)

http://www.outsideonline.com/1795631/study-bike-commuters-ar...

Re: Commuting Kills

#62

Post by completefudd »

habosa wrote: post #40
frequent wrote: post #15

I started to walk to work more than a year ago (5km one way, about 45mins). Makes a world of a difference, as it gives me more or less two hours of exercise per day, time to get my mind on/off of work, call family/friends and other stuff. Bottom line for me - it's less the time spent commuting, than whether you can spend it in a useful way.

I agree completely. I take the shuttle from SF to Mountain View every day (I work at Google). It's about 70m door to door each way. For the first 6 months of work I was miserable, 70 minutes is way more time than I wanted to check my RSS and Email so I was bored. Boredom kept my mind on the commute, and thinking about the time made me angry. I decided to use the time to read books as a new years resolution. Having at…

Why not do actual work on the shuttle ride?

Re: Commuting Kills

#63

Post by codva »

ggchappell wrote: post #2

Long commutes are of course a problem. However, I am not sure the analysis method used in this article is really the way to look at this issue. The fact that lots of people spend 15 minutes sitting on their rear is not a serious problem, despite the fact that you can multiply that 15 minutes by millions of people to get a large number. The problem is that some people have very long commutes. 30 minutes or more is a p…

When I said I wanted to be in the 1% I wasn't talking about commuting times.

90 minutes in, 2 hours coming home most days. Only saving grace is that I'm not driving for most of it.

Re: Commuting Kills

#64

Post by douche »

upofadown wrote: post #21
douche wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, where I'm at, four or five months out of the year, it's below freezing and even if you could brave the cold, you'd be taking your life in your hands with the narrowed roads, drivers that cannot navigate snowy/icy conditions, and snowplows.

Fortunately more than one transportation mode exists. When I used to bike commute in Winnipeg I would just take the bus in the winter (4-5 months). Also, fortunately, few people live in such extreme climates as us.

That's a good alternative, in places where buses exist. In New England, at least, outside the very core of the urban areas, public transit of any kind is uncertain at best, and mostly completely unavailable.

Re: Commuting Kills

#65

Post by lbaskin »

diogenescynic wrote: post #42
rayiner wrote: post #18

The article argues for telecommuting to reduce commutes. I think a far less radical approach would be to open multiple offices and put teams in more affordable secondary cities. Modern technology has made it pretty easy to spread your organization across multiple offices. I work at an organization of less than 35 people that has offices in three cities. Outsourcing IT/HR/building administration makes it pretty low-co…

I know this probably sounds crazy to folks from the Bay Area, but I would gladly move offices if my company had remote offices in Boise, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, or Denver. I would even take a small pay-cut as long as I came out ahead when you adjust for cost of living. I don't know why no companies seem to offer this.

I feel the same way about NYC. I can see why early-stage companies want to be in the city, but all these Fortune 500 companies, big law firms, and banks wouldn't even have to move very far. Instead, I'm stuck on the subway every day for over an hour (each way) with a few thousand of my nearest and dearest.

Re: Commuting Kills

#66

Post by lbaskin »

melling wrote: post #5
ggchappell wrote: post #2

Long commutes are of course a problem. However, I am not sure the analysis method used in this article is really the way to look at this issue. The fact that lots of people spend 15 minutes sitting on their rear is not a serious problem, despite the fact that you can multiply that 15 minutes by millions of people to get a large number. The problem is that some people have very long commutes. 30 minutes or more is a p…

"30 minutes or more is a problem" I live 4 miles from midtown Manhattan. That's about a 30 minute bus ride during rush hour. An hour commute is probably the average commute from the suburbs to NYC.

Which suburbs? An hour sounds rather optimistic. It's at least an hour to midtown from Westchester, Long Island, and the NJ suburbs that aren't on the PATH.

Re: Commuting Kills

#67

Post by ap3 »

gcb0 wrote: post #54

i love how i moved to be closer to my office, then the office moved some 10miles away to be in a hype place that doesn't even have chairs. only standing desks. and the CEO boasted that sitting kill BS. and here i am, having to drive 20min instead of walking 30min. with an expensive rent next to the old place...

At least you are renting and can pick up and leave

Re: Commuting Kills

#69

Post by dupe576 »

sandworm101 wrote: post #11
dupe576 wrote: post #4

That's why I think everyone should bike to work if possible. It has little to no environmental impact and a positive health impact. And because you are killing two birds with one stone by exercising during your commute, you really aren't wasting any time.

Biking is fine if you are a prof at a college campus, or the boss of some hip startup, but I cannot arrive at work sweating through a horribly wrinkled suit. We don't have showers. I have yet to meet anyone who has communized by bike in my city (Vancouver BC) for more than a few years without a major altercation with a motorvehicle. It might be healthy, but it is also physically dangerous.

We have a shower at my work but I don't use it. I just take it easy for the last mile or two of biking and then spend a few minutes cooling off in the bathroom stall once I get there and I'm fine. Also, I wear workout clothes while I bike. I wouldn't recommend wearing your work clothes during the commute.

Re: Commuting Kills

#70

Post by habosa »

completefudd wrote: post #62
habosa wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree completely. I take the shuttle from SF to Mountain View every day (I work at Google). It's about 70m door to door each way. For the first 6 months of work I was miserable, 70 minutes is way more time than I wanted to check my RSS and Email so I was bored. Boredom kept my mind on the commute, and thinking about the time made me angry. I decided to use the time to read books as a new years resolution. Having at…

Why not do actual work on the shuttle ride?

I do enough work at work. Plus I am not very productive on a 13" computer SSHing over flaky highway WiFi while bumping down the highway compared to sitting at a workstation with two 24" monitors, gigabit internet, 12cores, and 64GB RAM.
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