How much of a commute is too much

pat k · 25-11-2018 11:07am

My job now is @5 min drive away so I am lucky I don't have to spend longer in the car going/coming to/from work every day , tho it is the longest drive to work I have atm but once had a job that was next door to where I live so that was an agonising 30 second walk Lol .Thankfully I live in Kilkenny so most places of employment would be close enough tg

_Kaiser_ · 25-11-2018 11:12am

aido79 wrote: »

Last week I had to leave my house at 2am and drive 2 hours to an airport, get a flight for an hour and 45 minutes then get on a bus for a 3 hour drive...all for 2 days work.
That's too long of a commute!

Is that a regular thing though?

I occasionally have to go into Dublin City centre to our office there, or there'll be a few occasions coming up that I may have to fly to the UK - both of which are a fair bit of disruption to my normal hour-each-way commute on the motorway.

But it's rare enough that it's not a major hassle (comes with the job I'm in) and I can claim all the expenses so I can live with it for the benefit of the experience, job satisfaction and the extra money the role pays over my last one.

If you want the bigger wage packet and advancement, unfortunately it's part of the deal nowadays.

_Kaiser_ · 25-11-2018 11:17am

facehugger99 wrote: »

I know plenty of lads that live and work in Dublin and it takes them over an hour each way to get to/from work.

That's exactly it.

You see people talking about others driving an hour or so in/out of Dublin and how crazy it is... But it take more than that just to get out of the city centre to the M50 at rush hour!

I drive in from 2 counties away but its motorway pretty much all the way, I have flexible hours, and I can work from home at least one day a week - all without questioning, but I don't abuse it either.

I'd rather that than being 10 minutes from the office but then I have no real ties to Dublin anymore either.

blackbox · 25-11-2018 11:18am

A lot depends on your attitude.

If you are stressed out in the car, always wondering if you would be better off in the other lane, the even 30 minutes could be too much.

However, if you treat the commute as relaxing leisure time, listening to your favourite music or to the radio and knowing you will get there in the end, an hour or more should be ok.

_Kaiser_ · 25-11-2018 11:21am

blackbox wrote: »

A lot depends on your attitude.

If you are stressed out in the car, always wondering if you would be better off in the other lane, the even 30 minutes could be too much.

However, if you treat the commute as relaxing leisure time, listening to your favourite music or to the radio and knowing you will get there in the end, an hour or more should be ok.

I find the most stressful part of the drive is the other drivers

Even if you are just moving along listening to the stereo, you have to contend with the tailgaters, the idiots lane hopping to get a car length ahead and trying to pull out in front of you, the dawdlers doing 80 or less for no reason and causing a rolling roadblock etc etc.

Slightly Off peak travel is definitely the way to go if you can manage it

GaGa21 · 25-11-2018 4:49pm

And I had no interest in either, especially an hour walk when I was going to be on my feet for 10 hour shifts. Alright for those sitting at an office desk all day I suppose.

Wildly Boaring · 25-11-2018 4:59pm

In the office 2 or 3 days a week

Anywhere in the south of the country the rest.

Office is 35 min drive.
I actually enjoy it.

Leave house about 7.55 in for 8.30.
Get the news at 8. Then some music.

Enough time to wake up in the morning, enough time to ring a couple people on way home.

The other days can be a 5 min drive or 2.5 hour drive. Might need to be there for 8 or 9.30.
These have varying amounts of enjoyment. But basically I don't mind it.

26-11-2018 11:49am

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

...............If you're in pharma or medical devices, Dublin is not the place to be.

No one wants to be in med devices

There's fook loads of bio-pharma in Dublin.
Two recent €500M projects and another one kicking off, in addition to what was here for years. Pfizer GC is the largest in the country still.

cherryghost · 26-11-2018 12:09pm

If I work normal work hours: Over 1hr in, 40mins back.
If I work late hours (2pm-1pm): 35min in, 30 mins back.

That morning commute is such a pain. I wouldnt mind but I
a) Am not commuting cross city
b) Live just outside the M50 ring

IrishGrimReaper · 26-11-2018 12:20pm

East side of Galway City to Spiddal.

