How long do you commute each day?
I guess that it depends on whether you are prepared to live near where you work, and move houses when you change jobs. If like most people, you don't want (or can't) to just keep moving home every few years, then over a period of time your daily commute may vary, but the OECD average is reported as 40 minutes per day, which strikes me as rather low.
I work in a big city centre office, where even the 'locals' spend about 30 minutes each way to get door to door, thus making the lowest commute I could find at around 50 minutes a day, and the average about an hour and 10 minutes (but with many more facing something over an hour and a half a day). This begs the question of how they obtained the figure of 40 minutes which as you can see, is the total average commute time for the UK (just 20 minutes, door to door each way).
Me? Well I am an extreme commuter, I face a daily trek, door to door, of 1hr 35 minutes each way (made possible by train station just 10 minutes drive from my house, and an office just 10 minutes walk from the train station), which I may add I share with around twenty other daily commuters from my small town rail station.
So why do I do it? Well the pay I get in the city office is about 25 - 30% higher for full time employment than in the local employers who might want me, but I don't want to move back to the city .... quality of life reasons. I also have to be honest and admit that as long as the train isn't delayed more than 10 minutes, I have got used to the journey and barely notice it - just read a book or a paper and your nearly there.
Still, when I looked at these figures I was made to realise that I am spending a lot of time (and money), on travelling costs, just to get the money to afford to be able to commute, and whether that's sufficient justification for the loss of life time .... maybe I have let the work/life balance tilter too much in one direction?
I guess that it depends on whether you are prepared to live near where you work, and move houses when you change jobs. If like most people, you don't want (or can't) to just keep moving home every few years, then over a period of time your daily commute may vary, but the OECD average is reported as 40 minutes per day, which strikes me as rather low.
 |
| Commuting - A world wide curse. |
I work in a big city centre office, where even the 'locals' spend about 30 minutes each way to get door to door, thus making the lowest commute I could find at around 50 minutes a day, and the average about an hour and 10 minutes (but with many more facing something over an hour and a half a day). This begs the question of how they obtained the figure of 40 minutes which as you can see, is the total average commute time for the UK (just 20 minutes, door to door each way).
Me? Well I am an extreme commuter, I face a daily trek, door to door, of 1hr 35 minutes each way (made possible by train station just 10 minutes drive from my house, and an office just 10 minutes walk from the train station), which I may add I share with around twenty other daily commuters from my small town rail station.
So why do I do it? Well the pay I get in the city office is about 25 - 30% higher for full time employment than in the local employers who might want me, but I don't want to move back to the city .... quality of life reasons. I also have to be honest and admit that as long as the train isn't delayed more than 10 minutes, I have got used to the journey and barely notice it - just read a book or a paper and your nearly there.
Still, when I looked at these figures I was made to realise that I am spending a lot of time (and money), on travelling costs, just to get the money to afford to be able to commute, and whether that's sufficient justification for the loss of life time .... maybe I have let the work/life balance tilter too much in one direction?
Change you job man! Lifes way too short fort that kinda commute!
ReplyDeleteWell I work in Manchester Airport and live in Preston .... we have just had a daily commute of about an hour, turned into several hours each way by a rail derailment ...its taken days for them to sort it out. That's the danger of long commutes they rely on everything running smoothly.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree more. I am also caught up in this Stanford incident and they still haven't fixed it. The rail operators response has been disgraceful, no extra trains to replace those lost and using the police to prevent a riot breaking out. And that was just tonight.
ReplyDeleteNot one local MP has spoken out.
I think I meant Salford incident !
DeleteNot happening for many anymore. Covid killed commuting for the offive based middle classes in the UK.
ReplyDeleteYes, many no longer commute daily, or even weekly. For good or bad, this is the new normal. Thanks for the comment.
Delete