I've had commutes as far as 35+ miles / 1 hour, and as short as 1 block, and I can report that shorter is always better. Once you walk outside and cross the street, you're going to work.

You don't say what "difficulties" you had but I suspect that a difficulty solved by making something arbitrarily take 30 minutes longer actually has some other root cause. Nobody complains that sending email is 30 minutes faster than walking to the post office.

You don't say how you're commuting, but a sizable community of people commuting by car has a real burden on society.