Approx 40 minutes in the morning and around 55 minutes home in the evening.

Used to take over an hour getting home around a year ago, mad considering it's 20km each way. I use a motorbike now and it's bang on 35 minutes each way now.

Lau2976 · 26-11-2018 12:30pm

I work from home now so 0 but in college it was 2 hours each way driving at peak. Or 1.5 hours on the bus. It was horrible. I was working in a cinema at the time too so I was up at 6.30 every morning, home at 7-8 depending on when my classes finished and then in work for 10- 1 or 2 depending on last showing. It seriously nearly killed me. I had no quality of life.

I’d push to maybe an hour and a half If really necessary

CheerLouth · 26-11-2018 12:55pm

I commute twice a week - can take between 1.5hrs and 2 hrs to get there & up to 1.15hrs to get home. The other three days I WFH. Even though it's only twice a week, I dread those days. It's just the waste of time sitting stopped on the M50. But I'm very lucky to be able to work from home so much.

TooObvious · 26-11-2018 1:03pm

PlaneSpeeking wrote: »

I"m fairly sure you're aware not everybody is able bodied enough to do that ?

Plus I'm fairly sure the N7 is off limits to bikes so that's us culchies screwed.

In answer to your question, I wouldn't in a perfect world choose to have 22 hours a week in commuting but my dad is secure in the Midlands whilst I work and I have a decent house for a decent rent, not like colleagues who share a box for 1800 a month.

What commute is too much ? Cannot be answered, it's up to the individual's life and what's in it.

N7 from Naas is fine for bikes.

I drove to work this morning, leaving Kill at about 7.45, arrived in D2 by 9.15am - not bad going. I'm lucky to have a parking space and showers in work, so for the rest of the week i pretty much cycle in and out via the N7, I'm one of maybe 2 or 3 doing it year round - it increases in the Summer months mind.

It's not a bad cycle, traffic going in is slow moving so i generally keep up with it, quite often I will be faster to get to the red cow - thereafter bike wins all the way.

Generally it takes about an hour each way.

twowheelsonly · 26-11-2018 11:48pm

griffin100 wrote: »

The issue is the lack of high paid jobs outside Dublin. Not many €100k jobs outside Dublin.

Plenty of jobs in that category outside of Dublin. Having said that, I'd guesstimate that an €80k job outside the Pale would net you just the same as a €100k job within between cheaper housing and general living expenses as well as less time commuting/stuck in traffic.

BBFAN · 26-11-2018 11:55pm

twowheelsonly wrote: »

Plenty of jobs in that category outside of Dublin. Having said that, I'd guesstimate that an €80k job outside the Pale would net you just the same as a €100k job within between cheaper housing and general living expenses as well as less time commuting/stuck in traffic.

In my experience, about 20 jobs in the higher bracket within areas outside the pale as opposed to 300 jobs within the pale so a huge difference.

twowheelsonly · 27-11-2018 12:04am

BBFAN wrote: »

In my experience, about 20 jobs in the higher bracket within areas outside the pale as opposed to 300 jobs within the pale so a huge difference.

I presume you're quoting that as an approximate ratio. In my experience that ratio would be far closer but would also be dependent on the industry in question. You also have to allow for a 'Dublin premium' rather than be fixated on the magic 100k. Plenty of people would get by just the same on the lower figure if they were prepared to give up Dublin but, again IMO, many seem to have some sort of irrational fear of missing out on something.

Cookie_Monster · 27-11-2018 12:09am

Anything more than 30 mins is out for me, apart from cycling home on a nice day where it can be 2 hours+

aido79 · 27-11-2018 1:45am

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Is that a regular thing though?

I occasionally have to go into Dublin City centre to our office there, or there'll be a few occasions coming up that I may have to fly to the UK - both of which are a fair bit of disruption to my normal hour-each-way commute on the motorway.

But it's rare enough that it's not a major hassle (comes with the job I'm in) and I can claim all the expenses so I can live with it for the benefit of the experience, job satisfaction and the extra money the role pays over my last one.

If you want the bigger wage packet and advancement, unfortunately it's part of the deal nowadays.

