Poll:Commuting Poll

[haha]

IF you still work, at least part time, or do volunteer work, do you usually drive to work, take public trans, or a combination (Park and Ride). Poll above.

Mod edited to add, according to Haha's request in post #8 below: This poll is for anyone who has ever worked, if you are working now, use that as your reference, if you are retired use the dominant way you commuted during you working days.

 

[ERhoosier]

Still w#rkin'. Drive everyday 'cause no other viable option.

 

[plex]

Public transportation, which work pays for, then in about 1.5 years, none of the above, I'll be able to work from my home at any location I choose.

 

[Walt34]

Commute is 3.4 miles, a major plus for this job. Weather permitting I ride a motorcycle, otherwise drive.

The roads are too narrow and hilly, no shoulders, to even think about walking or riding a bicycle. If I did that I'd have a life expectancy of about 20 minutes.

 

[haha]

IF you still work, at least part time, or do volunteer work, do you usually drive to work, take public trans, or a combination (Park and Ride). Poll above.

I am retired now, but before I retired I drove to work. If I were commuting now, from where I live, I cold use public trans or walk, depending on where my office was.

Ha

 

[Katsmeow]

I drive. It is about 55 miles away from where we live, no public transportation available. I only go in twice a week at most. When I worked full time I drove but was about 25 miles away from work.

 

[W2R]

Being retired, I didn't vote. But when I was working, I drove in every day.

It was only a mile and a half, but not safely walkable (freeway bridge over the RR tracks with no sidewalk, and so on). Interestingly, the drive took 6 minutes at 5:55 AM depending on how many of the 6 stoplights I made. In the afternoon rush hour, the traffic piled up to squeeze over that bridge meant that it often took 35 minutes or more.

 

[haha]

Being retired, I didn't vote. But when I was working, I drove in every day.

It was only a mile and a half, but not safely walkable (freeway bridge over the RR tracks with no sidewalk, and so on). Interestingly, the drive took 6 minutes at 5:55 AM depending on how many of the 6 stoplights I made. In the afternoon rush hour, the traffic piled up to squeeze over that bridge meant that it often took 35 minutes or more.

I wasn't thinking very clearly when I made this poll. It should have been for anyone who has ever worked, if you are working now, use that as your reference, if you are retired use the dominant way you commuted during you working days. Could you or one of the troops fix it? (You have already fixed my omissions, thank you.) The title needs to be altered too to remove any reference to "those still working." Just commuting poll. I must have made it just before going to bed, and my mind was already asleep.

Also, it must have been very frustrating to spend 35 minutes traveling 1 1/2 miles during the drive home!

Ha

 

[rbmrtn]

I was doing about 75miles/day commute, wasting 1.5 hrs in the car. Glad that is gone. No public transportation available, even if it was I doubt the schedules would have been compatible.

 

[FIREd]

Since I don't work anymore, I responded on behalf of my wife. We elected to live only half a mile form her work. She can either walk or take the subway to go to work. Her employer subsidizes her monthly subway pass.

 

[Gumby]

When I worked in NYC, I walked to the train station from my house, rode the train in to Grand Central and then walked to my mid-town office. It was two hours door-to-door. Now I drive 50 miles to Hartford and park next to my office. Usually takes one hour; longer if the stupid drivers cause an accident. I prefer riding the train to driving.

 

[er33]

I walk to work, about 10 minutes each way. My wife's work is about 15 minutes though she often takes the train. Our location is a HUGE factor in our staying in our one bedroom apartment for the last 5 and our hope to stay the same for the next 5.

 

[growing_older]

I didn't see a way to enter my situation. I can either take public transportation (plus a walk on each end) or can drive and park at my work. I am trying to use the public transpiration option more, but in bad weather or stressful day requiring early arrival or late departure then driving is a better option. It's been a awful lot of those days recently.

 

[Meadbh]

I am retired. During my last decade of work, I did fly to work quite a bit, but that was not included in the options!



For most of my career, I worked at two hospitals several kilometers apart, both within 5 km of my home, but there were times when I had to travel between them, to other locations, and, most importantly, rush to the hospital urgently in the middle of the night. I did walk to work a couple of times when I knew what my day had in store, but some of the journey was through a neighborhood where I did not feel safe. So on a day when I was not traveling, my default was to drive.
I do not miss paying for hospital parking!

 

[Alan]

I am retired, but have done a volunteer gig 2 days a week, 3 miles from home, and I rode my bike. This was possible because the town I live in has off-road, paved bike trails. I wouldn't cycle on roads in rush hour, although I used to cycle over 5 miles to work each day when we lived in Scotland, and that could be scary especially during the long dark rainy winter months. For all my other work locations in the UK I car-pooled with 3 others.

All the time I worked in the USA I used to drive to work.

 

[W2R]

I wasn't thinking very clearly when I made this poll. It should have been for anyone who has ever worked, if you are working now, use that as your reference, if you are retired use the dominant way you commuted during you working days. Could you or one of the troops fix it? (You have already fixed my omissions, thank you.) The title needs to be altered too to remove any reference to "those still working." Just commuting poll. I must have made it just before going to bed, and my mind was already asleep.

Also, it must have been very frustrating to spend 35 minutes traveling 1 1/2 miles during the drive home!

Ha

(Fixed as requested, I hope). Yes, it was very much so! We had "Flextime" so I could either drive to work during rush hour, or drive home during rush hour. I was at my desk by 6 AM so that the frustrating rush hour drive would be in the afternoon, because when it was in the morning I was often late. In the afternoon, I'd turn the radio on and try to unwind during my drive, but other drivers were so ruthless in trying to advance their position on that bridge that it was hard to relax sometimes. I was glad that I lived so close to work, though. When I got home, I took delight in kicking off my shoes and relaxing, knowing that most of my co-workers had another 30-60 minutes to go before they would get home.

