# The longest travels from home to work and back



## SE9 (Apr 26, 2005)

Average commute times and distances of two cities I know well:

London [-]
- *Average commute distance:* 15 miles
- *Average commute time:* 56 minutes
- *Most common form of transport:* Bus and train

Atlanta [-][-]
- *Average commute distance:* 17.5 miles
- *Average commute time:* 64 minutes
- *Most common form of transport:* Car


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## SydneyCity (Nov 14, 2010)

In Sydney, there are thousands of people who commute into the city for over an hour from places such as the Blue Mountains, the Hawkesbury region, the Southern Highlands region, the Central Coast region and from the city of Wollongong. 

There are many reasons that people do commute from these areas, including lower house prices, family reasons (ie, being close to relatives), lack of job/education opportunities in these areas, lifestyle reasons and the location of their partners' jobs (for example, I know someone who lives in Gosford, on the Central Coast, who works in the city centre of Sydney, while his wife works in the city centre of Newcastle. They couldn't live in Sydney or in Newcastle, as the other person's workplace would be too far away to commute, so they live halfway).


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

009 said:


> I'm self employed now, but when I worked for companies, I used to always move right next to the office. I would never travel far to a job, it's such a waste of time


It depends how you use that time, it doesn't have to be wasted as you can use the time for reading, catching up with emails, doing domestic paperwork, sorting out finances online etc. Stuff you would have to do anyway at home, just do it while travelling to work.


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## n20 (Oct 13, 2012)

Jonesy55 said:


> 600km every day? How long does that take?


Depends on the train. A lot of people disembark at earlier stations as well, such as Virar, Borivli, Dadar and Mumbai Central.
The daily commuters primarily take the better trains / better seats having to travel between 3 to 7 hours each way, and primarily consist of traders and some students. They do a good deal of their work during the commute as well, via the phone or on the computer.

However, the majority of commuters on this line (the Western line) either change trains or don't travel more than 80 km (albeit a densely settled 80 km).


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## germanguy1 (Dec 7, 2013)

KeanoManu said:


> How can people accept such enormous travel times?
> 
> I currently have about 10-15 minutes to my work and would probably never accept anything over 30 minutes door-to-door in the future.


Maybe everyone is not as privileged as you to choose excactly where to live. Wake up.


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## KeanoManu (Mar 1, 2012)

germanguy1 said:


> Maybe everyone is not as privileged as you to choose excactly where to live. Wake up.


For a small amount of time it may be impossible to choose. But you can either move or look for jobs closer to you.

Time is money. I value my free time so I would rather take a job close by than a slightly higher paying job far away. And if I find a job paying enough far away I would move closer right away (and calculate the extra cost of moving into the benefits of that higher salary).

If you're specializing in something that can give you a higher salary you also have enough money to move closer. If you're a non-skilled worker there's always something closer by. It's about priorities and what you value most. Some people like the cozyness of a suburb but still wants to work in the city. Then that's a choice they make to accept that extra travel time every day.

Up to 30 minutes can still take you pretty far distances. At least if you're going with a car.

It's really about finding a balance between three parameters. Time, money and costs. For me, time is the most important. I see that many complained about my message. What I meant was just this.


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## 009 (Nov 28, 2007)

Jonesy55 said:


> It depends how you use that time, it doesn't have to be wasted as you can use the time for reading, catching up with emails, doing domestic paperwork, sorting out finances online etc. Stuff you would have to do anyway at home, just do it while travelling to work.


I guess so, but just knowing that every day is so long seems a bit depressing. I really like having lots of free time


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## 009 (Nov 28, 2007)

germanguy1 said:


> Maybe everyone is not as privileged as you to choose excactly where to live. Wake up.


It's not all that hard to move close to a job, or look for opportunities near where you live. Well, unless your job is in the middle of nowhere lol


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## SydneyCity (Nov 14, 2010)

009 said:


> It's not all that hard to move close to a job, or look for opportunities near where you live. Well, unless your job is in the middle of nowhere lol


Housing prices near places with large numbers of jobs may be prohibitive for many, and jobs may be scarce in the local area, or not match a person's skills. It's not just as simple as 'move closer' or 'work locally' for some.


