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Comment by lmm | Hacker News Reader

I would definitely quit a job that required a 2 hour commute. That doesn't mean I want to work from home, it means I want to work somewhere a sane distance away.

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In the Bay Area a two hour commute (an hour each way) is only a 15 mile distance in morning/afternoon traffic

Why drive, at that point? Isn't it easier to use BART + a scooter?

Even that resulted in an hour each way for me pre-pandemic. Then you also need to factor in the exhaustion that comes with using Bart, especially in the evening.

Oh man, is that worse than driving? I'm in London, so I don't really know what it's like in SF. What's so exhausting about it?

I moved from London to Oakland several years ago. In London I would take a bus to work and then walk for 5 minutes to the office. Taking Bart is just not pleasant - the cars are packed, so you stand super close to other sweaty people for 45 min or so. I guess it's comparable to taking Underground during rush hour - same thing.

No Bart on the west side of the bay. You can to some extent use light rail If you are close enough to a station.

Man, that sucks. I didn't realise Bart was so sparse. Are there any plans to expand it, or add something like a subway? They must have the tax revenue. It seems absurd that they'd drive everyone toward increasing traffic given how wealthy the area is.

It's worth reading a bit about the history of BART. The Bay Area's NIMBY roots run deep. Initial plans would have included lines in the peninsula, with eventual connections all the way around the bay. Santa Clara County never joined, and that started a cascade of other counties dropping out which financially crippled the project and left only the scaled-back system in place today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Area_Rapid_Transit#Origins...

If you’re averaging 15mph, you may as well ride a bike and just get the exercise in. You’ll be very fit and well off doing 2 hours of cardio multiple times a week. I knew guys at some of my jobs who did these commutes - they were ecstatic about it. Favorite part of their day.

My 15 mile commute has reached 45 minutes and withing the next couple years it will be 60 minutes. American cities have given up on public transportaion and infrastructrure and are crumbling under the weight of capitalism.

It’s capitalism’s fault that public transit isn’t popular? What?

Car companies may have dismantled some streetcar systems years ago, yes. However, we continue to build car focused communities largely because people want to live in big lots in suburbia. Density that can support transit is just not popular in the US.

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