Not necessarily. In Paris I had a 45 minutes subway commute, or a 35 minutes -somewhat dangerous- bike commute (time for a one-way trip), and while sometimes I could appreciate either the disconnection the subway provided me or the physical effort need for the bike ride, it was mostly a hassle and lost time I am not compensated for.

Living close to where you work is pretty expensive, especially when the CEO likes the prestige associated with the building or area (and lives nearby, of course, but he gets 10 times my salary).

I think you have a point — a typical US commute is probably worse than, for example, a typical UK commute. But that's not to say UK commutes are acceptable — my 2 hour each way commute was expensive as well as horribly uncomfortable, and that was on pretty much one of the best rail lines I've used for commuting! Unless we solve the "it's too expensive to live near where you work" problem, I think the trend has to be more towards WFH.

I live in Philadelphia, commute was still 45min-1hr. Would either have to walk 15 min to the El, stay on its for about 25-30min, then walk another 15ish min to my office. Or take a trolley to 30th street then transfer to the El then walk.

When I moved to a different neighborhood, I'd take Regional Rail, which was about 40 mins door to door. Only advantage is there aren't people shooting up or getting raped on RR.

Driving actually would only take ~15min door to door if I left after rush hour. But then parking was very variable. It could be instant (finding spot right when I get there) or I'd have to drive around for 10 minutes.

Honestly, I liked commuting either of those ways (outside of finding needles on the El) since I'd just listen to music or a podcast.

However, I much prefer working from home.

I live in London and commute via public transport, it still sucks.

Ehh, 40 minutes on a crowded tram isn't much better. A 1.5 hour walk is better in the actual experience, but that extra 50 minutes comes out of my sleep.

Train and bus rides come with their own set of problems, whereas any other form of transportation is generally much slower, pushing people to relocate closer to the office in an often expensive and very population dense area. The premise remains the same: time spent commuting is often time better spent differently.

I commute five minutes by foot. I'd still rather work from home. And I'm gonna, one way or another.