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Ben Halpern
Ben Halpern

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What's your commute like?

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jesusgollonet profile image
jesús gollonet • Edited

I work remote, but I do go to a coworking space which is between my 2 year old kindergarten and my 4 year old school.

My commute a 15 minute walk with them in the morning and most days same in the afternoon.

Our routine is to play whatever games we come up with. This morning we were playing catching giant letters from street signs. I would say a letter and the older one would have to find the biggest one in sight. The younger one just pointed to any letters he could see.

I love my commute.

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alexd__93 profile image
Alexis Rondón

That's the most stress free commute i have ever read, amazing!

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jesusgollonet profile image
jesús gollonet

Hah not when we're late :P

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mercier_remi profile image
Rémi Mercier

Hahaha, I can relate!

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alexd__93 profile image
Alexis Rondón

About 2 seconds, from my bed to the desk.. Working fully remote right now.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Same 😄

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

The commute is definitely the big benefit of remote. Anything you miss about office life?

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alexd__93 profile image
Alexis Rondón • Edited

Tbh not that much, but sometimes I really miss the social morning with people and coffee in the office (had a short office job before this one)- even though I'm always in communication with my team via slack, face to face interaction can be missed a little.

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aturingmachine profile image
Vince

My standup is at 8:15 AM. I commute to Chicago everyday from Wisconsin. I wake up at 5:10 AM and make the 6:08 train to Chicago running the whole length of the line. I get to the office around 7:45. In all it's about 2 hours one way, or 4 hours a day.

However I love my job and my coworkers so I don't mind the commute. I usually listen to podcasts, code, browse Twitter of Dev to pass the time.

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dance2die profile image
Sung M. Kim • Edited

Wow. that's a long commute.

What would be the part of the job that drives you to handle such a long commute?
(_because I'd love to factor that in, when looking for a job 😀)

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aturingmachine profile image
Vince

I get to work with some cool stuff and do full stack development. The more important part, which is a lot harder to factor in when doing a job search, is the people. The culture at my company is really great and I like everyone I work with. I only knew the commute would be worth it since I had a friend working there before I joined, and from what he told me it was a great place.

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dance2die profile image
Sung M. Kim

Thank you, Vincent.😀
Much appreciated the reply 🤜

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mercier_remi profile image
Rémi Mercier

A 15-minute bike ride, door-to-door, along Paris' canals. 🚴‍♂️🌳

Way better than the 50-minute tube ride I used to do before. 😅

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yechielk profile image
Yechiel Kalmenson

45 minute subway ride.

Which sounds like a lot, until you compare it to my previous commute which was an hour drive.

The fact that it's on a subway also means I can spend the time reading instead of navigating rush-hour traffic, so it's more relaxing as well.

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eljayadobe profile image
Eljay-Adobe

36 highway miles to the office, one way.

To reduce the commute time by avoiding rush hour traffic, leave home around 5am. Leave work at 3pm.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

What's your day like after you leave at 3pm?

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eljayadobe profile image
Eljay-Adobe

50 minute drive home during the just-before-rush-hour ramping up.

Once I'm home, I'm on daddy duty, since my wife works later hours to avoid rush hour and she does the early morning parenting. Feed the dogs. Give the dogs and cats some loves. Take the kids to their events.

I also do my fun programming, which for me I like to learn a new programming language every year. And answer questions on SO. And on Wed and Thu is raid night for World of Warcraft.

I don't watch TV. I got out of the habit when my first kid was a toddler, and it is very difficult to watch TV once you're out of the habit. Too passive. Unless the show or movie is really engaging, after 15 minutes I'm antsy and have to do something. As a for instance, I've just started 2nd season of Game of Thrones.

What I don't do is bring my work home with me.

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chdeinert profile image
Christian Deinert

Most days I have a ~15 minutes walk to the train-station, then a train ride that takes 20 minutes and another ~15 minutes walk to the office. On the train ride I normally relax and read.

And I say most days, bacause if I'm feeling too lazy I take the car to the station - which takes 7 minutes.

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andypiper profile image
Andy Piper

Usually about an hour door-to-door (London) - 10 min walk to train, 30 min train journey to central London, 10-15 min on 3 stops on the Tube, and then a quick hop to the office. It doesn't feel too taxing. In previous roles I've had a 45 minute drive from home to office, or a long bus journey... in my current role I've gotten rid of my car completely and just use the London transport network. I can listen to podcasts (usually Mac OS Ken every morning, maybe The Changelog, or Games at Work dot Biz) and music, catch up on my other news feeds.

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michelemauro profile image
michelemauro

+1 for the Changelog :-D

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natonathan profile image
Nathan Tamez

To Lectures from term time address it’s quick 10-15 min walk.
To the office from home it a 30 min drive due to traffic.
I know not the worst commute but there it is.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Not bad, but still takes some time.

