Daily commute?
Discussion
So, how long is your daily commute in time/distance?
At the moment mine isn't too bad....about 20 miles / 50 minutes. It used to be 11 miles/15 minutes, basically a 10 minute blast down an almost empty motorway and then a couple of minutes through town. It's now a 20 minute blast down a motorway and then half an hour of annoying stop start traffic
Extreme commuters
ETA - would also be interested in knowing the cost
For me it's £5 parking plus £5 petrol.
At the moment mine isn't too bad....about 20 miles / 50 minutes. It used to be 11 miles/15 minutes, basically a 10 minute blast down an almost empty motorway and then a couple of minutes through town. It's now a 20 minute blast down a motorway and then half an hour of annoying stop start traffic
Extreme commuters
ETA - would also be interested in knowing the cost
For me it's £5 parking plus £5 petrol. Edited by Countdown on Friday 27th December 11:27
Just gone from WFH to a 75ish minute commute on the train. Only done it for 1 day, but have commuted in the past. It is a necessary evil, I needed to get out of where I was.
Monthly train ticket is (currently before price goes up) £194 vs £15.70/day (In january, that works out at a cost of £361 over all working days) pre-price rise.
Toying with the idea of buying a 3 monthly one.
Monthly train ticket is (currently before price goes up) £194 vs £15.70/day (In january, that works out at a cost of £361 over all working days) pre-price rise.
Toying with the idea of buying a 3 monthly one.
Edited by Tonsko on Friday 27th December 11:57
I did some proper academic research on this when I was working for Motorola and we wanted to understand people's commuting habits and sell them more phones.
A good commute is one you don't remember. You only think about it when something goes wrong.
The ideal journey is a ten minute walk. that's enough separation between home and workplace to get in and out of work mode - so not a home office - and the journey is completely within your control.
The second best is a ten minute drive.
Most people have a journey with about 40 minutes of contiguous time, sitting on a bus, train or driving.
There is some kind of magic inflection point at 70 minutes for a regular journey. Anything less than that people consider to be a normal commute, anything more they consider arduous.
The financial opportunity we identified, and then completely failed to capitalise on is that if in the 40 minutes you can use a phone or tablet to teach people something - ideally people on a bus going to work in Asian shoe factories learning English - you can improve the quality of their life incredibly.
While I was doing this work I was living in Finchley and working in either Basingstoke or Chicago. Basingstoke was a 90 minute drive, Chicago was either a 10 minute drive or walk from my hotel depending on which office I was in, and I felt the findings completly.
A good commute is one you don't remember. You only think about it when something goes wrong.
The ideal journey is a ten minute walk. that's enough separation between home and workplace to get in and out of work mode - so not a home office - and the journey is completely within your control.
The second best is a ten minute drive.
Most people have a journey with about 40 minutes of contiguous time, sitting on a bus, train or driving.
There is some kind of magic inflection point at 70 minutes for a regular journey. Anything less than that people consider to be a normal commute, anything more they consider arduous.
The financial opportunity we identified, and then completely failed to capitalise on is that if in the 40 minutes you can use a phone or tablet to teach people something - ideally people on a bus going to work in Asian shoe factories learning English - you can improve the quality of their life incredibly.
While I was doing this work I was living in Finchley and working in either Basingstoke or Chicago. Basingstoke was a 90 minute drive, Chicago was either a 10 minute drive or walk from my hotel depending on which office I was in, and I felt the findings completly.
Mine is 37 miles each way, and takes roughly 42 mins at the quiet point of the morning, rising to 1 hr 15 at peak time.
And coming home is obviously 37 miles but 1 hr 20 minimum rising to 1 hr 50.
It's the furthest i'm going to attempt to commute. I don't mind travel in work time and occasionally do 600 miles in a day but nearly 2 hrs in my own time is more than enough - particularly given that i signed up to this company when the office was 11 miles and 20 mins from home (Joint venture has pushed us in with someone else and unfortunately their office suited better).
Cost = £5 each way - ish. I can stick £10 diesel in with the light on and get home with the light back on. I get reimbursed around £12.50 for the day by work.
Parking is either in car park at office, free; or is full, on street or £4.10 for day at a nearby car park. Again reimbursable.
And if you're really interested...
I can make current journey 30 miles each way but time remains the same as there is a big bottleneck - the Runcorn Bridge. So, i use the motorway. Overall, costs me less diesel and less hairloss!
Other route is via Mersey Tunnel which is £1.50 each way and circa 5 miles further. I don't think there is much benefit in doing it and as such i've never done it.
When Runcorn Bridge Nr 2 opens, could add a £5 toll to each side of my journey.
That's when i'm really going to push for full-time homeworking.
And coming home is obviously 37 miles but 1 hr 20 minimum rising to 1 hr 50.
It's the furthest i'm going to attempt to commute. I don't mind travel in work time and occasionally do 600 miles in a day but nearly 2 hrs in my own time is more than enough - particularly given that i signed up to this company when the office was 11 miles and 20 mins from home (Joint venture has pushed us in with someone else and unfortunately their office suited better).
Cost = £5 each way - ish. I can stick £10 diesel in with the light on and get home with the light back on. I get reimbursed around £12.50 for the day by work.
Parking is either in car park at office, free; or is full, on street or £4.10 for day at a nearby car park. Again reimbursable.
And if you're really interested...
I can make current journey 30 miles each way but time remains the same as there is a big bottleneck - the Runcorn Bridge. So, i use the motorway. Overall, costs me less diesel and less hairloss!
Other route is via Mersey Tunnel which is £1.50 each way and circa 5 miles further. I don't think there is much benefit in doing it and as such i've never done it.
When Runcorn Bridge Nr 2 opens, could add a £5 toll to each side of my journey.
That's when i'm really going to push for full-time homeworking.
Edited by sider on Friday 27th December 13:13
RammyMP said:
My current commute is 30 miles, 35 mins in the morning, minimum of an hour to get home, sometimes 2 hours. M66, M60 then M62. Soon to involve the M6 and M56 too, looking forward to that!
Where to on the M56? I commute from Wigan to Chester and if you're West end of the M56, i'll warn you of the bad bits!MRSNEAK said:
They did that everyday?
A lad i know lives near me near Wigan. His office is about 10 miles across town. However, he regularly works around the UK and his 'patch' is the South East. He regularly works in London and stays over.Oddly though once, and he's a clever lad, due to the olympics, he couldn't get a hotel room in London so drove all the way home one night, and back the next day! Did beg the question as to 'surely you could've just got a hotel somewhere way down the M40 rather that driving all the way back North'. He didn't respond.....
I regularly drive to our office near Hinckley - which is 120 miles/2hrs door to door. I did it 3 days on the trot once as had bits going on at home at night and even using the M6 toll it was too much for 3 days on the trot and i'd be finding digs next time.
6 mile drive to the station, 1hr 20 train journey into London, then a 1.2 mile walk.
£5k pa for the train ticket.
ETA - I typically work from home once every two weeks. I walk, rather than use the tube as it's cheaper and it means I get some exercise.
£5k pa for the train ticket.
ETA - I typically work from home once every two weeks. I walk, rather than use the tube as it's cheaper and it means I get some exercise.
Edited by Podie on Friday 27th December 13:42
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