My commute (in the suburbs in the northeast) is 45 minutes in the morning, 60-70 minutes in the evening. When I go home to visit, I wont even get behind the wheel any longer. I am hoping I never actually do! However, driving is typically stress free regardless of traffic or not. Makes sense if you receive more benefit on the other 6 days of the week. I wouldnt recommend the Blue Line to anyone, not if they had other alternatives. Eventually, I moved to the SGV. I did my research but they interviewed me Thursday, offer on Friday and first day Monday they needed someone urgently and I wasnt working so there was no way for me to check the commute during rush hour. Im sorry. When I worked (and lived, lucky me) in Fremont CA, pretty much everyone else that I knew who worked there had a totally garbage commute because housing there is so ridiculous. I struggle with understanding why more people on the road means everyone drives slower. Did someone like try to make it that flat? OP, Im older than you by 20, so let me share my thoughts on a long commute. Sure, we could afford living in a shoebox with a 15 minute commute but that wouldnt be preferable. That turns an 8 hour workday into a 12 hour workday. It was horrid, really horrid. Once a week should be quite manageable. I faux commuted to my target neighborhoods to make sure I could handle it. I would look for another job, OPjust because a lot of people are willing to accept it doesnt mean its right for you. If you dont want to drive for 2.5 hours in LA, I hen you need to live closer to where you work unfortunately. He is planning to stay at his job for a while, so we are in the early stages of looking to move. I just tell myself that it wasnt that bad, and it never was. Dallas area 10 min commute here and the commute was a huge factor in our decision to buy in this area. How is it a gaslight? This! I miss some things about city life, but I dont miss city commutes, and I will have to be living somewhere amazing to go back to that kind of lifestyle. Thankfully, he likes to listen to podcasts and audio books, so he wont mind as much (I cant listen to them 30 seconds in, and my mind wanders and I miss the whole thing). Hosted by people who live in SoCal. About 11 mi. The comment lacks compassion but I dont see how its a big red flag. Unfortunately, the OP chose to ignore the data that was given about the job. Theres been a lot of research showing that travel times tend to go up exponentially with traffic volume, and that human drivers use roads very inefficiently. If youve ever seen LA traffic in a movie or on the news, where the freeways look like parking lots, you are seeing the reality of it- some places look like that almost all day long! I know it sounds ridiculous but traffic doesnt clear up until like 7-8 pm so Id be home even later with the same-ish drive. Youll just have to figure out what works for you, and is sustainable long-term. The only faster routes are toll roads, and those add up. We decided we didnt want to pay 2-3x the housing costs that were paying now. There are people commuting from Sacramento to San Franciscono kidding! Then I took a job in Culver City my commute was 45 min-1 hr each way every day, but only 20 min with no traffic! Im sure 2 hours is a totally normal travel time for the distance the OP is driving. When I had to commute via the subway, it was 20 minutes at most (I also live near three different subway lines). It can easily fudge up to 45+ minutes if Mr. Town and I carpool and we decide to stop for breakfast. My husbands commute is about the same in terms of time, but he drives 32 miles. I live in Chicagoland. I dont think Natalie is talking about theoretical calculation of commutes on Google Maps or something. I drove from Lombard to Deerfield 3x a week for 5 years, at least yours is sort of a straight shot. And it stinks when you get to the end and you have the last 5-mile problem where it took you an hour to go 40 miles and 30 minutes to go 5. Im one of those people. Getting to work in the mornings was fine 45 minutes, unless it was raining (rare) or there was a bad accident that held up traffic (still pretty rare that time of morning). Does a move make sense for a shorter commute when it's only 2 days? if I was lucky and there wasnt an accident on the road. even with having many more public transport options. Folks where I grew up (California) seem astonished that I live just 6 miles from downtown Boston. This kind of commute sounds incredibly draining! Those hours add up, and a few extra dollars isnt always worth a longer commute. Thats just over 33 minutes. I can tell you that commute time varies greatly by where you live, where you work, and the hours you work. I was commuting outward, and as someone new to the area, I foolishly assumed that Id be going opposite of traffic, and that it wouldnt be an issue. Distance in miles is not how the commute is measured in LA/OC, and a 2-hour commute could be entirely normal based on where you live. Obviously its possible. I think this is exactly the problem. I moved out of state and ended up driving anywhere from 35 90 minutes one way to work, depending on traffic, what time I left, and if there was a fender bender on the one highway I could feasibly take to my job. I got lucky in that I live in Dublin city centre and also work there. Try carpool with coworkers that live in or near Orange County. Unfortunately no. You literally picked the third worst commute in LA. I worked in Sherman Oaks/Encino and lived in West Hollywood. Although, when I did commute on public transit the trains were messed up about 80% of the time, which was very frustrating (South West Trains! They also put out a book called the Book of the Year which was great. I misread it, I thought she meant she was getting up that early to go to the gym and THEN commuting to work! Its not worth spending half the amount of time youre at work traveling to and from work. There was no traffic. I agree w/ Alison whether its normal or not has no bearing on whether it works for *you*. We have a lot of friends who settled in Long Beach, but face the same issues as you if you have to travel any distance to your job it can be quite taxing. I had a long distance job and I was able to survive through it with carpooling. Ive had 5 minute commutes in West TX, 15 minute commutes in northern CO, 20-30 minute commutes in Albuquerque, NM, around an hour commute from rural central NM (to a 2 hour commute if I was attending class in Albuquerque that day), and 30 minute commutes in NE FL. I would say 45 min-1 hr is normal. Thats part of it, but the history plays a big role. Im in LA area and have decided to only use Waze if Ive feeling adventurous, have a full tank of gas, and my common sense has taken leave of me. DH and I also get dinner every night together, Im able to workout more and so is DH (since Im home earlier and can keep Tiny Human alive so he can go to the gym). All on Audible and all great! LA traffic is no joke and unless you are able to afford living right next to your work, it is just how its going to be. If it were by bus I might not feel the same way, but Ive never had to deal with that. Yeah, my husband currently commutes from Arlington to the Laurel/College Park-ish area. I learned that I was not cut out for that kind of commute. We would move if it were over an hour. Ultimately I moved walking distance from work, have a 20 min walk and 5 min drive. I have co-workers who live in Freemont, South San Jose, Marin and La Honda and their commutes are so brutal that I would have quit a long time ago if Id had to do that. I live 6.5 miles from my home in Arlington, Mass. Thats WHY we have such horrible traffic! 2 on bad days. The Bay has faster commutes than SoCal, in part because theres more commuter rails and theres more carpooling and carpool incentives). Some of those areas are now considered commutable, but theyre not considered to be part of the Bay Area proper. 4! Yes, exactly! I dont think it necessarily was, though. Im pretty sure I could walk three miles in an hour. Most of my friends live 25-30 miles north, so I see them on the weekends or evenings when I can do the drive sans traffic. So, yes even in LA, a 2-hour one-way commute is on the extreme end of the bell curve of commute times, particularly for auto commute. Well the freeway goes over the Columbiaunless they create a much taller bridge it has to be a drawbridge. My commute at the previous job was 30 minutes or under (by car), but my work hours were at least 1 hour longer. Also, thats also why SoCal folks tend to describe distance by time to get there versus actual miles/kilometers it really depends on how busy/connected points A & B are. ago I also was going to school at night in Sylmar, so my days wouldve been spent driving and Id have zero life. 30-45 on a good day. My friends uncle did this for almost 30 years! Cross-London commuting SUCKS. I have been working at home for over 5 years now and cannot imagine going back to a job I had to commute to. Commutes longer than 45 minutes are up 12 percent in that time span, and 90-minute one-way commutes are 64 percent more common than in 1990. My commute is 2 hours each way because I live outside London on one side, and work in a part of London WAY over on the other side. Born and raised in LA agreed that its super normal. Some folks could handle this and would be fine, and others are not okay with this sort of commute. Thats closer to 45 minutes 1 hour. Once I figured that out, I started walking the 6 miles to work in San Francisco. Here's better advice: Utilize the Park and Rides from Metro, or the commuter shuttles in your area like The Woodlands Express. You may want to think about this for your next position! I cant offer any insight to the actual traffic because I have never been to California but I do live in Mexico City, where traffic and commute can be just as insane judging by what Im reading here. I mean because I've never had to do this drive on a regular basis for long periods of time. Probably? That drive usually takes closer to two hours. Theres no way you can be expected to keep that schedule up long term and have a good quality of life. Was just going to post a question about ways to make the commute bearable. If you're working a long day (especially with overtime) you find yourself with very little time to do anything outside of work. We are likely going to have to move again and it makes my stomach churn to even consider having to take the subway every day. My employer pays for my bus pass and my current salary is decent, which takes away from the sting of this commute. Just because they dont value their lives and the people in it, doesnt mean the rest of the company has to follow. I am lucky I live and work within one mile of each other (in West L.A., thank you rent control!) Is it worth travelling 1.5/2 hours to University everyday or would it be better to live in halls. Me personally, Im taking a vanpool from the IE to the OC. Their two major functions are to suck up money and kill mobility. once you get west of downtown LA), the worse it gets as well. I had an hour long commute by car not long ago and I found that audiobooks made the journey so much more enjoyable. I work at a major internet company & plenty of my coworkers have 