I was talking with one of my coworkers about it the other day. My commute is an hour (I use public transportation) while hers was almost two (lives far from work). At what point would you consider your commute to be unreasonably long?

34 comments

  4. A two hour train ride is very different from a two hour drive. I’ve never had that kind of commute myself, but I know people who did and got a lot done on the train. It still seems very long to me, though. My longest commute was an hour door-to-door, but about 25 minutes on the train.

  5. My first job was a 45 minute commute by car. I was then moved to an office that was about half the distance from home cutting my commute down significantly and decided I never wanted to travel 45 minutes for work again.

  7. Depends on the job and commute method.

    There is both a monetary cost and a time/QOL cost to a commute.

    If the job earns me enough money to support my whole family by myself, comfortably, I would go 2 hours in the car each way. I wouldn’t love it but allowing my partner to stay at home and take care of most of the other needs of home and family would be worth it.

    As a single guy I happily did 1.5 hours but most of it was sitting in a train car, for a mediocre-paying job. I would read books and listen to music. It wasn’t stressful or expensive. And I didn’t have a family I was missing out on being with.

    Right now, with a wife and kid in an area that doesn’t have public transit, an hour is about my limit. Although I did do a temporary gig that was 2.5 hrs, once a week, maybe twice a week on occasion.

  10. More than 45 minutes driving. There isn’t public transportation in my area so people are driving themselves in all weather. If your commute is an hour or more daily most people would just move closer to their job here.

  11. I live in a transit oriented city so don’t own a car, wouldn’t want to go 90 minutes on the metro but have done 1 hour commutes. Certainly shorter if I had a car just because of gas prices.

  12. *For me* 30 minutes would be max.

    *For me* 2 hours is ridiculously unreasonable *unless* it is on mass transit and you’re the type person to put the time to actual use- remote work, learning a second language, *maybe* some educational podcasts or audio books.
    Still, 2 hours a day is is a huge percentage of your free time of your life, and if it’s <gasp!> 2 hours each way that’s “wow” levels of time that’s just lost.

    I suppose it all depends on one’s goals and what you are working *toward*- whether you view this time as an investment in some future perk/promotion or the money is just so good you can’t say no.
    And if you’re single with no responsibilities then I guess time isn’t that much of an issue.

    But *IMO* free time is important and a maintaining a sustainable work/life balance will come up in life sooner or later, more for some than for others.

  13. Anything over an hour is probably a no for me.

    Some people make it work but I would consider over an hour unreasonably long. It would just take time away from my family with no added benefit.

  15. Two hours is too much. I consider commenting partially work time. That’s like working 12 hour days.

  16. My 30 minute each-way commute was terrible. It was mostly on the highway but it just really drained me. My wife and I ended up moving closer cutting my commute in half, hers down to 2/3rs. And now I’m 2 miles from work and she’s mostly permanent remote.

    But that was my car commute. I then started doing a 25 mile round trip commute by bike which took me….about 45 minutes each way if I really gunned it. But that started draining on me too.

    Now I live 2 miles from work when I do have to go in. Sometimes I walk, sometimes I bike. If the weather is terrible, I drive. Either way it is a very stress free commute and I love it. Even if I had to into the offic eevery day, I really value living close to work because long commutes just seem like wasted time.

  17. An hour driving is my max. If we had good public transportation here I would consider a longer commute because I would be able to spend the time reading. I’d love an hour and a half or two hours to read uninterrupted!

    Unfortunately, public transportation here really sucks. I have an hour commute by car, and I looked into public transportation since there is a bus stop in front of my office. To do public transportation I would need to drive 45 minutes in the wrong direction to park at a train station, then take the train for about 30-40 minutes. Then catch a bus for another 40 minutes. That puts me over two hours and 45 minutes of it will still be driving. No way.

  18. 30 minutes max for me. 15-20 minutes is ideal.

    Currently, my commute is 5-10 minutes, depending on a couple of stoplights at this point, and I wish it were longer. I’ve discovered that transition time between work and home is important for therapeutic decompression.

  20. One guy i worked with lived 2 hours away. That’s way too far. But for me anything longer than 45 mins is too long.

  24. It’s not the commute to me, it’s the condition of the commute.

    Currently relocated for renovation and this 1 hour NYC commute both ways is slowly killing me. Mostly because it’s 20 minutes and should only take about 25 minutes with no traffic. 1 hour in a less populated area with less traffic might be okay, though.

  25. Anything longer than a 15 minute walk. I haven’t lived farther than that from a job for the past 5 years. I’m never going back to having anything longer than a 15 minute walk. My current commute is literally a 3 minute walk from the front door of my apartment building.

  26. One hour on public transit? Cool. One hour drive? Hell no for me.

    I’ll do up to an hour and a half on public transit and half an hour drive in ideal conditions

  27. Depends on reason for travel and method. City streets? 30 minutes max. 15 if the destination is in the opposite direction. Highway? an hour tops.

  28. My longest commute was an hour during rush hour, 45 minutes otherwise. That was too long.

    Current commute just over 10 minutes.

  29. It depends on a couple of different factors. I can tolerate longer public transportation commutes over driving, especially if it’s the train and I can work while I’m on it. Occasionally, I’ll take a 3 hour train ride into the office to meet with teammates, but I build that time into my day. For driving, I can also tolerate it more if it’s highway versus city driving. Newer cars have lane keep and adaptive cruise control, which makes highway driving less stressful. I can also tolerate a longer commute for hybrid work, where you don’t have to do it everyday.

  30. I’d say an hour. Mine is 30 minutes up to 45 if there is traffic. I really don’t want to go longer than that. I don’t have any public transportation to get there so I’m just stuck in my car.

  32. Any. I’ve been working from home since COVID and don’t think I could handle driving everyday ever again.

  34. The job has to be damn good for me to even consider 1 hour. 30-45 minutes is okay, especially if it is walking/biking time.

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