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Commuting? Have you done the math?

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Re: Commuting? Have you done the math?

#21

Post by JoshTriplett »

bengl3rt wrote: post #5

I will soon be graduating from school and have accepted a job offer that I know will involve some commuting - probably driving. My rationale is that I'll only do it for a few years, and it's worth it to have the company in question on my resumé. I think the fact that we all aren't working from home 2-3 days a week is frankly ridiculous, but the sea change is already in progress and can't be stopped. Eventually workin…

Any particular reason you only plan to work for that company for a few years? "to have the company in question on my resumé" seems like a poor reason; if you actually want to work there, why not work there for a substantial fraction of your career?

Also, have you considered the possibility of finding an apartment close to work? Unless you already own a home, moving to shorten your commute will save you huge amounts of money and time.

Re: Commuting? Have you done the math?

#22

Post by twp »

Reasonable math. Personal anecdotal support:

Daily commute is 1.5 hours each way by public transport. 75% of that time is useful. Net result is 5 * 2 * 1.5 = 15 hours spent sitting on the train each week, of which just(1 - 0.25) * 15 = 3.75 is wasted (mainly in changing from one vehicle to the next). This, superficially, doesn't sound so bad. My employer is understanding so I travel outside rush hour so I always get a seat and can do stuff on my laptop. This means that I arrive at the office late and leave the office late. My colleagues just say that I work in a slightly different time zone.

What really kicks hard is that when you're at work you're 1.5 hours from home, the simple stuff - like going to the supermarket or the post office - becomes complicated. I leave before the supermarket opens, and I get home after it closes. Tricky things like being at home in the morning to receive a parcel become really complicated and end up costing much more than half a day.

tl;dr the math is good, but the model is too simple. Living a commuting life costs more than you'd calculate.

Re: Commuting? Have you done the math?

#23

Post by Hinrik »

barrkel wrote: post #20

Consider taking up motorbikes, especially if you can legally filter / lanesplit. What would otherwise be dead time can be a whole lot of fun. Traffic makes it far more interesting.

Along the same lines, but more rewarding, healthier, and energy efficient: use a bicycle. Though unfortunately many Americans' commutes are prohibitively long and the surrounding infrastructure not very inviting to bicycles.

Re: Commuting? Have you done the math?

#24

Post by softbuilder »

barrkel wrote: post #20

Consider taking up motorbikes, especially if you can legally filter / lanesplit. What would otherwise be dead time can be a whole lot of fun. Traffic makes it far more interesting.

"Motorcyclists were 35 times more likely than passenger car occupants to die in a crash in 2006, per vehicle mile traveled, and 8 times more likely to be injured."[1]

I'm all for recreational motorcycling but I'm not as convinced it is a great solution for commuting overall.

[1] http://trafficsafety.org/safety/sharing/motorcycle/motor-fac...

Re: Commuting? Have you done the math?

#25

Post by wcchandler »

Another option is to commute with a significant other.

My wife and I both have a commute by car that is 25-35 minutes each. We recently changed our schedules to make it easier for us to commute -- together. So now, instead of having an hour out of the day that couldn't have been spent with each other, we now have it together. We can talk about our day, talk about any issues going on, plan various "things." It's really quite nice.

Re: Commuting? Have you done the math?

#26

Post by njs12345 »

twp wrote: post #22

Reasonable math. Personal anecdotal support: Daily commute is 1.5 hours each way by public transport. 75% of that time is useful. Net result is 5 * 2 * 1.5 = 15 hours spent sitting on the train each week, of which just(1 - 0.25) * 15 = 3.75 is wasted (mainly in changing from one vehicle to the next). This, superficially, doesn't sound so bad. My employer is understanding so I travel outside rush hour so I always get…

One thing I do is get deliveries sent to my office instead of my house. That definitely makes receiving stuff a whole lot easier, if your employer will let you do it.

Re: Commuting? Have you done the math?

#27

Post by A__MJ »

I've actually had a different experience with commuting. Even with the downsides you can make a lot of use of that time for a finite time period.

Things I've done with the time (which otherwise would have never happened):

-Used Pimsleur I-III to learn some Mandarin, and more importantly, HOW to learn a new language(/other things). Spoken Mandarin is less intimidating than westerners think, and the grammar is simpler than English in a lot of ways. (Caveat: My Mandarin is by no means good. I couldn't find any good systematic ways to keep going after Pimsleur III)

-Listened to podcasts on nutrition and got very in-tune with how what I eat effects how I feel, how productive I am, and what happens during my gym time.

-Neuroscience podcasts, ditto. That stuff is interesting. Especially relating to dopamine, if you're a heavy internet user and you check your email every thirty seconds on your phone.

-Developed a better idea of how successful freelancers operate and how they've transitioned into that (Kalzumeus podcast, Ruby Freelancers). Ditto for very successful startup founders (Techzing, Stanford's Innovation Thought Leaders podcast).

-Developed my musical taste.

-Developed my rock climbing grip by using a grip trainer.

-Learned to calm my mind and relax and not waste mental energy on situations I have no immediate control over. Shitty traffic is a great time to practice this specifically because it's so aggravating.

That said - the key thing is that this is for a finite period of time, and you have to act on stuff you learn. The eventual endgame is that you gradually run out of interesting things that you can pick up from a podcast and then do on your own. You want to use the time to work on something more specific.

In addition to the time cost, sitting in one position and staring in one direction for an hour destroys any kind of flow that you have. It doesn't matter whether you leave work energized and ready to rock - when you get home, sitting in a car for an hour will usually make you tired. If you work on complex side projects or like to go out after work, this has a pretty substantial impact.

Re: Commuting? Have you done the math?

#28

Post by confluence »

I take a 40 minute train trip either way and get a seat at the same time by pushing my work hours off peak. I just sit there and relax with my kindle and have read hundreds of books that way distraction free.

More people should push work off peak - who's bloody idea was it to get people to work 9 to 5? Why not 10 - 4 like me?

Hurried, stressed people under commuter pressure don't work well anyway and those extra hours are just wasted with busy work. I'm talking office workers here - blue collar workers have it completely different.

Re: Commuting? Have you done the math?

#30

Post by seanmcdirmid »

A__MJ wrote: post #27

I've actually had a different experience with commuting. Even with the downsides you can make a lot of use of that time for a finite time period. Things I've done with the time (which otherwise would have never happened): -Used Pimsleur I-III to learn some Mandarin, and more importantly, HOW to learn a new language(/other things). Spoken Mandarin is less intimidating than westerners think, and the grammar is simpler…

I hop in a taxi cab and practice Chinese with the driver. Sometimes traffic is so bad in Beijing that I'm looking at an hour to commute 20km. I don't bother with the subway, which is cheaper and faster, but the time is entirely dead, it's too crammed to use my computer.
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