Long distance commuters

[DeepCMark58A]

Any long distance commuters here? My commute is an hour and 15 minutes on average for some that is not too terribly long. I drive 83 miles each way every day. 62 miles of it is I 94. I am amazed how many rude or stupid people there are on the freeway.

 

[racerone]

Even here around a small town the driving behaviour is getting worse.-----Speeding is a common place thing.-----60 kph here on my road.-----And I think an SUV went by at near 100 kph the other day.------Seems many folks just are not law abiding citizens any more.-----Then there is that fellow in Denmark that was caught with a Lamborgini Hurican and they took/ confiscated his $300,000 car. ----He only owned it for a few hours apparently.

 

[GA_Boater]

Did you just get your license? LOL It's like that everywhere.

 

[DeepCMark58A]

No I have been driving for 39 years, it is getting worse semis in the left lane, left lane lingering fools, and general rudeness. I leave home by 5:30 to avoid most of the masses but some days it's unavoidable. I also drive in many different cities per year so I have a broad base to compare to.

 

[poconojoe]

I'm retired now, but I commuted 100+ miles each way for 20 years. I live in Pennsylvania and worked in the 5 boroughs of New York City.

I called myself a "Super Commuter".

Most of it was on a bus, but I did try sharing the driving for a while here and there, but that got old. It was much better on the bus where I would sleep most of the time.

Now, the bus wasn't perfect. We occasionally had arguments due to rude people. So it's not just the drivers that are rude, it's people in general.

I had an incident a couple of weeks ago in my small town.
There was a Fall festival in the middle of town. The traffic was backed up due to pedestrians frequenting the festival.
I was attempting to make a left turn and the stopped traffic was blocking the intersection. I waited with my signal on. A car moved one car length and stopped. I thought I had my break, but no, a rude woman pulled up the one car length and blocked me. She wasn't going anywhere. The traffic was stopped. I couldn't believe it. People suck!

 

[poconojoe]

There's a lack of manners in today's society.
We have a generation of rude selfish low-lifes that don't care about others, it's only about them. And to make matters worst, they are always in a rush. They seem to think they are more important than everyone else. I was raised the opposite of that.

This is why I never go boating on the weekends. You think these idiots are bad behind the wheel. It's way worse when they get behind the helm of a speeding boat or watercraft. To them, there are no rules on the water. It's a free-for-all.

When I see a road rage incident on the news, I wonder if the person that got beat up or shot might have deserved it.

And don't get me started when it comes to littering or dumping. I can't count the times I've seen mattresses or busted open bags of garbage on the roadside. This is a wooded rural area that is mostly quite beautiful.

 

[KJM]

Don't have much of a commute, I usually leave the house at 7:00 or 7:10 and am at work by 7:30. Just long enough to catch the news. As for rude/ stupid drivers, they are everywhere. I think its always been that way, we just show our age by it annoying us more as we get older! Truth be known, we were probably the drivers our fathers generation complained about years ago.....

 

[ebbtide176]

I drive 30mi S into ATL, sorry that is Atlanta GA, every day now. Used to drive avg probably 4hrs every Thurs & Sun, with good locations @ 1.5- 3hrs, others 10-13hrs from home. But that was a 4d/wk job. Now its 5d/wk job, but the daily commute is pretty sucki. Had a job b4 this one that made me do practically the same commute 13yrs. Anyway. I've gotta check out this one intersection from all 4 directions I guess. Because yesterday was the 2nd time (in same direction thru) there was a vehicle running the light, that passed between the cars crossing. As in crossing at 45-50+ behind the 1st or 2nd cross traffic vehicle. Makes your eyes grow, and gives a little shock to the system. Maybe it's sun blindness/ time of day? Dunno
Yeah I think its just mainly lack of required Drivers Ed, like was normal, way back when. And those drivers now that are looking at their phones. Got behind one today eating with a fork while driving. Just insane

 

[bassman284]

Even here around a small town the driving behaviour is getting worse.-----Speeding is a common place thing.-----60 kph here on my road.-----And I think an SUV went by at near 100 kph the other day.------Seems many folks just are not law abiding citizens any more.-----Then there is that fellow in Denmark that was caught with a Lamborgini Hurican and they took/ confiscated his $300,000 car. ----He only owned it for a few hours apparently.

Funny. When I first read this post I read Mph instead of Kph. When I figured it out I thought man, that's not fast. That's just toddling along. Unless of course you're talking about a residential street.

In my younger days 55 or so years ago I used to say that I hit 100 miles an hour twice on every trip - once on the way up and once on the way down.

 

[KJM]

Yeah, I have to admit I find driving behind someone doing 60 kph is painful !

 

[Scott Danforth]

49.5 miles to work, 49.6 miles home from work

from the on-board data on the vehicles;

before covid:

• 55 minutes to get to work, average speed 51mph, average mpg 22
• 1 hour, 30 minutes to get home, average speed 46, average mpg 18

during first few months of covid:

• 39 minutes to get to work, average speed 64mph, average mpg 27
• 45 minutes to get home, average speed 62mph, average mpg 25

past 4 weeks:

• 1 hour 5 minutes to get to work, average speed 48mph, average mpg 16.5 (truck)
• 1 hour 15 minutes to get home, average speed 44mph, average mpg 15 (truck)

• truck uses more fuel, however I can go hands free and hear the other people
• Car gets better mileage, however wind noise is high
• people in Florida, do not know how to drive
• 275 between Gandy and I4 is a parking lot in the afternoon
• Manatee county FL has screwed up the lights between my house and the highway
• if it rains, nearly everyone slows down from 70mph to about 40mph (because they can not drive)

in the past my commutes have been as long as 62 miles one way to as short as 2.3 miles one way (very short lived).