The drive to the airport and the flight used to be a regular thing(weekly) but not as much these days as I've changed jobs.
I used to work 7 days on 7 days off so the time off made it bearable. The pay packet was similar to what I would earn working closer to home though.

incentsitive · 27-11-2018 1:26pm

After the traffic in Dublin this morning - any commute is too much.

Graces7 · 27-11-2018 2:23pm

in my first teaching job, i left home at 7.15, caught a local bus, then connected with the school bus for an hour's drive.

Reversed after school and home around 6 pm or.later. Both ways laden with exercise books etc.

Learned to drive and got a mini in sheer self defence.

Commuting is...

Tchaikovsky · 27-11-2018 3:14pm

incentsitive wrote: »

After the traffic in Dublin this morning - any commute is too much.

Tuesday + rain = nightmare traffic.

Ray Bloody Purchase · 27-11-2018 4:03pm

Anything that involves sitting in a car or bus like a flute for over twenty minutes.

Tazzimus · 27-11-2018 4:10pm

Tchaikovsky wrote: »

Tuesday = nightmare traffic.

Don't need the rain in that to have nightmare traffic of a Tuesday

My commute depends on how many crashes are on the M4 and M50.
Average is about 50 minutes in the morning and an hour and a half in the evenings, but I've spend 2 1/2 hours trying to get home some evenings, all while trying not to kill everyone from frustration.

CheerLouth · 27-11-2018 4:21pm

Tazzimus wrote: »

but I've spend 2 1/2 hours trying to get home some evenings, all while trying not to kill everyone from frustration.

This! Car on fire on the M1 last night. As we get closer to it & the cars from the affect lane are trying to merge in, car in front of me starts weaving all over the place :mad: No idea what he was trying to do - either rubber-necking or else thinking he was going to somehow skip in front of another car. And he probably wonders how accidents happen so easily!

Rant over! :P

threein99 · 27-11-2018 4:23pm

Ray Bloody Purchase wrote: »

Anything that involves sitting in a car or bus like a flute for over twenty minutes.

You are a cyclist so your opinion doesn't count

joking

Tazzimus · 27-11-2018 4:30pm

CheerLouth wrote: »

This! Car on fire on the M1 last night. As we get closer to it & the cars from the affect lane are trying to merge in, car in front of me starts weaving all over the place :mad: No idea what he was trying to do - either rubber-necking or else thinking he was going to somehow skip in front of another car. And he probably wonders how accidents happen so easily!

Rant over! :P

M1 must be a combustion zone, constantly cars going on fire along there lately.

Rubbernecking will cause me to kill someone some evening.

amcalester · 27-11-2018 4:33pm

Tazzimus wrote: »

M1 must be a combustion zone, constantly cars going on fire along there lately.

Rubbernecking will cause me to kill someone some evening.

You should probably stop doing it then :pac:

BrokenArrows · 27-11-2018 4:38pm

My commute is 45-50 minutes at the moment and it's fine but there is a big difference between my 50 minute commute and my old 50 minute commute.

I'm in London.

Current commute is 10 minute walk to the train station, 20 minutes on a train and always get a seat, change to the DLR line which leaves from the same platform as I get off the train, I don't get a seat but it's not that busy. 10 minutes on the DLR train and then less than 5 minutes to my desk.

My old commute was 5 minutes walk to the Northern Line tube, wait for a tube, it's full, wait for another tube, it's full, eventually get onto tube, 25 minutes on sardeen canned tube with no ventilation, get off tube, get onto another tube which is about 40 degrees in the summer 10 minutes, spend 5 minutes fighting to get out of the station and 5 minutes walk to work.

Current commute is relaxing and a nice wind down after a day at work.

Same as someone driving through the country side for 50 minutes without traffic Vs 50 minutes fighting Dublin city traffic.

Tazzimus · 27-11-2018 4:45pm

amcalester wrote: »

You should probably stop doing it then :pac:

Well, I walked into that one.

*tips hat*

amcalester · 27-11-2018 4:49pm

Tazzimus wrote: »

Well, I walked into that one.

*tips hat*

Too busy rubbernecking.

How much of a commute is too much

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