 

[sailor]

Bicycle or walking, depending on weather and how late I am getting 3 little sailors ready.

 

[Marathoner]

I'd have to vote for almost all of the buttons! I live about 2.4 miles away, and there is a wonderful bike path I can take the entire way.

However, since my fall in January due to glare ice, I now only bicycle commute when there is no ice or snow on the ground.

Depending on what I have going on after work, and the weather conditions, I'll either drive or take the bus. I'll frequently walk home if I take the bus to work, as it's actually cheaper for me to drive than it is to take the bus both ways.

 

[MBAustin]

I unfortunately am no better off than when I was w*rking - I drove stinkin' rush hour traffic nearly every day (telecommuted 3 or 4 days a month). Now I drive to most of my volunteer gigs, fortunately rarely involving rush hour (just enough to remind me of one of my favorite retirement perks). I could walk to some of the volunteer gigs I do at my church but generally find some reason not to.

 

[scrabbler1]

I am retired but answered based on the volunteer work part of the poll's question, not how I got to work in my working days (because I replied to the poll well before the OP added the disclaimer). I drive to those events.

When I was working, I used public transit (trains) in various combinations. For all but one of my 23 years of work, it was only trains, as I walked to them at my home end and at the office end. For one year, though, I had to drive to different train stations at my home end to begin my trip.

I hated the commute more and more as time went by. And the commute only got worse in the last 7 years of work because it became longer and more tiring. Not even reducing it to less than 5 days a week for most of those 7 years was good enough. It kept me around a little longer, which was useful for the company stock value but not good enough to keep me around for good.

 

[FUEGO]

Still working, and I voted "drive to work". I work in the very center of downtown and have a ~10 minute drive (4.4 miles) to get to my parking lot, then another couple blocks walk to my building. In 2012 and prior years, I would take the bus to/from work 1-2x per week. That was when my employer provided free bus passes and before baby #3 came along. Now I have to drop the baby off at day care then proceed to my downtown office. Very doable by bus, but would require a transfer.

Back when I was taking the bus downtown, it was a 10 minute walk to the edge of the neighborhood, then a 10 minute bus ride that dropped me off at my office building's front door. So almost exactly the same commute time as my current drive then walk commute I do every day now. But I got to catch up on news and email on my phone for 10 minutes while riding the bus, so that was nice. Now it would cost $2 round trip to take the bus, which is nearly the same cost as driving the 9 mile round trip in my car.

Due to my job, I also frequently use and sometimes unexpectedly and urgently have to use my personal vehicle for business travel around town or to one of our remote facilities 20-30 minutes away. So 100% bus travel isn't an option for me, since I don't have the option of a company car downtown (have to go to the edge of town to get a fleet vehicle, which would be a 15-20 minute trip by bus then 5 minutes walk, and a looong wait to check out the fleet vehicle, repeat process to return the vehicle later).

Overall, if I didn't have to shuttle kids around and didn't have to drive to sites for work, I would probably take the bus a lot more since I don't particularly like driving and enjoy the down time on the bus. And the forced walking is actually an enjoyable and painless way to get some exercise and is fairly scenic especially in spring and fall with all the trees and flowers (in the neighborhood and downtown). But driving is so cheap and convenient, parking is only $10/month in my subsidized space downtown, and all the kid-related errands are so cumbersome that the private single occupant automobile is the best option for me right now.

I look forward to ER, where we could feasibly cut back to a 1 car household since so much is walkable, bikeable, or accessible by quick convenient transit from our house. And they just doubled the frequency of transit adjacent to our neighborhood, so things keep getting better on that front, and it is likely to improve more over the next 4-5 years if I read the political tea leaves correctly.

 

[braumeister]

My last two jobs had the same setup, in completely different cities in different states. I drove a short distance to an express bus stop, then took the bus almost straight to w*rk. A great arrangement, since I could read or nap in comfort instead of fighting traffic.

Before that, I normally drove, since public transit wasn't available.

 

[tkopel]

I am lucky here in Puerto Rico, I can ride my bike to work every day of the year! Been the best three years of commuting ever! We are PCSing to Ft. Leavenworth, KS this summer, which will reduce my biking to good weather months only. Hopefully we will find a place close to work. I love not driving, so much less stress.

 

[JakeBrake]

No public transportation here. For 35 years I drove 20 miles each way to work. My Megacorp did not provide employee parking. (no telecommuting either, after PC's were invented). so, I parked on the street for free about a mile from the office and walked to the office. In those 35 years my car was only stolen once. (never saw it again). After 35 years I was in an auto wreck that seriously damaged my right knee. I could not walk very well for several months. Then, I puchased a parking place (at my expense) in the parking garage across the street from my office. I parked there until I retired 4 years later.

Actually, I was on the road about half the time and I could have easily telecommuted if it had been allowed. Very shortly before I retired a new CEO was inaugurated. In a live video conference, someone asked the new CEO if telecommuting would be allowed. He said no. I checked out shortly afterwards.

 

[Original Wally]

Not sure where to put my answer... most of the time I was part of an employer sponsored van-pool. Driving rotated as possible. B-T-W, monthly cost = $25, and the commute was 30 miles each way. Pretty cheep. Plus I rarely had to drive in the AM, so I climbed on and took a half hour snooze on the way to w*rk - I had to be at the desk @ 6AM Pacific Time when the Bond Market opened in NYC as an investment officer. It was HORRIBLE