jor,

You have to wear clothing?

It's supposed to be in the low 100s today so I've invoked the "VERY casual Tuesday" rule.

It's about 20 minutes door-to-door. I would love the option of telecommute, but that doesn't work with my position.

I used to work at the university and took the bus from the apartment. I enjoyed leaving the driving to others and it was the fastest way to work because I only qualified for a park-and-ride lot on the other side of town. This commute took about 30 minutes.

2 hours and 10 minutes one-way! from eastern long island to new york. i like my job though. it's tough, but i won't be doing it forever.

A 10-minute walk plus a 15-20 minute subway ride. I don't think I'd want it to be any shorter because that's my reading time. I finish about 2 books/month on my subway rides alone. I wouldn't want to live anywhere where I'd have to deal with driving and bad traffic. And working at home doesn't appeal to me either. I actually *like* seeing my coworker friends every day.

About 8 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening. More traffic at the time I leave work in the evenings.

I'm in Charlotte, NC by the way and prior to moving to the side of town I worked in it would take any way from 40 minutes to an hour - which I hated.

Where are you living? Is there mass transit available to you? I walk 10 minutes to the train (where everyone sits, not stands, on the ride to Boston) and then read/study/sleep/plan trips for 35-40 minutes, then a 10 minute walk to work. So door to door it's about an hour. And it's my precious time...I can get things done I don't want to waste at-home time doing. And traffic? What's that? I just traded in a 1994 Ford with 39,000 miles on it, all weekend miles! My new car is 7 months old and just hit 3500 miles.

My office is 7 miles from my house. It takes me 15-20 minutes to drive each way since most of it is through town rather than highway and there are traffic lights.

My husband and I are househunting, so we have been talking a lot about commute distance. We could buy a bigger house for less money if we wanted to commute 45-75 minutes each way, but we have decided that this is not something we want to do. We would rather continue to rent than make that type of commute.

suzzane,
I LOVE the people I work with but working at home I can get a week's worth of work done in what seems to be one day!

And don't even get me started on the money savings on gas, wear tear on the car, dry cleaning/clothes/shoes/dine out lunches.
With the savings, it pays for an extra mini-vacation or two a year!
And I've lost a few lbs. since I no longer eat a huge "dine out" lunch anymore and try and hit the gym that's less than a block or 2 from my house at least 3x a week.
And my lawn has never looked better!

I'm also envious of these less than an hour commutes!!!

It takes me an hour and a half between south eastern Brooklyn to Manhattan each way on a GOOD day!! It doesn't matter whether I take the bus to the train or the express bus either!!

My only saving grace is that once I move to Suffolk Cty, Long Island in August that my commute will be down to an hour, and I won't have to deal with transfers or the school kids that would terrorize the passengers on the bus every day!!

My husbands last commute was a minimum of 2 hours each way. It was in the Seattle area and involved using a ferry. But the trade off was that we loved where we lived! Since he changed jobs we moved to OR and now the commute is 10 minutes...if traffic is bad

When walking, my "commute" is exactly 8 minutes door-to-door. This includes the long wait for the elevator!

I used to drive about 10 minutes to my old office, though.

without reading anyone else's post, I tell you you are wasting your life in your car. move close to work, or even halfway, cut down your commute, and you can always go to the city on weekends.

I bought a place 35 miles outside the city and LOVE it. glad I moved. my commute is down to about 10-15 minutes, too.

jnn, just read you live in metro DC. where do you work, Reston?

go west, young man!

you won't regret it. you won't miss being close to the action, much anyway. and frankly you'll enjoy it more, if you are adding over an hour a day to your life. plus, you can always go out downtown, from work - not so tough (just don't drink much)

My commute is 30 minutes, door to door, if i take the water taxi. It's also 30 minutes door to door if I drive. The problem is that the water taxi only comes once an hour, so if I am not ready, i have to drive. This happens with increasing frequency, as my dog has decided he doesn't like to walk anymore (he's 110 lbs, so too big to carry!)

One things that makes my 1 1/2 hour commute worthwhile are audiobooks, which I rent unabridged from Blackstone of Oregon. As I read much less than I used to due to 4 children under eight years old, the audiobooks allow me to experience books which I never would have. Blackstone has a fine line of books. I've read bios of Stalin, Orwell, Washington, Hitler; fiction from Jane Eyre, 1984, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, Master and Commander; histories like Shelby Foote's The Civil War, William Manchester's Churchill series, a history of the violent partition of India in 1947 etc..

flygirl - yes I work near Reston (Herndon actually). I think if I went downtown and drank too much I'd probably rent a hotel room (I could afford it with all the commuting cash I'd save!).

Another caveat to this plan is that my employer has a history of relocating employees in the NoVA area. I could end up moving out there, and then be moved to Tyson's.

I guess there' no easy answer to this.

jnn, I bet even Falls Church would make your life easier. although Reston isn't so bad, and it's fairly central if they decide to move you to Tysons or Vienna or Fairfax.

An update... I moved to Reston and am now only 3 miles from the office. My commute is now about 8 minutes. It has made my life much easier! I think my blood pressure has dropped 20 points! I do miss the city atmosphere, but out here I can sleep with the windows open and not be awaken by sirens and honking horns. I was also able to buy a place that's three times the size of my last apartment. Overall, it was a good idea to move closer to work. Some of my friends were not exactly supportive, but they weren't the ones doing the commute.

I'm sure I'll end up spending many weekends in DC, so you Fodorites will have to help me with hotel suggestions (I've never had to stay in one since I lived so close!).

My commute is 19 miles, 25-26 minutes without school buses (rural area) or up to 30 if I get behind them (which lately has been the norm). I would love to find a job closer in my home county with a 5-10 minute commute. But I can't complain, I leave at 7:30 and am back at home by 4:00 with enough time for an early evening run Plus, when the roads are bad, I have the luxury of benefitting from a two-hour delay or even cancellation, which is a nice perk!

Retired last year.........my commute to: Beach = 30 min., Favorite bar = 10 min., Airport = 40 min., Cruise Ship Terminal = 45 min.