 

[KJM]

I can't imagine driving 1.5 hours from work to home

 

[aspeck]

My commute is just over 1/2 mile each way. It is rough, man! Once in a while I even have to wait for a car to go by at the stop sign leaving my development.

 

[DeepCMark58A]

Over the short life of my pick up the average speed is close to 60 mph. Get on the freeway set the cruise at 80-83 and go. Can't say I am looking forward to snow I had a couple 3 hour commutes last winter not fun.

 

[Grub54891]

My commute has been about 5 blocks for the last 14 years. They are out there also. The dude that slammed on his brakes to let someone cross the street in the middle of the block, not in a crosswalk. Dang near rear ended him. Then the one about 5 years ago that ran a stop sign and t-boned me totalling my car. When my commute was 30 miles one way, The bycyilists would be in single line one behind the other. As a car would approach they would spread out and take up the lane not allowing you to pass till the passing zones. After you went by they would get in single line again. I almost stopped a couple times to have a friendly chat with them......

 

[KJM]

My commute has been about 5 blocks for the last 14 years. They are out there also. The dude that slammed on his brakes to let someone cross the street in the middle of the block, not in a crosswalk. Dang near rear ended him. Then the one about 5 years ago that ran a stop sign and t-boned me totalling my car. When my commute was 30 miles one way, The bycyilists would be in single line one behind the other. As a car would approach they would spread out and take up the lane not allowing you to pass till the passing zones. After you went by they would get in single line again. I almost stopped a couple times to have a friendly chat with them......

People on bycycles drive me nuts! I really don't think they should have the same rights as cars on the road, but I know a lot of people would disagree.

 

[dingbat]

My longest daily commute was 180 miles round trip. Did that for a year.

I live in an area where commutes are measured in time not distance.

Case in point….the 35 mile drive to my office takes 30 minutes.

The 37 mile drive to my daughter’s house takes 60 minutes w/o traffic, 90 minutes with traffic.

My daughter’s 7 mile drive to the office takes her 45 minutes to an hour.

As a Sales Manager I never know where I’ll be “commuting” to next.
Pittsburgh last week. Albany, Indianapolis and Detroit in weeks prior to that. Averaged 40k miles a year for the past 7 years.

I could write a novel on the things I’ve seen on the highway. Don’t blame (driver) education as much as the messaging (and enforcement) of the local governances.

Two biggest complaints.
1. Purposely under posting speed limits in an attempt to artificially limit speed

2. Not enforcing existing “passing lane” only restrictions on Interstates. i.e. “pace car” syndrome.

 

[poconojoe]

I once spent 11 hours traveling from Manhattan to northeastern Pennsylvania on a commuter bus due to deep snow.

We ended up stopped on route 80 right at our exit which was 6 miles from our town.

We convinced the driver to let us off. He made us sign a paper to void his responsibilities!

As we trekked to the off-ramp in knee deep+ snow, two State Troopers threatened us with citations for "walking on the interstate"! The traffic was at a complete standstill, backed up, stuck in snow for miles.

I got to a phone and my wife was able to pick me and 5 others up in her Explorer. Fun times! Glad I'm retired now...

 

[briangcc]

Longest daily commute I've done is 45 minutes.

My wife can walk to work - her round trip is 0.8 miles.

Longest commute I ever did was 6 hours to travel 30 miles. Was in '99/00/01 (forget which year) during a freak snow storm in my '95 Nissan Pathfinder 4x4. Took 3 hours to go a few city blocks. Eventually got to the back roads and was plowing through snow drifts that were going over the hood of the Pathfinder. Had to stop as I saw firetruck lights off in the distance so I took the time to step out and clear my wipers - there wasn't anyone behind me. As firetruck went past I heard them say "good, he isn't stuck". Got back in and made my way home. Front end loader had plowed the street and left a heck of a snow bank going up my road....gunned it and made it home.

Every vehicle since, that could have it, has had 4x4.

People are silly and they're getting sillier as I get older it seems. Weaving in/out of traffic like they're running a nascar race. I've witnessed instant karma once...

Car weaving in/out of traffic like their on fire. Come up on them a few minutes later and they totalled a car coming out of a parking lot. They t'd that car hard.

Another time some yahoo in an older Jimmy was apparently showing off in a parking lot. Came full tilt out of there, made a hard right turn, saw it go up on 2 wheels, recover, only to go up on the opposite 2 wheels then barrel roll into a grass lot. Sparks flew everywhere. Cabby stopped to pull the driver out. I stopped and called 911.

 

[bruceb58]

I used to commute a couple hours each way for a commute that would only take 30 to 45 minutes with no traffic. I then got in a carpool and we left our park and ride at 5:30AM and it was around 30 minutes. During the summer, I would actually ride my bike 17 miles after I drove to the coast. I could actually save time getting a ride in and put on 34 miles per day on my bike.

I left that job for a commute that was only 20 minutes...a lot less grey hair after that, at least from the commute.

Now I am retired and I I can't even imagine commuting anymore. Of course I can't imagine working ever again either. Glad I was able to retire in my 50's