anyone commute over 30 minutes for work? does it completely suck? Get more bearable after a while? general thoughts?

7/6/2010 1:53:14 PM

That's stupid. Don't do it.

7/6/2010 1:53:51 PM

mine used to be an hour if i was driving

45 minutes with public transportation

sucks ass

7/6/2010 1:54:27 PM

I am definitely a fan of as short of commute as possible to work (15 minutes or less is ideal for me) but I do have to ask: is this 30 minutes an actual 30 minute commute during morning and evening rush hour that you have tested? Or is the 30 minutes you are quoting coming from 30 minutes on google maps or 30 minutes on Sunday afternoon when you timed it etc.? Probably seems like a stupid question, but a lot of people's "30 minute commute" when they are buying the house or getting a new job or whatever turns into a 45 minute commute when they actually start driving that same route during the high traffic times.

7/6/2010 1:59:15 PM

Quote :

"anyone commute over 30 minutes for work? does it completely suck? Get more bearable after a while? general thoughts? "

mine used to be anywhere from 30 mins to hour+ depending on if someone fucked up and wrecked on 40.

yes, it sucked.

it got only slightly more bearable after time

I moved, now my commute is about 10 mins max.

7/6/2010 2:00:11 PM

My commute (with traffic) is usually around 30 minutes. On an absolutely horrible day when everything's gone wrong on I-40 it might be 45 minutes. But I always check the traffic ahead of time and there are ways around the traffic usually if need be.

I'd much prefer living a lot closer to where I work but do I want to live in boring ass Cary or Morrisville? Hell no...so gimme that commute.

7/6/2010 2:03:14 PM

My commute is too short. I live right down the block from my office, and when I play hooky, I always have to worry about bumping into office people at nearby restaurants or the mall. I'd prefer to be 10-15 minutes away so that my worlds wouldn't collide.

7/6/2010 2:08:24 PM

45 minutes to an hour every day commuting from north raleigh to chapel hill. And my wife and I BOTH make it and spent $500 total in gas last month. We have calculated that we waste 40 hours each a week commuting.

It is for this reason that we are considering moving in the next year to much closer. I thought I would be working in RTP again, not making a career at UNC, which is my reason for choosing north raleigh. I am looking at Pittsboro.

7/6/2010 2:17:16 PM

live in North Jersey, work in Central Jersey.

morning commute: 40 minutes
afternoon commute: 50-55 minutes

it is what it is. it sucks and is definitely not the commute i want it to be but it is a job and in these times, i'm damn glad to be able to say that. i've been doing the commute for 3+ years now and truthfully, i just do it, dont even think about it; it's become so routine.

7/6/2010 2:21:45 PM

I'll probably be living in Zebulon in the future. I'll probably be a good 20-30 mins to raleigh everyday.

7/6/2010 2:27:59 PM

my commute was ~30-40 minutes on a normal day (Six Forks to downtown Durham) and up to an hour on really shitty traffic days. The commute home never really bothered me as I could usually plan for it and take an alternate route if needed, but the commute in the morning was my nemesis. I'm not a morning person so adding the commute to the established struggle of getting up and functioning properly did not work in my favor.

7/6/2010 2:36:49 PM

I did a 45 minute commute for a year.
Fucking sucked!!!
I will not do that again until I have a robot car or private limo.

7/6/2010 2:49:37 PM

45 minutes in the morning and about an hour in the afternoon when I go to my main client.

It's not bad. I just listen to sports radio to catch myself up.

7/6/2010 2:51:22 PM

Quote :

"I am looking at Pittsboro."

Look into the Briar Chapel community.

7/6/2010 2:58:06 PM

45 min

but it's beautifully scenic, and I listen to radio lab which makes the time fly.

7/6/2010 2:59:46 PM

My wife's commute from NW raleigh to UNC was about 45 minutes while she was in med school. With 90+ hour work weeks being the norm in residency, we decided to move to SW durham. Her commute dropped to about 12 minutes, and mine is less than 10 now, from 20-25 before.


like carzin said, spending tons of hours a week sitting in a car is no way to live. it's probably not a huge deal if you're single, but once you have a family, that hour or more a day is time you want back.

7/6/2010 3:15:32 PM

I did 45 minutes each way for 2 years on a non-congested highway and it was no problem at all. Gave me a chance to wake-up on the way to work and a chance to wind down on the drive home. It also gave me a chance to tear through some audiobooks. I would never commute that far though if I couldn't cruise control the majority of it.

7/6/2010 3:25:07 PM

You people are the reason we have global warming and the gulf oil spill.

I hope they raise gas prices to $10/gallon so this suburban sprawl non public transportation 1 hour commute nonsense ends.