Do you have a driving routine in terms of particular radio/podcasts/music?

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natonathan profile image
Nathan Tamez

I don’t drive yet haven’t got around to do my driving test, normally my mom drops me off or I get a Uber. But I listen music or a podcast, nothing in particular though.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

I'm 30 and still haven't got around to my driving test 😄

I just got my learner's permit this year, so I'm on my way. No shame in putting it off, but I would recommend it earlier than what I did.

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natonathan profile image
Nathan Tamez

My reason is I go to university in a city were is 1. Unnecessary to have a car, 2. Nowhere cheap to park a car.
I might look in to getting a motorbike though.

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Yeah, very similar situation to me. I always lived in walkable/bus cities and also just couldn't ever afford or justify the expense.

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alexd__93 profile image
Alexis Rondón • Edited

Have you guys tried moving in bikes? For me it's a lot of fun to do it, here in Buenos Aires is the same issue you guys mentioned, owning a car seems to be more stressful than anything else lol

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Larizza Tueros • Edited

To the work from home, it takes me 30-40 min average for 4.5miles (7.3km) thanks to traffic because on Sundays that's 14min average.

Sometimes I listen to an English podcast with my SO and we practice pronunciation and grammar making up silly phrases.

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leanminmachine profile image
leanminmachine

40 min commute (30 min subway ride + 10 min walk). Kind of regret renting in a location away from my workplace, could've been staying in a location with a walking time of 10 min from my workplace (but really small apartment and no washer and dryer -- i am picky!)

But i still like socializing from time to time, and also it's easier to communicate, so don't think ill want to work full remote.

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darksmile92 profile image
Robin Kretzschmar

I worked in a different city 250km away and had a second appartement there for workdays. I drove there on monday mornings, stayed until thursday and drove back the 250km to my hometown.

This was a great lifestyle and I really like to travel. But at some point in time my girlfriend and I decided to move in together and I wanted to spend more time with her than just on the weekend.
So I switched to work from home 3 days a week (commute from bedroom to homeoffice) and was in a office for 2 days a week (two offices 250km and 350km from home).
After almost one year I got used to homeoffice, organized myself better and built the required discipline.

So today my commute is from the bedroom to the homeoffice (room) and 1-2 days a week to an office of my choice :)

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themattyg profile image
Matt Graham

Right now, my commute is a 5 minute drive or 8 minute bike ride.

But it hasn't always been like that. I used to commute from Whitby (a small town east of Toronto Canada) into Downtown Toronto. Every time I say this, people go "oh, that's not too bad, thousands of people do that everyday!" Which I agree with. From where I live, you have one of two ways to get there: drive or commuter train.

Driving is something like this: Driving the 401 is risky business or this: The g*dd*mn motherf*king 401.

The commuter train is slower than a sloth in a snowstorm. When you ride it, you think of bullet trains from around the world with either longing or disgust. The people that ride the train have had their soul removed, bit-by-bit, until there's nothing but a lazy zombie sitting in the chairs that are just a little too small. A drive that takes roughly 30 minutes without traffic and about a 3rd more distance takes 42 minutes to just under an hour - and that's just the train ride. You first need to get to the train by bike, bus or car; the latter makes you aggravated before you even get on the train. Then waiting in line to board the train, zombies listening to their music or reading the latest crap our local politician has done. Then climb aboard. If you get a seat, you're lucky - every once in a while a train that is missing 2 cars will show up and "standing room only" sounds roomy it's so packed. Then the slow crawl downtown.

The doors open! You've made it! Nope, not quite. Now you have to walk, take a subway, bus or streetcar to your destination. The lucky ones work within a few steps of a stop. Some have to walk an additional 10 minutes to get to their work. You put in your seven-to-eight hours (or more, if you're lucky enough to work at a startup on salary) and then hit the reverse commute.

All that stuff backwards, then once you get back to your "home" commuter train station, if you drove there, wait another 10-15 minutes just to get our of the parking lot.

All told I've spent as little as 2 hours a day commuting to as much as 4. Quality of life was non-existent. I've heard stories about commuters that come into NYC from multiple states away and think I would lose my mind doing the Toronto trips for years at a time, so I can only imagine what I'd do if I had the NYC commute.

Sorry. I needed to rant. :/ #canadian #sorry

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Rob Kendal {{☕}}

Mine's like many of those here: virtually zero. I work almost 100% remote (couple of days in the office a month). It's great as I get to manage my own work load and working hours. Plus, I've gained about 2 hours per day back from not having to commute, so that's more family time :D

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Adrián Norte

I take a bus that takes 20 minutes more or less to get to my stop and then I walk 10 minutes to work, all of it while listening to podcasts, observing people with their dogs and looking at how weird pigeons can be.

The bus has a stop at like 100 meters from the office but I walk 10 minutes because we spend way too many hours sitting down.