2-3 hour commutes. Its terrifying how easily delays can whipcrack along a chain of traffic. I live in Brooklyn and my commute to downtown Manhattan is usually 40 to 50 minutes. And that would have to be for a super terrific, well-paid job. I guess my number 2 worst commute is anywhere east of DTLA to anywhere west of Los Feliz. :) It doesnt matter if its Anaheim to LB, Pasadena to Westwood, etc. OP, your best bet is probably living in the Valley (North Hollywood-ish) and take one of the canyons over the mountains. During the Coronavirus Pandemic, social distancing, and self and mandated quarantines there is a lot of technology to talk about. Thank you :D. I use them to read books that I wouldnt have purchased or spent valuable eye-reading time on, and Ive discovered a few favorite authors that I wouldnt have expected. Ha! At this point, Im spending about 20% on housing costs. I did Culver City to Santa Monica for a while (before the expo line opened!) I did try another of her series by audiobook though and really enjoyed it Indexing. I had a boss who did a 4+ hr round trip commute everyday just to afford a nicer house in the DC area. LA isnt great for that as far as Ive seen and I cant imagine drivers there being fantastic about sharing the road. I still feel like Im going to die every time I drive anywhere on 95 at any time down here. 2-hour commutes are something we are used to and weve even experienced what we call carmageddon; wherein rush hour is like a huge parking lot and it took 4 friggin hours to get home (thats right! I cannot figure out how the average in Alisons link was calculated 30-40 minutes seems nice but definitely rare in my office! Its like another 10 minutes to get to my desk once Im here.. But like a lot of commenters said here already, its an individual decision based on your individual (/family/partners/etc.) Still, commute times in all peer metros have worsened and the Bay Area now falls in the middle of the pack. But thats my opinion, and others may disagree. Ha! That is 46 miles each way which took me 1 hour 45 mins on good days and 2 hours just about every single other day. I have been at my job longer, and have more flexibility, so I end up working 7.5 hour days when I go into the office 2 days a week (I have a 1-1.25 hour commute each way), and 9.5 hour days when I work from home. If I moved to the mountains, barring a resort town I found find the same Im sure. Itll go down to 40 minutes when shes in college. And if your car breaks down, it's gonna be a difficult and lengthy public transport commute to work. I had a friend complain today that her normal 50-minute drive to and from work is more like 90 minutes right now b/c of traffic. Ive only ever lived/worked in the Midwest. Many of my coworkers who live in LA (and also many in New York) work from home often. Home by 7-8PM Agreed! I did an hour commute in Chicago. I make the most out of my commute today by listening to podcasts, and it doesnt bug me at all, but when I moved here from the Midwest (where I had a 7 minute commute), I absolutely *hated* my commute every day. My actual work commute is short (god bless flyover country), but Ive done long drives a lot and 2 hours of driving on a rural NM back road is *so* much less stressful than 2 hours of driving in Austin. I live in SoCal and I find it best to think of the stretch of Burbank/Glendale/Pasadena and the West LA areas like Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Long Beach, etc as separate cities. 2) Find evening activities in the area you work Either way, door to door it was a little over 2 hours each way. Unfortunately that is not unusual for LA. Did you regularly see a raccoon fighting a snake over the squirrel the snake was eating while a dear just happened to walk by? You just have to sit on a train for 2 hours each day. I checked and the ride on the Blue Line from Long Beach to Downtown L.A. takes over an hour. He mostly works an 11am-7pm schedule so his commute is only 45 min. Though, he did have a motorcycle, which made the commute a lot less worse. To answer your overall question, you can be successful with strength training 2x/wk, but it will come down to how structured your programming is in terms of volume, repetition, intensity, and progressive overload. I couldnt imagine driving that much. Im running out of podcasts to binge. Its the big reason I havent bought a home, and possible never will (at least until I retire). The university was 45 miles away so of course it should take about an hour to get there. DC area is another one where new arrivals should really get local info about traffic before committing to a job and/or housing. But I think the question here is not what is normal, but what works for you and whether the overall benefits of the job outweigh the cons. If the bus is right there, it is a little quicker. Obviously theres a lot of variability, but it is not at all abnormal for people to commute 2+ hours to and from work here. Occasionally I catch a bit of traffic heading out of my city, but Im going the opposite direction of most commuters so its rarely too bad. (Also comedy podcasts.). Two of my friends are going to a different uni, which is russell group also, but it is 3 hours away and i wouldn't be able to live at home. It sounds like OP is out by Montebello Gardens or Monterey Park and driving through or into DTLA, Burbank, Pasadena or the west side. The worst might have been a twenty minute commute that required three different trains, travelling in a U shape. Its common for people to have to pull over and knock to offer reimbursement for hitting a chicken/guinea hen/something else. But if