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How Many Days Americans Waste Commuting In The Course Of A Lifetime, Mapped By City (digg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tussle-continues dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Have you ever stopped to think that over the course of your lifetime, you will likely spend hundreds of days commuting back and forth from home and work? If not, we've got a great map that's sure to make you question what you're doing with your life. The good folks over at Educated Driver used Census Bureau data on average daily roundtrip commute times in hundreds of cities nationwide to calculate how much time Americans spend traveling to and from work over the course of their lives. (They assumed a 45-year career working 250 days a year.) The results, mapped by city, are pretty horrifying.

7 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. Method also matters. by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Method of travel also matters -- you can read a book on a train or bus. You can't in a (not self-driving) car stuck in traffic.

    1. Re:Method also matters. by edi_guy · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Ditto this. Started riding my bike to work many years ago, after frustration with public transit and cost of driving/parking. Bike commuting is fantastic, and the random times I am forced to take the bus/train or drive it's so depressing. My $600 bike from 2006-ish requires occasional maintenance I do myself, but works great. I'm in decent shape in large part due to biking, but it's . As you do it more, things you were concerned about go away. "What about the rain" it's totally fine to ride in the rain with the right gear. Too hot, too cold. Rarely an issue.

      Keys to biking in my mind is

      1.) it's not a race, there's no reason run red lights & stop signs, get sweaty, etc. going at a normal pace is perfectly quick
      2.) don't ride like you are entitled. Whether legally you can or not, don't hog the lanes, give buses and cars the right of way, pedestrians obviously. Be chill.

      Unfortunately a lot of my cycling cohorts on the road are indeed jerks. I keep promising to strap a GoPro on the handlebars to create a clip of bad bicyclists..but all in all I recommend giving it a try. First 2 weeks might be an adjustment, but I promise that week 3 things will click and you might never go back.

  2. Multiplaction makes numbers big. by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I actually rather like my commute. I only have a few spots of traffic, but for the most part it is nice time for me to drive down with only myself and my thoughts.
    Being scared that I may have wasted 2 years of my life driving to work, isn't that big of a deal. What is more scary is the 10 years of my life actually working.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  3. No time off? by Albanach · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They assumed a 45-year career working 250 days a year

    So, 365 days in a year, less 104 weekend days leaves just 261 days.

    We then have holidays - most folk get off (either on the day or in lieu) New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

    That puts as to 255 days available to work. In other words, the analysis reckons the average person will take five workdays total for vacation and sick time in an entire year.

    And they think it's the commute time to be concerned about!

    1. Re:No time off? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yep, America sucks in this respect. Keep pointing it out -- US workers need it drummed into their heads that they're being exploited.

  4. Assumptions... by gosand · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The assumptions are that you have the same commute during your entire career.
    I have had anywhere from zero (worked from home for 8 years) to 1.5 hours. For that 1.5 hour commute, I drove or walked to a train station, rode the train into the city (Chicago) and then had a 20 minute *brisk* walk to the office. During that commute I was able to relax, and I read lots of books that year. I also got 40 minutes of exercise every day walking to/from the office. My schedule was also very predictable. So there are trade-offs. I wouldn't want to do it today, but it wasn't bad at all at the time.

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

  5. Re:Cities sure are great! by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2, Insightful

    1) New York is a city. Has a high-density downtown core which most people live in.

    Nope. NYC metro area has a population of over 20M. Only 8.6M live in the city itself, and only 1.6M of those are in Manhattan.

    NYC has a strong NIMBY movement, and it is very difficult to get building permits for new downtown housing.

    Chicago is a city. Has a high-density downtown core which most people live in.

    Nope. Chicago is even more skewed than NYC toward suburban sprawl into "Chicagoland", extending into Indiana and Wisconsin.