Your daily commute - please share.

[Spring Bass]

My commute thankfully got a lot better about 2 years ago, when I transferred to a new location. It's now about 15 minutes by car from my house, whereas it used to be about 30 minutes (and that was on a highway).

[Ferrum Aeternum]

~snip~

That sounds like an awesome commute. You live in Mississippi, right? It reminds me of driving thru my old stomping grounds in Tishomingo County. :)

My daily commute is around 45 minutes both ways; it starts out rural-ish and ends up urban. I don't particularly enjoy it, except when schools are out during the summer and the traffic thins a bit. On any given weekday there are tens of thousands of people scrambling to get into Memphis within a 30-45 minute window. While the route I take is probably the least congested of them all, it remains very busy most days with a few nasty bottlenecks.

Main key for me is to leave my house (or office, going the other way) at or before specific times of the day to avoid the heaviest volume. For instance, if I leave 10-15 minutes later than normal, I can count on at least an hour-long trip.

[Elder Sister]

That sounds like an awesome commute. You live in Mississippi, right? It reminds me of driving thru my old stomping grounds in Tishomingo County. :)

I do. And I'm very close to Tishomingo County. :)

[Leofric]

My usual commute, when I'm going to the office rather than a job site is basically:

- Back out of garage

- Left

- Left

- Straight

- Left

- Right, Left, park

Takes about 5 minutes, unless heavy traffic holds me up at one of the lefts.

The only highlights are if I see the flock of wild turkeys that patrol most of my route, seeing the traffic backed up on the highway that I run parallel with for a portion of my route, and watching a new housing development I drive past evolve over the past couple years.

Going to job sites can be much more interesting as different projects over the past few years have taken me from some of the less savory portions of Oakland and San Francisco to isolated sites in the Sierras and Northern California.

[Raja]

This used to be my commute for about two months earlier this year, probably the longest one I've had.

Leave the house at 7:30, walk down a hill for around half an hour with houses all along the road, it's a straight walk, and a quite one that early in the morning. There are mostly only cars around but not too many, and hardly any people. I'll usually get to the train station at about 8am, and catch a train to the main station in the city, if I miss the 8:04 train, I'd have to catch the next one, which would come in at about 10 minutes later and that would be too late.

Once I get to the main station, I'll change trains, this usually involves running up to the concourse and looking up the right train, they change platforms almost everyday, even though they run at the same time. The 8:23 train is the one I'd get on, after getting a cup of chai from the station. I'd reach my final station at 8:30, after which I'd walk for another 30 minutes to get to the hospital at about 9am.

I liked it on most days, hated in when it was raining though. Even though I'm rather fond of the rain.

[MerenthaClone]

Leave at 6:40, walk 15 minutes down residential streets, clock in at 6:55. Sometimes leave 5 minutes early and get coffee, especially for night shift.

e: Leave a few minutes later and jog if its fucking freezing.

[A wilding]

My current commute includes Red Kite spotting.

The Red Kite is a large bird of prey with a very characteristic habit of floating in thermals steering with its forked tail. It was almost extinct in the UK, but about 20 years ago was reintroduced locally in the Chiltern Hills with great success.

On a good day I might see up to a dozen of them on the way to work. One of them once gave me quite a shock by nearly flying into my windscreen.

[Valkyrian.]

From my bed too my chair xD

[Roose Seal]

I have exactly 15 steps, one flight of stairs and 5 steps from my bed to my desk.

The time I don't spend in commute is wasted staring at my screen blankly for about 20minutes before I'm fully awake.

[Tears of Lys]

/snip

...its too damn warm . (Who stole Alaska's winter, anyhow? If your done with it, please return it, rain and dead grass just don't fit in with winter hereabouts.)

We took it (Michigan.) You can have it back anytime.

ETA: When I worked in Los Angeles, I'd take the Metrolink commuter train. (I was reminded of the horrific traffic by Trisky's post.) Except for the seats, which hit me right in the back of the head, putting my neck at an uncomfortable angle, it was one of the more pleasant things about working in L.A.

[ThinkerX]

Seems like an awful lot of folks here rely on public transportation for their commute, or at least part of their commute.

Yet conservative politicians view public transportation as one of the greatest evils ever conceived.

[MercenaryChef]

I wake at 4:40am. I curse the very world for existing, think about not going back to work ever, look upon my cute sleeping wife, brush my teeth and get dressed always in that order.

As I shower the night before I save time. I grab the coffee that she put on timer and swiftly make the half mile walk to the metro station.

If I have handled things right I am on the 5:05am train into dc. I set a 37 minute timer on my phone and put some music on and promptly fall asleep. Today it was david bowie. Sometimes it is death metal.

When the timer goes off I am one stop from work where I walk just a couple blocks to get to.

Some 12 to 14 hours later I reverse the steps but without the sleep and the coffee cup is filled with beer.

[Bronn Stone]

Depending on when I have to arrive, I can walk six minutes to the nearest bus stop or twelve to the Transit Depot. Then a 45 minute bus ride in (Free Kindle Books - Gutenberg.org - only the classics). Three minute walk on the SF side. Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge is always beautiful, in good weather and bad. I look up from my tablet on the bridge - someday I vow to spy a marine mammal.