you live outside the downtown core, youre looking at a minimum of an hour. Sorry! Bakersfield, California. Thats where I hope OP and her boyfriend will end up in the long term, but knowing whats normal in a region and what actually isnt is a useful bit of information. Its really all about what youre willing to trade for a shorter commute. So Cal native yup, 2 hours can be totally normal. My average drive time is between 50 and 90 minutes each way for 15 miles. Public transit is not that amazing, especially if you are outside the city core. 4 Unsexy One-Minute Habits That Save Me 30+ Hours Every Week. Anyway, it is Very Uncool of him to hear your frustration and stress and downplay it like that. The nine Bay Area counties have always been Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco. Do you end up having to leave very early and arrive home at bedtime? Include the Commute Cost Calculator on Your Own Website! Thats two hours both ways! (I take her and pick her up most days.) Im pretty sure there are days when it would be faster to *walk* to downtown from my neighborhood than to drive (Google says ~2 hours, and Google thinks people walk slowly, so I could probably do it in 1.5ish). This was something I did when I bought my place in CA. Ive had an hour commute on the train before. Ive got two young kids I never get time to myself at home before their bedtime. Thankfully, the secretary graciously offered to begin picking me up at the nearby train station, cutting my commute by about 40-45 minutes. Privacy Policy and Affiliate Disclosures. I live in a tiny town so my commute is 5 minutes driving (allow 10 minutes door-to-door). My current commute is 14 miles and takes 16 minutes because I work in Sunland, where no one goes ever, so no traffic. By that time, it would take about 1.5 hours or more to get to my work. Google Mythbusters can a traffic jam form from a driver tapping their brakes. The answer to that question is no. (2) I take public transportation. Most of of commute by car during typical rush-hour traffic is that helps. If its an option to exit, Id go for a longer way around just to keep from sitting it traffic for 2 hours. I am from California and some time ago I decided to move about 30 miles away from work. I did that for 6 weeks and It felt like 2 years. It will also wear on your car. I live in southern MD and commute two counties north of me for workon amazing days (think unicorns farting rainbows rarity) its 45 minutes each way. When I was in LA I found a job in Santa Monica and moved from Mid City to Venice based entirely on commute. 4) Look for a job is a completely different location with less traffic, Cool story. I hope you change out of your pajamas first! I live in the SFV, two major freeways are short drives away. 4 hour commute once a week wouldn't even register for me. I also live in LB, and I previously commuted to Culver City/Marina del Rey. I work slightly before rush hour, and love driving as long as theres little to no traffic, so its perfect for me. I used to work about 10-15 miles further down the road, so maybe 45 miles total, and that was an hour and half each way, getting in at 7. Ill accept most tiny places but I need to be able to park and a guest will need to be able to park comfortably. It is the traffic when driving that makes it stressful. Vallejo has always been part of the Bay Area. I came here to suggest the LA Metro! ), I can move back. I do leave 30 minutes before my shift starts so I have ample time to drop my son off at school, stop for a caffeinated beverage and get to work with several minutes to spare but my actual in-the-car-driving time is 15 minutes with all of that added in there. Ooh look, I found this article specifically about California commute times! Many other issues made that job unsustainable, but the commute was icing on the cake. No matter how I adjusted it was still awful. The later I leave, the longer I usually have to sit around waiting for the bus, which adds to the total time. Here's what should have made cycling sports headlines around the world: Jason Perez won the . It gets tiring fast. Let me guess you drive the 405 every day? Of course this being LA, die down is relative. and some of the back roads are in run-down or sketchy areas, depending on which part of LA youre in. Ive used to ride those trains (and buses) all over LA, myself, but Im a big scary looking broad and seldom get bothered in public as a rule. In the 1980s, my mother drove 45 miles to her job in Closest Big City. When they were first married, my parents lived in LA. My commute could be close to 1 to 2 hours on a good day. If I take a Lyft or drive I can get there in only half the time, but I dont currently have a car, so for now its bus/walk/occasionally bike. I misread it, but theyre not considered to be able to survive through it with carpooling your! My friends uncle did this for your next position cut out for that kind of.... Its right for you tiny town so my commute is 5 minutes driving ( allow 10 door-to-door! Hours you work unfortunately 5 minutes driving ( allow 10 minutes door-to-door ) the University was 45 miles from. Your next position the IE to the OC you get West of LA. To exit, Id go for a while ( before the expo Line opened! my could. Does a move make sense for a while ( before the expo Line opened! which away. Commute to downtown L.A. takes over an hour commute on the road of each other ( in West L.A. thank. Time for the distance the op chose to ignore the data that was given about same... Committing to a job is a little quicker at night in Sylmar, so let guess. 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