Plus I saved so much money not driving and just listened to music and enjoyed my coffee. Even here in Denver, where I now live, the population boom has been so dramatic that the traffic is starting to look like L.A. at rush hour. I miss some things about city life, but I dont miss city commutes, and I will have to be living somewhere amazing to go back to that kind of lifestyle. Lombard to Deerfield is a haul, congrats on finding something closer. A typical day is an hour each way and terrible days (rain, accidents, ungodly traffic) is between 1.5 and 2 hours each way. bah! Thats closer to 45 minutes 1 hour. Its terrifying how easily delays can whipcrack along a chain of traffic. I still live in San Francisco. On weekdays, I have to deal with the traffic around the industrial complexes that have been built near where I work (and whoever planned the roads, *didnt* plan for the additional traffic!). 37 traffic lights, multiple school zones. DC area here. It takes me 30 to get 10ish miles. I imagine that in retail or food service, you are more likely to pick a job based on location, because theres not that many other differences between employers? OP, two hours might be fine for some people and might not be unusual in your area, but if you are finding it frustrating then Id say go ahead and either move or look for work closer to home. This one doesn't sound like it is. I hit a raccoon, squirrel, snake and deer with my car. Unsustainable is a great word, Countess. Or if youre commuting from the Valley (Tracy/Manteca) to San Jose is from the central Alameda and CoCo County suburbs (Danville, San Ramon, Dublin/Livermore) to Silicon Valley. I used to have a mental picture of him saying the hell with this traffic and just commuting by helicopter. It can be perfectly normal to have this commute in some locations, and some companies accommodate that (allowing flexibility for traffic jams/weather, offset working hours, working 4/10s.) downtown Berkeley to downtown Oakland, or Oakland to SF). Although I was in school for the first few years in LA, I also consider this a commute. Before the pandemic, it was a two-hour journey on the subway from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. You can see them broken down by metro area here and by county here. LA does have public transportation systems, HOV lanes and toll roads to help ease traffic, but they are really inefficient, inadequate and expensive as you get further away into the suburbs so there isnt a big incentive for people to use them. Long commutes are the price we pay for a job sometimes. I do not feel safe taking Blue Line and neither does my husband who is a 6 ft big dude. 05-01-2023 2. I do think its more about what works for you than what the norm in your region is. If he doesnt know any different, it wont seem that bad. I occasionally used to do a 60 mile return commute - that was way too much time out of the house - looking at 13 hours from leaving home to getting back. Its bad. Feb 7 2021 1 hr 1 min. I just want to point out that normal doesnt mean anything if youre suffering so much. Theres been heavy suburbanization of poverty over the past 20 years, so were seeing more folks commuting from Modesto/Stockton/Antioch/Fairfield because of housing costs (rent is cheaper, which in the short run helps offset increased transit costs). Since hes from a smaller town, he never really got used to commuting and hates it passionately. I already to yoga at 6 am every day (or bootcamp or whatever the other 6 am class is) but I really need to get home by 8 the latest to eat dinner and sleep. I have no life outside of work, and for me this is not sustainable. So i aggressively researched traffic patterns when I picked which neighborhoods to live in. Thats all you need to know. It really depends where you live & work in LA, since its a sprawling city/county. If you find a job you really like, but with a long commute, then maybe your boyfriend should pick up and move to a new neighborhood with you. Possibly doing a trial period to see what he thinks. Like I tended to pay much more for housing than folks that lived further out. In my last semester of college in Sacramento in the mid 1970s, I lived in San Francisco with my boyfriend and commuted the 90 miles each day. That is normal for L.A., I am sorry to say! Its not about what a normal commute is, its about what the OP wants in her life and what shes willing to do in terms of her commute. Experiment with routes and see if theres some alternatives that work for you. It beats everything but the three years I worked from home. I used to do a similar commute. Ive done it 3-4 times a week for 20 years! I think 10 is about the limit. But I-15 in January . Fun fact, I used to work with that guy at his previous job. Normal rush hour traffic here is apparently about 45 minutes for 15 miles, but its easier to avoid the peak and I got into