7/6/2010 3:27:56 PM

i'm 5 minutes away from work...maybe 7-8 minutes when traffic is sucky

i ride a scooter that gets 115mpg (give or take)

it's awesome

[Edited on July 6, 2010 at 3:31 PM. Reason : .]

7/6/2010 3:28:58 PM

I hope they don't.

7/6/2010 3:29:25 PM

Quote :

"I hope they raise gas prices to $10/gallon so this suburban sprawl non public transportation 1 hour commute nonsense ends."

I get paid mileage, so I hope it does too!

7/6/2010 3:34:55 PM

lollers...

Mine was 20 minutes in the morning (because I got in at 7am and not 8am) and 90 minutes in the afternoon in the Bay Area. Awful...

7/6/2010 3:35:16 PM

35 minutes in the morning, 45 minutes in the evening. Probably be shorter if I drove as fast as most people. But then it'd probably stress me out even more. Now I just go whatever speed the slow lane is going (usually 10 over, crazy bastards, it's the *SLOW* lane).

It's annoying, but gotta pay the bills.

7/6/2010 3:40:35 PM

Mine's about an hour each way. But I'm just sitting on the train, so I really don't mind it at all. I actually rather enjoy it. It's a chance to sit and relax and read before I get to work.

7/6/2010 3:56:19 PM

Yeah, I wouldn't mind a commute where I could read or even take a quick nap. Man I need a driver.

7/6/2010 4:07:11 PM

^ yeah a long commute riding a bus or train isn't bad. driving sucks though, and driving in traffic sucks worse. I used to live 22 miles from work and I hated the drive. Loved where I lived but the commute wasn't worth it so I moved. Now I'm about 6 miles from work and started riding my bike. It's great!

unfortunately I got a flat tire from the jagged-ass sidewalk

7/6/2010 4:08:50 PM

Quote :

"I'd much prefer living a lot closer to where I work but do I want to live in boring ass Cary or Morrisville? Hell no...so gimme that commute."

but you are boring...what are you talking about??? I KID I KID.

commute is about 20 minutes in the morning, 20-25 minutes in the afternoon. i make my own hours so i opt to go in earlier (7am) and leave work earlier (3pm). i also work from home one day a week which definitely saves a bit on the mileage (since i'm doing about 40 miles a days in just commuting). i would like to live closer to work but there's no way i would live anywhere near where i work in durham.

7/6/2010 4:17:00 PM

Quote :

"You people are the reason we have global warming and the gulf oil spill. I hope they raise gas prices to $10/gallon so this suburban sprawl non public transportation 1 hour commute nonsense ends."

LOL, ahuh...ya know emissions from automobiles isn't even one of top sources of manmade CO2?


Anyways I'd LOVE for my office to be smack dab in the middle of downtown Raleigh 3 1/2 miles from my house instead of a "business park" in the middle of nowhere.

7/6/2010 4:30:51 PM

I live 20 miles from my office, but it's all highway so it only takes me like 15 minutes to get to work

When I lived in Cary and worked in RTP, I lived a lot closer to work but the commute was usually a lot longer due to traffic. If I didn't leave the office by 4:30, it could take me over an hour to get home. And that TOTALLY sucked!

I guess what I am saying is, it depends on the commute. If it is at speed, it's not that bad. If it is stop and go, it totally blows.

7/6/2010 4:32:52 PM

Quote :

"35 minutes in the morning, 45 minutes in the evening. "

ditto, I live near State and drive to RTP.

7/6/2010 4:39:42 PM

Garner -> North Raleigh

There are two ways to get there, around 440 and through downtown, and both take pretty much exactly 30 minutes. The traffic on 440 isn't ever bad, because it seems like everybody is always going the opposite direction. Sometimes it's bad through downtown if there's construction or there's a truck unloading in the right lane or something like that.

7/6/2010 4:42:59 PM

I dont have a commute right now but when I had one it was 20-30 mins. Longer going home esp with traffic somedays (normally no longer than an hr)

Normally jammed to music, or called people and talked on the phone with them for a bit to entertain myself.

I used to know a guy that had a 2 hr commute. He came in though at like 6-7am though and left at like 2-3pm. So he never had traffic, and he also had a nice car to drive.

7/6/2010 4:45:19 PM

Quote :

"anyone commute over 30 minutes for work? does it completely suck? Get more bearable after a while? general thoughts?"

i used to do over an hour each way..

it wasn't that bad but i dunno, def not much fun either.

7/6/2010 4:46:14 PM

I leave at 7:50 or so and get in around 8:25. I take public transportation though so it's pretty bearable. 35 minutes in a car twice a day though would suck.