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## netaholics13 (Jun 4, 2008)

traveling time between home and office is not merely depend on the distance, but in cities which suffer with bad traffic like Jakarta, even 37 km one way trip can last for 2.5 - 3 hours.
I live in Depok (outskirt Jakarta) and I already tried 3 different means of transport. Home to the office, 37 kms, started at 6 AM in the morning.
- Driving a car took 2.5-3 hours.
- Riding a motorbike took 1.5 - 2 hours.
- Train (and walk) took between 50-60 minutes.
That's why I stop using my car and motorbike to the office and choose to take the train instead. Although riding a train during peak hours in Jakarta commuter line feels like hell (air con is not functioning, squeezed between 300-350 people in a single railcar) :nuts:


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## Frengerin (Dec 12, 2013)

The expanding Moscow city limits should be one of the worst when it comes to traffic. I live 6 miles away from the city, and I never take the bus to get to work, and try to cram myself into the regional train instead. If I do take the bus, I run a big chance of spending anywhere from 1 to 4 hours stuck in traffic


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## Eric Offereins (Jan 1, 2004)

In Rotterdam it takes 20-40 minutes to get from the city centre to the outskirts by car (5-8km).
Going from the far west end of the port back to the city can take up to 1 hour, allthough that travel time will be reduced by road expansions (under construction).


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## Black Watch (Jul 22, 2013)

From where I live & go to college, it takes me around a hour each way.


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## apinamies (Sep 1, 2010)

About 20-30 min. for less 10 km distance. Public transport is joke compared to car traveling. But because my bad vision, I can't get car lisence so I'm doomed to use inefficient public transport.


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## BriedisUnIzlietne (Dec 16, 2012)

For me it's less than a minute to the bus stop and then a 30 minute bus ride to the city center followed by a 10 minute walk to school.

But the bus might arrive at the destination even 7 minutes behind schedule because of cars blocking the public transport lane and a terrible tram reconstruction project that didn't make the tram any faster but made the bus much, much slower.

I can switch to the tram at some point which will decrease my walking distance by half but it might be a couple of minutes slower (or it could be faster - that depends on many variables). I can also use the intercity express buses which are more comfortable and faster but cost 0,70€. Or I can cycle - that would be about the same as taking a bus but since the city bus is for free and we get -20 degree winters......

The longest that I've commuted was 51 km (took about 80 min in each direction (yes, I know, we have very slow trains)) and the shortest - 400 m
And the conclusion that I have come to is that the distance doesn't really bother me


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## MarkusErikssen (Oct 4, 2005)

From where I live to my school, is about 40/45 minutes.

7/10 minutes bike, 20/22 minutes bus and 10 minutes walk (including waiting for bus)


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## weava (Sep 8, 2007)

I find most people who complain about long commutes could live closer to their work but they don't want too. 
I personally walk to work because I can and I can afford to live in the center of the city because I'm saving a ton of time & money by not commuting. Why spend 2 hours/day and $200/month in gas(let alone the $250-400 car payment + insurance), when you could just spend the extra $200 and live closer to work and in a nice area? Everyone I know that complains about their long commutes are too foolish to do a proper cost analysis because they never realize that all the money they are spending on gas and car repair bills could be used to live near work instead.


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## the spliff fairy (Oct 21, 2002)

One guy at work commutes in from Cardiff to London (150 miles each way, or over 5 hours back and forth), for a low paid position selling guidebooks on the steps outside the museum. If he works 2 days in a row he goes to a youth hostel.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

weava said:


> I find most people who complain about long commutes could live closer to their work but they don't want too.
> I personally walk to work because I can and I can afford to live in the center of the city because I'm saving a ton of time & money by not commuting. Why spend 2 hours/day and $200/month in gas(let alone the $250-400 car payment + insurance), when you could just spend the extra $200 and live closer to work and in a nice area? Everyone I know that complains about their long commutes are too foolish to do a proper cost analysis because they never realize that all the money they are spending on gas and car repair bills could be used to live near work instead.