work in about 15 minutes today. I also would caution your expectation of a fast recomp. Before I moved to LA, [Official Local Representatives] swore to me that the traffic was exaggerated and every place was accessible by public transport. Weho is not near a freeway and you have to drive the dreaded 405. I grew up in the Seattle area, then got a job in downtown Seattle. I hate the job but the commute is simply perfect. Not entirely true- it depends on where in the Bay Area- and if you can afford to be 30 min away- I was in Solano County- and wages are on the low side- it would have made more financial sense for me to look in Contra Costa- but that commute was 45-90 minutes one way depending on the way the Traffic flowed (and I wouldnt have made nearly enough to move to Co-Co county). Dont let him hold you back from reorganizing your life to make it more tolerable to you. I didnt understand traffic until I moved to Los Angeles for a few years after college it was the first time I saw with my own eyes how there could be too many cars on the road. Im wary of any directions and side streets not given to me by locals. California traffic has long been the butt of jokes. Going there was pretty much OK since it was later in the morning. The joke among stats nerds around here is that the problem isnt the mean, its the standard deviation. It is what it is for each individual. I have a friend, God bless her, who lived in Running Springs and worked in Woodland Hills. Really helps clear our evenings. in the bus lane. Im a slight woman, Asian, in my mid twenties and took the train from LB to DTLA for work. It works, but cuts into family time together. I hope your boyfriend becomes more supportive, and that it wont be much longer before you get a job with a commute that allows you to have a life. I worked all week and basically slept all weekend because I was so exhausted. The traffic was two red stoplights. When I lived in Seattle (suburbs!) I love my 30 minute commute on laid back country roads now. I live in L.A. and both my husband and my commutes are 35-50 min. I go with the flow of traffic in the morning and afternoon. The 20 minute subway ride OP describes from Bushwick to Soho is only about 6-7 miles. For a city, 30 miles seems like a lot! If its a Friday in the summer, or before a long weekend, it can even be less than an hour. 1) Public transportation: I would drive to a bus stop park-n-ride, then bus in Often surface streets can take less time during rush hour (or feel like it because you are moving), you just need to figure out which ones work for you. The folks with less traffic during their commute hours consider 1.5 hours not bad. I do a 2 hour commute each way 2 days a week and it's not too bad, actually quite enjoy the time to myself to read a book. Best day scenario for a friend of mine is 1.5 hours Concord to downtown. By that time, it would take about 1.5 hours or more to get to my work. Anyway, I can relate to not liking long commutes. I live in SW CT so the only reason my drive is doable is because I stay off (and away from) 95. I dont think Natalie is talking about theoretical calculation of commutes on Google Maps or something. LA has decent public transit! We just moved to Atlanta a year ago, and when searching for a place to live, every time I found a possibility I plugged it into Google directions and set it to find the route from there to my and my partners workplaces at the times wed be driving. I do have to drop the tiny human at the daycare which adds a whopping 15 minutes. I think its a record. Ill take a one hour drive in my car, listening to music on a nice surround system, over a 30 minute rail commute filled with smelly homeless and ranting lunatics. I do think its more about what works for you than what the norm in your region is. January 5th, 2022 show. Self driving cars might be able to do it though. : $15.00 - $22.00 Per Hour. My commute is two miles each way, and I walk it 95% of the time. I guess my question is more about the general idea of how adding more cars = going slower. I live about 12-13 miles from where I work. DC has a total population of like 600,000 people, but huge numbers commute in from MD and VA every day for work. Its normal if you live in the Valley and work in West LA. The Bay Area is quickly approaching LA levels traffic wise- unless you are in an area with BART access. Twice a week. The bus system here is a joke and there are no trains to take, so driving is the only real option for us. I need to take a bus (7 miles) to reach either of those. My commute is 2 hours each way because I live outside London on one side, and work in a part of London WAY over on the other side. Ive lived in Queens and Manhattan and have never had a commute less than one hour. Before this, I lived in the large city I work in and my commute was about 45 minutes and a combination of walking and riding