Met a guy who has a 78 mile commute

[mindaugas]

Actually it could be more since he just said from around Circle and I-25 up the Denver Fed Center where I work. He was in at 6am like me so he must be leaving no earlier than 5. At least 2 hours in the car if not 3 or more with traffic which is notoriously bad between these two cities. I told him that is a ridiculously massive commute and he shrugged it off and said he doesn't mind and it's cheaper in the Springs.

Which reminded me, back in 2004 I made that same commute every day for a job making $26k. I have learned much.

[MMM]

Haha.. I still get a kick out of stories like that!

According to my conservative valuation of the cost of commuting plus $25/hour for your time, the breakeven point for house price vs. car commuting is about $15,900 per mile.

So I hope his house in Colorado Springs is at least $1,240,200 cheaper than a comparable one in Denver. Otherwise, the joke is on him.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/

[mindaugas]

Jeez, I just remembered I work with a lady that lives 50 miles away so she can have horses. She does own her car though and is looking for a job closer to home.

[Petruchio]

Jeez, I just remembered I work with a lady that lives 50 miles away so she can have horses. She does own her car though and is looking for a job closer to home.

She should ride her horses to work ;)

78 miles is something else though. But if you do not mind me asking, is your neighbor marries? Because I know many people who have high paying jobs and have a long commute each morning, because thier spouses have an expectation to live out in the suburbs in a large house.

Not that I approve of such a thing, nor condone it in others. It is a ridiculous excuse to have for a +150 mile commute.

[mindaugas]

The lady I work with is single. I can almost warrant her commute for the ponies, she did that for lower cost of living because horse property in town is ridiculous. She has three of them, shows them, and some show dogs as well.

[Jamesqf]

The lady I work with is single. I can almost warrant her commute for the ponies, she did that for lower cost of living because horse property in town is ridiculous. She has three of them, shows them, and some show dogs as well.

This seems pretty reasonable to me.  She's decided what she wants from life - the horses - and has worked out a way to get it.  Of course she'd likely be better off if she could find a job closer to her home, but the implied alternative - get rid of the horses and move close to her job - would save her money at the cost of greatly decreasing her quality of life.

Oddly enough, I have a friend who was in a very similar situation, commuting about 50 miles from ranch & horses to a job, but her husband only had to go 3-4 miles to his.  She eventually did find a different job much closer to home.

[Adventine]

I've got a co-worker who leaves home at 4 a.m. to get to work at 8 a.m., partly because he just lives so damn far away, and partly because his multi-bus commute takes him through the most congested areas in the country. To think he's been doing it for something like 10 years now...

[mindaugas]

Holy hell, that is a full days work just commuting. He must live in Heaven and work in an annexed part of heaven to warrant that.

[Adventine]

Ahh... one can dream...

[tooqk4u22]

Back in 2003 a guy who supported me at work moved to Corona CA area but we worked in Long Beach - I lived 10 minutes from work.  He would say I should move out there because you could get much bigger house for same price.

After the move he was commuting about 90 minutes each way and had to pay steep round trip tolls and drove a large pick-up truck (al la 11 mpg).   He made about $40k a year.  I said your crazy and told him he would be better off quiting and taking a job at the new (at the time) home depot less than 1mile from his work.  He thought I was kidding and said it wasn't possible because that those jobs only pay like $10/hr.  I said exactly and did the math for him (which didn't include the MMM full cost of driving) and sure enough it penciled out to be about even but saving three hours of your life.

Needless to say the HD example was one but he could have looked for a better paying job also and that would have even made it better. Six months later he quit.  And a couple years later did one better and sold before the CA housing market collapsed and moved to TN - paid cash for next house, bought a rental, and had a nice little stash.

Fuck long commutes.

[HawkeyeNFO]

Working in Washington, DC has introduced me to dozens of people who "live to work."  The typical commute is from the Fredericksburg, VA area up to the Pentagon, which takes about an hour, in the best case.  There are trains you can use, which involve driving to the train, and switching to Metro at some point to get to the Pentagon, but it takes at least 60 minutes.  Some folks commute 80 miles or more, even way out to West Virginia.  And they've been doing it for many years. 

However, there are a few folks who live closer, and the bike rack seems to be full every day.  I'd say the average commute for people here is about an hour.  The costs of taking Metro or the train add up quickly, and are not much cheaper than driving.

[mindaugas]

DC is usually high on the bike friendly list. Aren't the housing costs astronomical in city though?

[jbhernandez]

[mindaugas]

Cute picture, but we take our bike sharing more seriously here in Denver. :P



I talked with this guy for while, he rode the entire Denver century on that including the climbing.