Does it seem like your commute is getting earlier? Most likely it is. A fact since the suburban sprawl boom of the 1950's, as more Americans move further out, their commutes lengthen. And as more commuters hit the roads, traffic gets heavier and commute times get longer. And to make sure they get in to the office on time---giving themselves extra padding for gridlock and accident delays---more and more Americans attempt to beat the traffic and leave increasingly earlier.
So early, in fact, that commuter departure times are the earliest they've ever been. "What we're seeing now is this tremendous amount of traffic even before 5 a.m. It seems there's a big lifestyle change here," says Alan Pisarski, author of a wide-ranging study on commuting in the USA. 1 And what we're also seeing is that the lifestyle change affects all sorts of industries. Morning news shows, for example, are going on-air earlier now---some by a whole hour---so that the early bird commuters can get their news.
Starbucks now carries breakfast sandwiches and McDonalds company executives encourage managers to push their 5-7 a.m business to cater to the new fleet of early commuters---about 75% of McDonald's 16,700 U.S. restaurants now open by 5 a.m.2 In addition, newspaper publishers fight to get their papers on the doorsteps before workers leave the house.
And at the other end of the commute, it's taking longer for employees to get home at the end of the day. So they leave later to sit in lighter traffic. This mean they're leaving earlier and getting home later. And while the earlier and later leave times might make for a more peaceful drive, overall the longer time spent at work leads to stress, stress, and more stress.
With so much time spent commuting, there's little time left over for families, recreation and stress management. And as someone who's been there, I also know that there's little time left over for meal planning. It's a lot harder to eat healthy when your meals are eaten on the road or taken home via the drive-thru. All in all unhealthy, lifespan shortening routines.
So what about you guys, Mr. and Mrs. JobSchmobber? Are you finding you're a victim of commute creep? Is your work day longer and your home life shorter because of the commute? Are you leaving earlier and/or staying later just to get some peace on the road?
Check out the article linked below and let's weigh in.
1,2As commutes begin earlier, new daily routines emerge - Larry Copeland, Haya El Nasser and Paul Overberg, USA TODAY
labtech(09/14/2007)
I have an hour commute, unless of course there is an accident on the highway - and then it can be three hours. My fave this summer was to get onto the exit for the toll booths...and after an hour, I could actually SEE the toll booths ! Oh, and faking out two semis with my micro-compact car. Of course I could get a job closer to home, if I liked asking "would you like fries with that sir ?"
secretariat(09/14/2007)
I have a cross-state commute by train, but I'm lucky that it's very short/convenient (20 minutes on a subway under the river, then my building's right there). Other colleagues are less lucky--1.5 hours by train, parking at the station, etc.
We pay for it though by living in an expensive town that's convenient. We also have no kids yet. When we do, we will be moving and commuting as much as everyone else.
thanks to urban sprawl, if you want an affordable house to raise your family in, then chances are that salaries in the suburbs won't be as great as in the city itself. So you end up with a hellish commute from your affordable house to your well-paying job, because the 2 sadly don't exist in one place anymore. Sucks.
HaveADamnNiceDay(09/19/2007)
I am pleased to say I've ditched the long commute and now live 5 miles away from work. If I can get past the middle school I live near, I can get to work in a tidy 15 minutes!
JobSchmobber Community Comments
dumber than a catbox full of sh*t (09/13/2007)
I'm glad that this was posted. I have been commuting to work for 13+ years--in the last few years my commute has doubled. I live 14 miles away from my job but there is no fast way to get to the north side of Chicago--it takes 1 hr. 20 mins in the a.m. and about 1 hr 10 mins to get home --I am leaving in the a.m. at 6:45 a.m. and leaving work at 3:15 a.m. This year I am leaving work 45 minutes earlier than last year (new schedule) but it is taking me longer.
This is when the weather is good--winter is a different story and on Fridays--even with good weather it takes nearly 2 hours to get home. I spend almost 15 hours a week commuting--with my a.m. workouts I am gone 13 hours per day. I work a second job on Sunday. Out of 6 days in a week, with the commute I am working 8 days in 7 days--ridiculous. I am going to attempt quitting my job even if I have to have 2 full-time jobs because right now I am working with commuting for a total of 70 hours per week. I wish I could take public transportation but it would take longer. And the expressway takes the longest amount of time.
post to digg | 
post to del.icio.us | 
e-mail it
RSS Feed
Like my blog?