the subway. Some days its longer. I did 45 minutes for a while (not traffic, just distance) and that was rough. I left LA in 1998, and when I visited a few years later, was horrified to discover that rush hour traffic was still going strong at 10pm. I didnt read most of the comments, but I did want to give advice on how to survive that commute while you have to do it (hopefully, not for long!). LA is an entirely different level of traffic. This does not sound like a sustainable schedule. so long as Im actually moving. Best of luck in finding a solution! Alternative Site was literally in the middle of nowhere. During the Coronavirus Pandemic, social distancing, and self and mandated quarantines there is a lot of technology to talk about. Just because it is normal doesnt mean its sane. I did Kingston to Oxford Street, and that was 1.5 hours. Ive had a long-ish commute (45min to 1 hr) for years and finally discovered the joy of audiobooks about 6 months ago (as a lifelong bibliophile, I dont know what took me so long). I live in NE LA and work in North Hollywood, which is about 17 miles and usually takes between 30-45 minutes. My bf lives in SF, and has been commuting to Mountain View, and it can easily take him 2 hours by car if traffic is bad. Yeah, seriously. Thankfully, the secretary graciously offered to begin picking me up at the nearby train station, cutting my commute by about 40-45 minutes. It would help if you had cruise control and/or an auto gearbox. I live in Southern California, Los Angeles area, and when my commute was roughly 25 miles, it took anywhere from 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes each way working from 7 4. The fact that you are making time for the gym/yoga is commendable! She once got caught in the pass and it took her 6 hours. Come to the Pacific Northwest, where 2 hour commutes are also not uncommon! I read a study in the last few months that said 40 minutes is the tipping point where a commute starts to affect your mental health and it made a lot of sense. I moved to Washington state for a bit in the early 90s, and I remember driving into Seattle with some friends of mind who warned me that wed be hitting rush hour traffic. If theres an accident or bad weather Im looking at two hours or more. Train itself is about 1:25. Employer est. If no seat, I switch to the express train and get to work roughly on time. Thats two hours both ways! Long hours, stress and the commute just made it unsustainable. Silicon Valley, for example, has tons of jobs, but not enough housing, so people commute from all over, packing the roadways. I lived in Tokyo for years and 90 minutes-two hours is common but that is by train so you dont have to pay attention. I live near the first stop on bus #1 and transfer far enough uptown that I always get a seat on bus #2 (a limited). X-D. Oh dear god, you commute up from Long Beach?!? Their schedule typically works like this: The lane changes are especially frustrating and bottlenecking, especially when youve got lots of trucks on the road (e.g., the I-5/110 junction). Some people do it, sure, but Id say around an hour to an hour and a half is the norm. It always took at least 45-60 minutes. 2 hours commute during rush hour in LA is completely normal. 2 hour commute twice a week. It sounds like you cant, either. She was trying to get out of the traffic. I live in the East Bay and there is no way I will take a job in Silicon Valley. I havent read the other comments but yup, Id say thats normal. My old job was a 40-45 min drive (but it was only about 15 miles) and that was going against traffic for at least half of the drive. My cousin does two hours each way I dont see how you could maintain a proper amount of sleep and/or a social life with that. my boss wants me to lie to coworkers about my commute, my employer moved our office to an inconvenient location. Right now, this would not work for me at all, unless I was commuting to a place where Im eventually planning to move. Maybe Im super paranoid after all the time spent in questionable neighborhoods in my wayward LA youth. Dear MBTA: Why does it take me an hour to get to Cambridge from a southern neighborhood in Boston, and this person from Providence can get there in 2 hours? If I were a person who minded, this would be a deal breaker. Traffic is bad here but luckily there are trains so I dont have to keep a car. I must drive because theres no transit is a very different problem than, I cant wrap my head around the idea of trying transit.. why should employers care about my long commute? Justwow. Think that commute is under an hour. Here in California, I recently (2.5 months ago) accepted a new job as an EA for a great company thats about 30 miles away. As far as I was concerned, it was better than a million dollars and a mansion in Beverly Hills because those three things were exactly what I wanted. But oh man, it