Hacker News Reader

Comment by la6471 | Hacker News Reader

What about effect of saving on disgusting commute time? That itself trumps everything else imho.

I am pretty sure having to care for small children at home trumps commute savings.

I really messed up... I bought a smaller house close to work, because a short commute was more important to me than a bigger house. Now, I don't get the benefit of the short commute, and I have to work at a small home with kids here.

I used to live and work in Portland, Oregon. My commute in the mornings was, at it's worst, 30 mins to my campus. That same commute back home took 2-3 hours.

I've been working remotely off and on for the past 10-15 years and I cannot even tell you how much my quality of life has improved to not have to commute anymore.

My total commute was ~3 hours a day. My quality of life has drastically improved since the quarantine started as well.

My total commute was ~45 minutes in the morning and maybe 1 hour in the evening. I really miss that drive. It used to be a good relaxing time for me. I used to listen to podcasts and felt refreshed after reaching home.

Now I have no such transition. I wake up, drink coffee, and I'm at my desk working. In the evening I get up from my desk, go to the kitchen and cook and then eat. It's very boring and monotonous.

I feel the same, with approximately the same commute time, except that I took public transportation. It was great having a little reading time before work, and that defined transition time really helped. I hate being 12 feet from work when I wake up in the morning.

Have you considered taking 45 minute walks at the times you used to commute? Audiobooks/podcasts are just as good while walking, and the light cardio might be more stimulating and enjoyable than the driving was. Or do something else with that time. Just because you’re no longer forced to drive for nearly 2 hours a day doesn’t mean you need to work an extra 2 hours.

Seconded. I was commuting to midtown Manhattan everyday, I'm saving at least an hour each day, not being on the MTA. I do miss the Citibike commute I did in the afternoons though--that's been replaced by an afternoon run. My cost savings there are not insignificant.

Forgive my bluntness, but I have never understood the people who buy or rent houses very far away from work so they can save on a monthly housing payment when their hourly rate at work times the additional commute time is larger than the "saving".

You don’t get paid either way.

In many places, urban or close suburban school districts suck.

In my city, due to court mandated decrees from 40 years ago, my kid would need to take a bus almost 60 minutes to the other side of town based on a lottery.

In the NY Metro area, you can trade commute time for being a few minutes from the beach or living upstate with lots of open space, etc. People make choices based on what is important to them. Who in gods earth wants to live in some cramped apartment in Brooklyn or whatever if other options are available?

Where I live, you have to earn at least 3 times what you spend on housing to be allowed to rent/buy. This alone forces people to live further away from work even if it costs them more in the end.

You are assuming that people can increase thier income by working more hours. Most salaried employees can’t do so at all and hourly employees don’t often get overtime hours. It’s quite possible that commuting really is the only way to “earn” the bigger house.

Regardless, there are other factors at play. A big one is that the amenities you want aren’t near your work place at any price point- see all those people who commute from SF to Mountain View. Another is that your job changed but you don’t want to move- I once rented a place near the downtown core thinking I’d always be close to work, and then somehow ended up with 45 minute commute to a satellite location. Once someone buys a place, get settled, and kids start school it gets a hard to move your residence as well.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com