Commuter Trends: Longer, Earlier

I love it when news just drops out of the sky.  I've been looking for research on commuter statistics in America and didn't really know where to start.  Today, CNN told me:

 

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/16/commuting.trends.ap/index.html?section=cnn_us

 

The Transportation Research Board has just released their "Commuting in America" study, which shows that the number of workers with commutes over 1 hour (me!) has gone up 50% since the study began in 1986.  Also, more Americans are leaving for work between 5 and 6:30am.  Yikes, not me.

 

Personally I leave for work at 7:30 and arrive at 9:10.  So, an hour and 40.

 

Technorati tags: cnn, news, commute, study, travel

What kind of commuter are you?

 

Commutes come in all shapes and sizes, from the 10 minute walk across town (lucky!) to the two hour train ride.  How you commute and for how long are the two most important factors in determining how to make the best of your time.

• Drive.  People who drive are most likely to listen to radio, catching bits of news, sports, weather and traffic.  Most of your attention is on the road in front of you, which is why everything is repeated in small soundbytes every few minutes rather than expecting you to actually concentrate on anything for a long period of time.  The drive is also the section of your commute most likely to vary from day to day, depending on your traffic situation.  Maybe on a good day it's thirty minutes, maybe forty-five minus or longer when it's snowing.  Hard to plan for exactly how long the drive will take.  But on the plus side you can typically come and go as you please, so if you need to stay an extra 10 minutes at work to finish a project, it doesn't screw up your whole ride home. 
• Train.  The train is the exact opposite.  Typically you'll know exactly when you have to get on and when you arrive at your destination.  Miss your train and you're waiting for the next one, no "Just five more minutes" here.  On the bonus side, your attention can be almost entirely placed on whatever it is you want to do, whether that's listening to your MP3 player, watching DVDs on your laptop, or reading your favorite novel. Provided you get a seat, that is.
• Bus/Subway.  Similar to the train as far as attention span goes, although hopefully the bus comes more often and the trip's not quite as long.  But you're also less likely to get a seat.
• Walk.   The walking commute is great exercise, but hopefully not the longest leg of your journey.  How long it takes is entirely up to how fast you make yourself move.  The problem is, you can't get much done.  It's not like you can read a book and walk across town at the same time.  Well, you can try, but your progress on either won't be very efficient.  You're most likely to listen to music on an MP3 player and just sort of zone out as you head down the same path you take every day.

Of course, many commutes are a combination of these.  Personally I drive to the train station, ride into the city, and then walk across town to work.  On bad weather days I could take the subway if I prefer.  Trip takes me about 90 minutes.

How about you?

The Commuter Paradox

Ok, I see a problem. Every day we commute. Thousands of us. I see the same faces every day. There's a certain reality to the simple fact that getting to and from work takes time. And yet what do we all do? We stare at our watches when the train is a minute late, we sigh loudly, we buy our $5 coffees every day as a way of killing time. Then we rush across town, walking in front of traffic when we really shouldn't, shoving past people on the train station so that we can get to the seat first where we sit on the outside seat and put our bag down on the other seat so nobody sits next to us.

That's ridiculous.

If you have to do something every day, then why fight it? Why hate it? Why not find a way to actually enjoy it? Sure it's not going to be the most productive part of your day. You're away from your family but you're not at your desk yet. Therefore it is completely wasted time, right?

So very wrong.

I'm convinced that the best way to deal with the commute is to acknowledge that it's not going to miraculously go from 90 minutes down to 90 seconds, so I might as well find a way to be more productive at it. What that might mean, I'm not sure yet. It will probably mean different things on different days. Some days I'll play Sudoku, some days I'll work on my blog, or read notes for work. Or, hey, maybe just sleep.

That's what this blog is about. I'm quite sure that I'm not the only person with this dilemma. It's my goal to convince people out there, if they haven't realized it yet, that we've got to stop fighting the commute and just realize that as long as we have to do it, we might as well find what makes it tolerable. Who knows, it might even be...fun?