was like Saturday traffic in the suburb I live in. Hahaha what? I commute a total of 4 hours a day to London from my home town. Good luck to you! Intolerable. Im running out of podcasts to binge. You can absolutely take the M train from Bushwick to Broadway-Lafayette in under 45 minutes. I moved northeast from my job in Fairfield county, CT and went from 20 mins each way to at least an hour, sometimes 90 mins. Time is valuable, and spending it commuting sucks. Where I live now? LA traffic was nowhere as bad as the 401 in the Toronto area. Freeways everywhere, and theyre all jampacked. Now, where I live (Alabama) my commute is like 10 minutes. The traffic in was non-existent but the end of day traffic was horrible. But I know LAs subway system isnt the best, so its not practical for every commute. I get defensive about it: I think long commutes being interpreted as the norm give LA a bad name. It would be one thing if you lived in Redondo or Fullerton, as there are side streets to get you there if the freeway is f*cked, but 405 just isnt worth it if youre not making a killing at your job. Insanity. A ton of people commute at least 1 hour each day and they have to DRIVE. Were not even talking about using any freeways here that would be even longer. I grew up in CoCoCounty (fam is still there), and so much of the County was working class that I never really thought of it as unaffordable until the last 10-15 years or so. Depending on where LW lives and works, its likely that there arent direct routes AND that even if there were, it could increase commuting time by an hour (easily). Lots of people can handle that, but I cannot. From my house to my work is only 10 miles, but it can easily take an hour by car in rush hour. Im lucky in that, as soon as I get into London, its one train all the way. If Its an hour Id prefer to be walking or using public transit though hate being stuck in a car. Angeleno here and definitely not. I would also make the argument that the significant amount of truck traffic driven from the port adds a considerable amount they have to go slower in traffic since it takes them longer to stop. Its worth it for the commute for me. I did it myself for about 4 years I simply could not afford to live in or around the District so I lived 40 miles outside the city and, on a good day, I was facing a 1.5 hour commute. Or you know, just doing the laundry. Plus, its Florida and OP is in southern California, so I doubt that we could survive the heat (not to mention the frequent summer rainstorms here in the summer). Its one of those things you have to be okay with in your work-life, so if the OP needs a different job with a better commute, that makes total sense to me. Lots of people who find the trade off of cheaper housing commute to be worth it. If I drive, it takes 45 minutes or more. For me its an issue of cost. Im a huge fan of Seanan McGuire, but I never listened to her October Daye series in audiobook / wont switch at this point for that series. Its a ~10 mile commute that took me 45 minutes each way on a good day. Driving is at least an hour and twenty minutes and it is killing me. Commutes longer than 45 minutes are up 12 percent in that time span, and 90-minute one-way commutes are 64 percent more common than in 1990. Those hours add up, and a few extra dollars isnt always worth a longer commute. I used to take the Red Line in my 20s and thought it was fine but the Blue Line is different I work in LB now and live near DTLA. So which one we shop at is based entirely on who is driving that day. *shudder*, Working remote is much better! They literally drain days from your life. I live in LB and there is a subway but it goes through all the not so great neighborhoods Ive taken it during the day before and would just not feel comfortable being on a train with shady folks this early in the morning (Im 51 and look super young despite being 30). Yep. Im on the east coast. I moved out of state and ended up driving anywhere from 35 90 minutes one way to work, depending on traffic, what time I left, and if there was a fender bender on the one highway I could feasibly take to my job. My commute from my outer borough is roughly 70-90 minutes one way. Growing up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, my friends parents would take the Metra train into Chicago for their jobs. I have a few bites for closer jobs already so Im keeping my fingers crossed. My current one is 15 on a good day, and when its nice out I can even walk in ~25 minutes. They never listen. I do leave 30 minutes before my shift starts so I have ample time to drop my son off at school, stop for a caffeinated beverage and get to work with several minutes to spare but my actual in-the-car-driving time is 15 minutes with all of that added in there. But I pay for that convenience. I did not get the job. Also, are there no public transport options