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The Rise of the Outrageously Long Commute

theatlantic.com

11–20 of 91 posts

Re: The Rise of the Outrageously Long Commute

#11
How is this new? This is the sort of thing the wealthy and the C-suite have been doing for decades. The internet makes parts of it a little easier, but it's not novel.

The whole conceit of the Concorde was Executives could live in New York and work in London or vice versa.

Re: The Rise of the Outrageously Long Commute

#13
post #10
post #5

Wait till cars become automatic. 4 hour per day commutes could become quite normal. It could really change the structure of living in cities.

A four hour commute with a self-driving car will be just as painful as four hour communute with a train, except that the cost with the car will be much higher. I honestly don't see self-driving cars changing a lot here.

Well it will be much more like a private driver. A more quiet experience with less overhead (waiting, transfers, etc).

Re: The Rise of the Outrageously Long Commute

#14
post #10
post #5

Wait till cars become automatic. 4 hour per day commutes could become quite normal. It could really change the structure of living in cities.

A four hour commute with a self-driving car will be just as painful as four hour communute with a train, except that the cost with the car will be much higher. I honestly don't see self-driving cars changing a lot here.

You can work, read, and telecommute without distraction during an automatic car drive.

Re: The Rise of the Outrageously Long Commute

#15
post #10
post #5

Wait till cars become automatic. 4 hour per day commutes could become quite normal. It could really change the structure of living in cities.

A four hour commute with a self-driving car will be just as painful as four hour communute with a train, except that the cost with the car will be much higher. I honestly don't see self-driving cars changing a lot here.

Not quite. It will be painful from a family standpoint (cannot have breakfast/dinner with family) but commute-wise I would imagine a much better experience: 1. You would be guaranteed a seat. Even when I get a seat on the MetroNorth, the first and last miles are painful -- it still requires a 45min standing subway ride to Grand Central and a 10 minute standing ride from the station to the office. Same thing on the way back. 2. You would be able to sleep in the car since it would likely not require transfers or the risk of missing your stop 3. You could keep all your stuff in your car - laptops, books, etc. The space I have in a NYC subway car is pretty minimal

Re: The Rise of the Outrageously Long Commute

#16
post #10
post #5

Wait till cars become automatic. 4 hour per day commutes could become quite normal. It could really change the structure of living in cities.

A four hour commute with a self-driving car will be just as painful as four hour communute with a train, except that the cost with the car will be much higher. I honestly don't see self-driving cars changing a lot here.

Picture this - you could be sleeping in the car while it drives itself. It doesn't sound so ridiculous then.

Anyway, I think telecommuting is going to be the norm pretty soon. Commutes would themselves be rare. They might be a lot longer though.

Re: The Rise of the Outrageously Long Commute

#17
Although I don't work remotely, I'm happy that the tech/software industry seems to be one of the best industries for allowing people to work remotely. I would guess that this is influenced by the nature of our work, and the improvements in collaboration/communication/workflow applications.

Taking a 10-hour flight on a weekly basis would be too much for me, but then again he is the founder of an airline, so maybe he enjoys the flight!

Re: The Rise of the Outrageously Long Commute

#18
post #10
post #5

Wait till cars become automatic. 4 hour per day commutes could become quite normal. It could really change the structure of living in cities.

A four hour commute with a self-driving car will be just as painful as four hour communute with a train, except that the cost with the car will be much higher. I honestly don't see self-driving cars changing a lot here.

You haven't spent much time on UK commuter trains!

Re: The Rise of the Outrageously Long Commute

#19

What an odd sentence in the article: "But a more child-centered approach to parenting also seems to be a factor, as these executives make other major sacrifices in order to balance their professional and home lives." I would argue that not having a parent at home in the evening (because they are commuting) is the opposite of child-centric. Yes, they get a nice suburban home and parks, but what about parental bonding?

And they kept saying "I didn't want to uproot my family blah blah." Is there no value in exposing your children to unique and different experiences? I'll have failed if my kids grew up in the same town/city all their lives.

Re: The Rise of the Outrageously Long Commute

#20
post #5

Wait till cars become automatic. 4 hour per day commutes could become quite normal. It could really change the structure of living in cities.

>Wait till cars become automatic. 4 hour per day commutes could become quite normal.

and now you will be able to work all these additional hours. Your employer will even generously provide you with the good mobile connection, or even with the whole connected autonomous car :)

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