We increase our contribution to pollution, immediate exposure to vehicular exhaust pollutants, exposure to extreme noise, stress (especially if one drives), exhaustion, disdain for driving, etc.
BHPian alpha1 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.
Inspired by this thread and @ninjatalli’s posts prodding for a poll, I decided to research a bit more about a topic that quite frankly is not a very enjoyable activity personally (office commute). Hopefully, with this forum’s participation, we will gain more information and insight.
With employers like Elon Musk, coming down heavily on employees doing remote work (or “work from home”) and closer to home chronicled the shift from office to home to back to office on our very own TBHP threadthe near future remains confidently and firmly “work at office”.
Additionally, we need to understand that:
- Certain activities absolutely require workers to reach a place of work because the work cannot be taken elsewhere (e.g. manufacturing, warehousing) or
- The work requires multiple interactions with multiple people which our technology hasn’t efficiently solved yet (MS Teams or Zoom is utterly poor substitute for people sitting across the table in the same meeting room, or for that matter, nothing can beat the corridor talk for getting work done by others) or
- Requires critical interactions that lend a huge competitive advantage to physical presence (sales).
- And then there is a behavioral (subheading disciplinary) aspect that we tend to perform the best when we know others are observing and judging us.
OK enough of rationalizing and sermonizing, I am not a promoter/owner of any firm employing others for cumulative productive use of their time, so let me get back into the whining mode.
As a willing participant in modern-day serfdom, I understand that I have to work at the office, but my main issue with returning to the office is the life-sucking commute. Fortuitously, I started my career in a non-metro, and managed to stay under covers (non-metros) for long. 30 minutes tops, one-way duration; and the longest I was in Pune where the home-office duration was 15 minutes. Of course, my work profile led me to travel almost every week to most major and intermediate cities in India, as well as far-flung industrial areas; where I happened to experience and “enjoy” each place’s commute – cementing my resolve never to get caught in the trap of congested metros.
I miss those days, especially after getting lured into the trap… and moving to Mumbai. Mumbai, the land of opportunities, but with no winters and the place of perpetual traffic jams, where everyone is in a hurry, but no one is reaching anywhere. Moving from one place to another place is a minimum of 1 hour (especially because of digging and construction work everywhere). During office rush hours easily 1.5 to 2.5 hours.
Marchetti’s constant claims that people gradually adjust their lives to their conditions (including the location of their homes relative to their workplace) such that the average travel time stays approximately constant. I don’t believe this to be true for the modern urban Indian context, since the average traffic speed hasn’t improved at all in the past few decades. Average commute times are only increasing every year, and people are only getting more comfortable with such demands.
What is your daily commute time = duration of travel from home to office and office to home? Or home to client (if that’s where you spend most of your time) and back?
In any case, what we miss out on during the commute is not just the hours of our precious lives, spent on stagnant slow-moving road but also increase our contribution to pollution, increase immediate exposure to vehicular exhaust pollutants, exposure to extreme noise, exposure to stress (especially if one drives), exhaustion, disdain for driving, and so many more.
However, this lengthy commute also provides us with an opportunity to carry out activities that we perhaps are not able to indulge in, could be multiple factors like social obligations at home (one does only what is enjoyable to most people), no time left because of other previously planned activities…
So how do you like to spend this commute time? What do you do to make these drudgerous daily outings more tolerable, perhaps enjoyable, or god-forbid “LinkedIn-worthy” productive?
Some Indian commute-related statistics:
- Indians spend 7% of their day in office commute
- Average distance between the residence and the office is 15-20 km
- Typical worst times for commute: 9 am and 6 pm
Here’s what GTO had to say about the matter:
My daily office commute is 30 seconds… about the time it takes to walk from my bedroom to the home office. Earlier, it was a 14-km drive to Churchgate. I would leave early in the morning to beat the traffic (20-25 minutes), but there was no escaping rush hour traffic in the evening (1-1.5 hours).
Being stuck in traffic is a colossal waste of time. Ever since I moved to work from home, I use that saved 1.5 hours to work out in the gym.
Here’s what BHPian doomketu had to say about the matter
I am one of the few lucky ones who has a signal-free corridor from basement to basement. The one-way trip is 18 km and takes me about 35 mins of continuous riding to cover. Return journey is usually a bit faster at times but I average out 35-40 mins each way.
Considering this is the Northern Bangalore and eastern Bangalore corridor, I am amazed I managed to get away with such a short commute time for such a distance. 7 years ago it used to take me 1 hour just one way in some corridors.
Here’s what BHPian dailydriver had to say about the matter:
Faced with this question a day earlier, my answer would have been ‘six minutes’. A week later I would probably be answering ‘seventy five minutes’.
The first case represents my current commute from home to office in Chikkamagaluru – a distance of barely three kilometres. The second will be my forthcoming long term daily travel from a major city in Karnataka to a neighborhood taluk place located fifty kilometres away.
Both are for work and by car.
Given the experiences of fellow members living in the metros and other major urban centres, must say I am not too worried!
Here’s what BHPian sachin_cs had to say about the matter:
Currently, my daily commute is 80-100kms (to & fro) depending on the evening plans – if I’m socialising or not. Journey time is 35 mins in the morning and 1 hour in the evening. Honestly, I don’t mind doing the long commute because I love driving and the traffic in Raipur is not as bad as other big metro cities. I do get a patch to push my car every day and I just love that. My commute is 70% highway and the rest in the city. This is one of the reasons why I have done 55,000kms in just last 2 years in my lovely Rapid DSG TDI, I’m not complaining though.
Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