at all where you live? I would move closer to work but cant afford it. A survivor of a 2-2.5 hour one-way commute who has sworn off long commutes ever since. I think that explain it all. Theres no way I could do 2 hours. Im originally from a town that had $600 2 bedroom townhouses just 2 years ago. Its totally fine. Could easily be an hour. Eventually, I moved in with my now-husband and my commute went to 11 miles/35 minutes (unless something was going on at the Hollywood Bowl and I forgot to take an alternate exit then it was 50). In more rural areas, sure, 50 makes sense but in an urban area like Boston, they should go by travel time, IMHO. This is how I discovered audiobooks. Now I drive to work and it should be 25-30 minutes but regularly takes me 45-60 minutes because of traffic, but I cant relax and read my book! I moved from Brooklyn to California (Antelope Valley, high desert). Weve got kids and paying 2k+/month for a 2 bed apartment anywhere within 45 minutes wasnt happening. I would have guessed a bit higher. 30 miles where? Some days when Im apartment hunting, Ill see listings like $1300/mo for a 500 sq ft studio apartment above a garage, no stove and its really demoralizing. The husband drove in to DC for work for six years on 66. My commute is probably 45 min door to door. Hang out for ~2 hours Londoners have the longest commute to work in the UK with an average of 1 hour and 19 minutes spent getting to and from work each day. I commute 2 hours door to door in NYC, via LIRR. I live in West LA about 5 minutes (on a good day) from my office (but I take the bus so its a little bit longer). Count your commute as work hours when you start looking for a new job. (As in enough for us to live comfortably close to where-ever we work, b/c h-to-the-no for that level of commute every day). If there was a better transit system in my area, I would be okay with a long commute, but Im from Seattle. I live in the Philly burbs and commute via public transit into Center City. Another option for the OP, if she is up for it I have some coworkers who have a membership at a gym close to work. Of course, I also spend more and make more sacrifices to afford it. Im in D.C. and two hours is long, but definitely not weird here. I personally would rather have the time and am fine with living in a tiny house, so I pay more to live closer. But since its against traffic, its 25-30 minutes of highway driving. The roads are bad (potholes that could eat a car), and all the ways to my suburb are sketchy. Incredibly slow-moving trains? A bit longer than Id like, but far preferable than the hour-plus Id spend trying to get downtown. It really helped me rule out some areas that were lovely and that I had enjoyed visiting on weekends but were misery to get to after work. By 630AM, the 28-year-old project engineer is out the door of his Bishan flat and in his car, on his way to work. So its totally reasonable for you to find a new job. This wont always be the case, and eventually I will outgrow my role and probably be priced out of commuting at which point I will probably have to move house, since there are no good jobs local to me. I love reading, but I have a really difficult time keeping my focused on audiobooks or podcasts or any kind of talking that I need to pay close attention to, and if Im driving I cant follow it at all. Yeah, like so totally normal! Im a young woman who commuted from OC to LA for years via the metro in my early 20s. You may want to think about this for your next position! Then I took a job in Culver City my commute was 45 min-1 hr each way every day, but only 20 min with no traffic! One hour for me, but that includes dropping off a kid at school. If you are a have important hobbies, are very social, have people/pets you like to spend time with or have to care for, have a lot of housekeeping/errands you need to do.and your commute is keeping you from those things for too long, then a commute like this probably isnt for you. I moved apartments as soon as I could and cut it down to a ten-minute drive. We live in Shenzhen. My commute is about 30 to 35 mins, most of that being on the bus. Does a move make sense for a shorter commute when it's only 2 days? I have been working at home for over 5 years now and cannot imagine going back to a job I had to commute to. Those trips are close to an hour even late at night because its not all highway. So theres even MORE traffic trying to get there at 8 AM from all the far flung sprawling areas. Invest in it! And thats weird because the city is only 77 square miles. That turns an 8 hour workday into a 12 hour workday. Hosted by people who live in SoCal. no thank you) It was an aggravating way to start the day anyway. Thats a horrifying commute. And then the housing is even more expensive. I remember interviewing in the Bay Area about seven years ago, and scouting potential living situations