After work, a bit tougher. While the morning buses are almost always on schedule, the evening never are. I can wait up to 30 minutes for my bus (110 minutes during a recent deluge) and the ride can take from 45 to an hour 45. But Messers Dostoyevsky and Melville and Mrs. Stowe have helped the ride so far.

Best thing is the bus runs through SF and north until 12:30AM so I am free to frolic in town if I wish.

[all swedes are racist]

I've got two... A summer commute and a winter/foul weather one.

Winter's ok, if a tad boring. I live pretty equidistant between two T stations, so I can choose between the outdoorsy one more outbound or the dank dripping cave inbound one. If I'm opening, I have to decide if I'd rather hit up the cafe or stand a better chance of scoring a seat so I can read)

Then it's 30 minutes (if all goes well)of reading on the Orange Line to Bunker Hill Community College, a ten minute --windy, blustery-- walk alongside the highway connector road, walk over the canal bridge, and bam, I'm there. I could cut out the walk by switching to the Green Line for two stops... But fuck that. Shits more trouble than its worth.

Now summer... Ahhh, that's a good one. Summer means biking. Leg one takes me along the Southwest Corridor Park. a mostly pleasant ride through green space, a few frustratingly long lights, and the occasional clueless dingbat lacking any bikepath etiquette.

Pop out around Northeastern and onto the mean streets, though I actually enjoy this bit. After being stuck behind the slowpokes who'd rather blow through a red light than actually put effort into pedaling, Once on the street I can be let off the leash. Blow past the MAMiLs and bewildered students (and sharing my extensive salty vocabulary with all) down Columbus, bang a Louie up Mass Ave. this is the most exciting part. Terrible paving, notoriously aggressive drivers mixed with the truly clueless (students and Symphony Hall tourists), hateful cabs and lumbering oblivious buses. I must operate under the assumption there is a floating neon sign above me that flashes "Open season! $10,000 prize and all the meat you can carry!" Fuckers haven't got me yet.

Slight awkward part on the Mass Ave bridge when I have to "walk" (ha!) down the little switchback ramp off the sidewalk.

The the Esplanade. The most scenic, and yet annoying, portion of our odyssey. Sandwiched between the Charles and Storrow, (hey, maybe I ride past you, DG!) I get to enjoy the view of parks, frog ponds, skylines, and all kinds of cool shit. I also have to dodge every chauncey Back Bay knob with a stroller and a pair of running shoes. What should be a 4 minute rude is tripled, but hey, I did say its pretty scenic.

Eject onto Obrien Highway, wave the bird at the gridlocked motorists and sauté on the 6 lane skillet for a a couple of lights, and bam. At work pouring sweat and red as a... well, boiled lobster.

But damn, do I fucking love it. Also clocks in around 35 minutes.

[all swedes are racist]

Sone 12 to 14 hours later I reverse the steps but without the sleep and the coffee cup is filed with beer.

I like your style. My old bike had a cup holder, and I had a similar routine as above. All I needed was a really fucking long straw.

[The Anti-Targ]

Drive to a point as close as possible where I can park on the street for free, bike from there. The bike ride is probably about 3km. The bike route is almost entirely on shared bike/pedestrian paths all around the harbour waterfront. So there is very little chance of me coming into contact with a moving car, which is great. On really windy days there's a good chance of me coming into contact with a face full of sea spray, which going to work is a bit irksome.

My best ever commute was when I was in country vet practice. My commute was a 20 metre walk from house to clinic.

[Durckad]

My commute is about a 30 minute, 25 mile stretch beginning in rural farmland and ending at the very edge of Chicagoland suburbia. It's not a bad drive though it's really not very scenic. The biggest plus is that there's very little actual traffic. Occasionally I'll get stuck behind someone who doesn't know what the speed limit is but mostly I'm by myself. I leave late enough in the morning and in the evening that I miss both instances of rush hour. I have six disc CD changer in my car so I usually put some CD's into that to try to keep me awake during the commute. If I'm not listening to CD's, I'll usually have NPR on instead.

There are a couple of more alternate, more 'scenic' (as scenic as northeastern Illinois can be I guess...) routes I can take, but those aren't as fast. Sometimes if I feel like changing things up or if it's a nice summer day, I'll take one of those home. It's not the best commute, but it ain't bad. Sometimes I'll have to go and work down even closer to the city and that's a hellish hour and fifteen minute drive on the tollway. I would kill myself if I had to do that everyday.

[Gillio]

My drive to work takes about ten minutes, or two songs, more if i have to stop at the one set of traffic lights.

[Iskaral Pust]

I walk to work most days. ~15 minute brisk walk in downtown Chicago with a beautiful skyline view and a riverside walk. If it's raining or really stupid cold then my wife drives me over. But it takes ~10 minutes to drive from the moment we get in the car to the moment I get out.

When I was commuting to my old office location on the western edge of the Loop, I used to take the river taxi (April through November). 10 minute walk and then 10 minutes of traffice free cruising along the river with a beautiful skyline view. December through March I planned on taking the bus (15 minutes, picked me up right outside my building) but I was too lazy with schedules so I mostly used taxis.

I really, really don't miss my 1:45+ each way commute to and from Manhattan.

[Arkhangel]

When the weather's good I have about twenty minutes of this. When the weather is bad it's about five minutes up the hill and another five on the tram, which is considerably less pretty.