crankyAccording to Newsweek, more than 3.4 million people have a daily commute that is longer than 90 minutes. Insane. Some days my commute hits that and would hit it a lot more often if I had to drive to other facilities. If that was my commute full time my whole life would be organized around getting up at 4am to beat traffic and getting to sleep in time to get up the next morning.
What blows my mind is that people think an extreme commute is a long-term solution. It's not. Your life would start rotting away. Your friends and family would not see you, you would have no personal time that is not in the car. David Blanchflower, professor of economics, found that the most important factor in one's happiness is not money, it's sex. The two are not related, according to him. On top of that he found that the thing people do that makes them the most unhappy is ... the commute. I guess if you got a quickie way home everyday the commute might not be so bad.
People need to stop rationalizing that a long commute will get them something they need. They need to stop living in denial about the true cost of those hours spent in the car. It's their happiness, and good money or a big house in the suburbs will not improve things.
So.. move closer to work, or work closer to where I live, or both.