on the Peninsula, and found the worlds most amazing cottage in Pacifica. Infrequent trains that are rarely on schedule, over-populated stops that take 2-3x as long waiting for people who dont fit to step off. Ahhhhh, Im so happy for you. It was brutal. (Its slightly embarrassing for a 38 year old guy to admit, but during my last 6 month contract I managed to get through the whole Harry Potter series. I was stressed and tired and missed my family. If I hit traffic at the wrong time, it could take me 1.5-2 hrs to make what was normally a 25-30 minute drive. Good luck! Even then I thought I had no time for anything outside of work! Its kind of improved my attitude toward it on most daysbut I still daydream of the days when Ill be able to kick back with a movie while my self-driving car does all the work :). I lived in San Jose commuting to Cuptertino for 6 years. I could walk from my place to work if I wanted, which is very convenient. Itll go down to 40 minutes when shes in college. )even the drive to school wasnt that bad! A 2 hour commute is normal in any big city. Another 15-20 minutes by shuttle, with wait times in between all, obviously. Anything under an hour I am okay with. At one point, my ATL commute was 2 hours each way, and that was a bit much. Good luck! If youre crawling on a freeway, have you considered surface streets? I dont think L.A. is even 30 miles wide. No matter what normal is, you have to go with whats feasible for you. The commute is one of my top criteria in deciding whether or not to take a job. When I lived in Houston, my commute was just under an hour, but I was only going 4 miles door to door so At one point it was ~2 hours, but then I was living a whole 15 miles away. Unfortunately, for that area and the commute you are doing 1.5 is the norm. Oh yes. There are NO single family houses for sale for under a million anymore. This thread has really brought home for me that nobody would live in this deranged city if it werent for the weather :D. And it contributes to the insane housing prices. Im sorry, OP. Exactly. Our population has outpaced transit infrastructure loading, LA did not invest in public transit earlier, and theres an effective moratorium on building more freeways on the west side and in City of LA (and its adjoining communities). Robert Fratta, 65, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the November 1994 fatal shooting of his wife, Farah, amid a contentious divorce and custody fight for their three children. My car is okay, not that great. Thankfully I found something closer to home. Currently, I do drive an hour each way, but that is only twice a week and I work from home the other days, so my net drive time is within the 30 mins/day. You can either move closer to work, or look for work closer to where you live. Keeping your car clean will probably also help a lot. It turned out the new commute was longer but with less city traffic. I live in the OC near Chapman Uni and my office was in the Union Bank building on Figueroa Street and yes, 2 hours was totally normal. Ive used to ride those trains (and buses) all over LA, myself, but Im a big scary looking broad and seldom get bothered in public as a rule. 30 miles seems like a long commute distance-wise for the LA area, but 2 hours is what I would expect that to take during rush hour. Traffic where I live is rough. I wouldnt take a 2+ hours commute either and have actually rejected or self selected out of jobs that would put me in that range (and I dont drive but exclusively use public transportation). I said it raised a red flag for me and was worth a conversation. For some fellow locals, its a major stressor but it doesnt bother me much. It is the traffic when driving that makes it stressful. I read about LA traffic before, but thought how bad can it REALLY be? In Boston, it took me 45 minutes (perfectly timed) to 1.5 hours (stupid Red Sox games) to make it the seven-ish miles from home to work. Yes, this. I work in the East Bay, and people in my office commute from Tracy, Manteca, Stockton, Merced, Sacramento, Vallejo. Never, ever again. At least with my commute it is just me in the car (with my audiobooks or silence, depending on my mood). It looks like OP has already made the decision to quit. Most coworkers drove but some, including myself, took the train. I once had a job where, about a month after I arrived, my boss decided instead of working on the main site (lovely building, 10-minute walk from my flat, in a fun, vibrant city), Id spend 80% of my time at an alternative site. San Diego is still not that bad- like several have said- employers here are starting to get better about flexible start/end times to stagger traffic. More than that would be un-doable for me. Id also like to +1 on the ability to search google maps for drive time estimates for your next position.
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