7/6/2010 4:49:54 PM

SW Durham to Fairgrounds area in Raleigh, usually 25 minutes in the morning and anywhere from 25 to 40 in the afternoon (usually ~30). It's tolerable, but gets annoying sometimes when I think about what I'm spending on gas. I would take public transporation but it increases my commute to about 1:05 in the mornings and 1:15 in the afternoons--I don't appreciate the extra hour spent in transit, even though it does save me money and reduce emissions. Selfish, probably.

7/6/2010 5:43:27 PM

2.5 miles round trip

7/6/2010 7:22:37 PM

when i lived in PA, it was 3 minutes
when i moved to charlotte, my first job was 45-50 minutes
second job was 30-35 min
third job was 25-30 min
current job is 20-25 min

after the last couple jobs, i don't mind the 20 minute drive, it actually gives me a nice little break to clear my mind, listen to the news or a podcast or something

7/6/2010 7:37:01 PM

i'm stuck doing a rotation in durham next summer, and i live in greensboro. gonna be just over an hour each way

7/6/2010 7:45:57 PM

for most of my post college working life i've had a less than 10 minute commute - except for one "local" project i was on and the commute was an hour and a half for 8 months and it sucked horribly - find a good morning show you like and it won't be too bad

7/6/2010 7:48:10 PM

5 minutes to one of my homes, 30 minutes to garner for the other home

7/6/2010 8:00:20 PM

with traffic my commute is about ~45 minutes, ~30 without traffic. I live in Atlanta, so it could certainly be a LOT worse. I really don't mind the drive, to be honest. My office is in an industrial park in an less than desirable area, so the drive is totally worth it to me.

7/6/2010 8:07:23 PM

I like 15-30 min commutes. Any more and it's a burden. Any less, and it's almost like a disappointment. But then again, I enjoy driving and a 15-30 min commute helps me get in "the mood" for work (get a professional mindset to focus on work).

7/6/2010 8:16:03 PM

I drive 40-50 minutes to work everyday. The drive home is nearly unbearable, but the ride in the morning is okay because I'm usually running late and anxious to get there on time. I'm always sleepy on the ride back, so it makes it feel like an hour and a half drive.

It's not the ideal situation but I'd rather commute than to live in the city in which I work.

7/6/2010 8:29:21 PM

Twice a week my commute is an hour and 30 minutes. It fucking sucks.

When I was an intern 4 times a week I commuted from RTP to Salisbury. That was simply ridiculous

7/6/2010 8:34:17 PM

I'm loving my summer internship commute. About 9 mins.

Quote :

"I am looking at Pittsboro."

Right now the Chapel Hill Town Council is looking at a concept plan for development right across the street from Southern Village. Some mixed used, residential, retail, and maybe a hotel... much higher density than the town typical approves for developers, but its on a major artery & near existing development so I'm sure they will since it fits in with their overall development plan. All that to say, there may be a lot of construction by part of 15-501, the main connection between Chatham & Orange counties.

Probably not important enough to affect a move, just giving the heads up since you're considering a move based on transit times.

7/6/2010 8:39:39 PM

15 minutes on bike at a nice commuting pace and with a pack, 20-some if I run it, about 30-40 if I want to take it easy and walk it.

I used to live in Raleigh and commute to Duke for a year. I got a horrible parking spot for that first year, so it was easier to just bring my bike on my car and have a drive/bike commute.
After altering my schedule and still losing 45 min-1 hr each way, I decided to move to Durham and get that 2 hours back. Was an awesome decision.

7/6/2010 8:59:14 PM

I commute from Raleigh to Fayetteville Monday thru Wednesday.

Its a 75 minute drive each way...but luckily the traffic is always going the opposite direction, so I rarely get stuck in it.

And yeah, it sucks, but I've found I've kinda gotten used to it. Moving to Fayetteville is not an option though, cause I'd rather quit this job and find another than live down there

[Edited on July 7, 2010 at 12:14 AM. Reason : oh yeah and at my previous job i could bike to work]

7/7/2010 12:12:00 AM

I used to live across the parking lot and walked to work, it was awesome.

Now I live in just inside the beltline and drive about 25-30 min. That's without rush hour traffic, I go into and leave work late to avoid it. If I commuted during rush hour that would be 45-60 min.

My gf works in chapel hill and was commuting up to 90 min each way. She started going in and leaving early to cut it down to like 45. She still hates it.

We're thinking about moving back to morrisville, but we really like actually living in the city.

7/7/2010 1:11:41 AM

Man I hope whatever my next job is I live near it. A long ass commute never seems like it will be so bad until you're doing it for four years

7/7/2010 1:16:48 AM

I did an 1hr 15 min commute for several months and it was awful. Having to get up at 5 am followed by that long drive made for many rough mornings. I moved jobs and now the drivre is about 10-15 mins.

7/7/2010 8:58:51 AM