In that case then yes, but what if the workplace isn't in a nicer area, what if a person likes the neighbourhood they live in, have lots of friends, family there and their kids enjoy going to the neighbourhood school which is only a short walk away? Is a family really going to uproot and abandon all that just so that one member of that family has a shorter journey to work? And then repeat every time the job or workplace moves? Different circumstances have different considerations.


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## alexandru.mircea (May 18, 2011)

weava said:


> I find most people who complain about long commutes could live closer to their work but they don't want too.
> I personally walk to work because I can and I can afford to live in the center of the city because I'm saving a ton of time & money by not commuting. Why spend 2 hours/day and $200/month in gas(let alone the $250-400 car payment + insurance), when you could just spend the extra $200 and live closer to work and in a nice area? Everyone I know that complains about their long commutes are too foolish to do a proper cost analysis because they never realize that all the money they are spending on gas and car repair bills could be used to live near work instead.


It is an interesting thought, but my feeling is that this kind of difference-making saving can only happen when commute costs are high and inner city housing is cheap, which I think is possible in America but may not be the case in other parts of the world - in Europe it isn't, from my experience. 

Not commuting from the London area to inner London, for example, might save you a few good hundred pounds but, with the current prices for living in London, that will probably not help you much. In the Paris area public transport is subsidized (therefore cheap) so changing from the longest reaching fare possible to the inner city transport fare (which you're going to need anyway) saves you just 46 euro per month, which is peanuts.


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## BriedisUnIzlietne (Dec 16, 2012)

*A research*

I did a small research for commuting in my country of Latvia. I chose a quite far but delightful town - Jēkabpils - which lies 140 km from the capital. And since it is a very small town, the apartments are cheaper. An apartment of the same modest 52 sq.m in Jēkabpils is on average 300 €/month cheaper than in the city center of the capital. So how does transportation fare if you want to commute to Riga?

By train it takes 2 hours in each direction. That's about the same as by car. But there are just 6 trains per day and currently there are massive disruptions due to double tracking of the railway. Though that and other plans mean that the train will be faster in the coming years.
A monthly ticket costs 126 €. *It means that when commuting by train you will have 174 spare euros *after you subtract that from the 300 € you will save by moving to Jēkabpils.

By car it will be roughly the same journey time as the train but there might be quite a bit of congestion in the capital and you won't be able to sleep or do something else during driving as you could on the train.
Fuel for a Golf 5 (an average car one might have here) would cost 413 € per month while parking in the city center if you are not an inhabitant of the city will be 326 €/month. That's 739 €. When I subtract that from the 300 € you save by moving, that becomes *an unnecessary expense of 439 € to commute by car*. Which means it's not worth to move to Jēkabpils unless you want to spend 88 hours of your life and 439 € of your money every month on commuting (unless you choose the train).


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## Wunderknabe (Jun 29, 2010)

I live in the S-Bahn-Ring of Berlin (Charlottenburg) on the one end and I work at the other end (Prenzlauer Berg).

Motorbike: ~35 min (distance 11 km)
Car: ~60 min (distance 12 km; that includes 20 min walking time because there is no parking space at work an I have to put the car quite far away)
U/S-Bahn: ~45 min (distance 13 km)


I usually perfer - of course - going by motorbike. You can save great amounts of time in traffic jams (its easy to get to the front row at a traffic light) and don't have to look or even pay for a parking space. Also it is very cheap (1,60 € for gas a day). Even including taxes and insurance its much cheaper than a car or s/u-bahn.

I understand why in places like vietnam scooters are so popular. They should be even cheaper than a propper bike. Also here in Berlin many people use scooters.


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## Disturbing Reality (Mar 28, 2011)

I drive more than 200 miles everyday from home to work and back.


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## kevito (Oct 28, 2010)

Disturbing Reality said:


> I drive more than 200 miles everyday from home to work and back.


WTF???
Where do you live? and ¿where do you work?
That's Crazy!


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## Timfhothy (May 20, 2014)

If only it were always that simple.


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