The Daily Commute

I live in Brixton and work across central London. 4-5km. Either walk, run or cycle, anywhere between 10 and 50 minutes. Anything to avoid public transport, although doing Elephant and Castle on a bike is making me rethink that.

SW19 to W2 daily via District Line (when it's fucking working).

I have a 5 minute drive on city streets.

I would ride my bike if I didn't need to drive for work.

There's never any traffic. Never.

The trade off is that I live in a CULTURLESS VOID.

  On 10/2/2012 at 8:00 PM, patternoverlap said:

  On 10/2/2012 at 7:54 PM, theSun said:

the commute is great until i get closer to the city. or i get stuck behind some jerk herp derping in the left lane at the speed limit, going exactly the same speed as the slow traffic and somehow not noticing the 15-car-pile-up-accident-waiting-to-happen behind him

 

fucking lol this happens to me every day

i will never understand why people drive the way they do... i think i'm a perfect driver and it's not really that hard.

Chances are we all do things that others find annoying on the road, but we can at least not do the obvious ones, like driving slow in the passing lane.

there was an very rude, irascible old lady on my commute home this evening.

I cycle.

If I play BoC as I did this morning it takes me about 25 minutes. If I play Slayer about 12.

Sometimes I take the scenic route along the Thames path from Eton Wick to Windsor (picking fresh blackberries from the bushes by the train bridge). Sorry if that winds some of you up

In all honesty I don't know how people put up with that shit in the morning. I've had to get on the odd train at commute time into London and by the time the train arrives somewhere like Southall (travelling to Paddington) I am thinking I'd rather get off and walk, to save my sanity. Fuck all that in the morning.

  On 10/2/2012 at 4:00 PM, Iain C said:

As for cost, just shy of £1,800 a year on Zone 1-3 Travelcards. I rarely leave Zone 3. In fact, I'm not exactly sure what's out there.

I'm out there, in zone 4 :)

I work all around London but find myself in Blackfriars most often. 25 mins on tube from South Woodford. Although I prefer to cycle in. 9.5 mile cycle takes me about 45 minutes. Waiting for my waterproof gear to turn up on Thursday so I can get pedalling again.

i have two jobs, one is only about a 5min drive away...the other is a 2 hour commute. Gas prices are really fucking me up.

It varies, but it usually takes me 30-50 minutes on the subway.

18 minute commute to university (both class and work)

not too bad i guess

Hour and a half in both directions. 2 short bike rides and a train. Seems like a lot but I don't really mind. I can sleep or read on the train and the bike rides are good exercise. All stress free.

~6 miles, half hr. bike ride each way. keeps me in good shape, and gives me good opportunity to think.

0 - 17,000 km

8 mile bike ride to regional train(25 mins). 40 min train ride. 1 mile bike ride(7 mins).

But I broke my arm, so I can't bike for a bit. Now it's 30 min bus ride to another 40 min bus ride, where I am then picked up by my coworker who drives which is 45 mins.

Really want to be biking again.

  On 10/2/2012 at 4:19 PM, zkreso said:

I don't work but it takes me at most 15 minutes to drive to my university. Since most my lectures start and end before "rush hour" there is very rarely any traffic, and even when there is, it dissipates quickly. I get to listen to a couple of tunes on the car stereo. It really gets me in a good mood before the lectures and I look forward to my commute every day. :)

  On 10/2/2012 at 4:21 PM, eugene said:

oh yeah ? fuck you.

lol - I hear yeah eugene - I remember my days of public transport sucking ass too, especially when you realized what little distance you make at that rate of travel. I do enjoy driving on long road trips, you're lucky about no traffic zkreso

My wife and I carpool (so fuck you hybrid owners who drive alone - I'm just as green on paper) and it's a 9 mile or so drive - 20 minutes tops in the morning, steady traffic but anywhere from 30-45 afterwork

it's often 0-5 mph bumper to bumper shit on what is normally a 60mph road and to make it worse I drive a manual - sometimes I take a longer backway with actual driving involved for my own sanity

worst part - I am almost certain my commute is longer because of the amount of texting that goes on in traffic - people see it's slow so they get on their cells and drive even slower. at least once on my afternoon commute I'll glance at surrounding cars and see everyone else glancing down and/or typing with both hands. when I drive on an overpass of the same kind of traffic you can often see huge stretches of hundreds of meters of empty space emerge because someone failed to look up from their phone and therefore holds back an entire lane for a good 10-15 seconds - those delays add up, it's mind-boggling to think about

so yeah fuck texting, fuck people - this country is so fucking spoiled when it comes to driving privileges

  On 10/3/2012 at 7:40 AM, joshuatx said:

 

it's often 0-5 mph bumper to bumper shit on what is normally a 60mph road and to make it worse I drive a manual - sometimes I take a longer backway with actual driving involved for my own sanity

 

Respect for driving a manual in the US arent 99% of cars over there autos or is that a huge generalisation?

Have you a European motor or do you prefer manuals?

  On 10/2/2012 at 11:20 PM, Obel said:

I work all around London but find myself in Blackfriars most often.

I'm on Blackfriars road. We should get a pint one evening!

The company I work for just moved to a city office 7km from my place so I've been walking to and from work most days. Takes just over an hour if I don't fuck around (I usually do). Took the tram home today though because I was feeling tired. Ugh. Packed as fuck, a screaming baby, and people who didn't know how to use the ticket machines. Walking is so much better for my sanity!

  On 10/3/2012 at 9:33 AM, onesixoneight said:

  On 10/3/2012 at 7:40 AM, joshuatx said:

it's often 0-5 mph bumper to bumper shit on what is normally a 60mph road and to make it worse I drive a manual - sometimes I take a longer backway with actual driving involved for my own sanity

 

 

Respect for driving a manual in the US arent 99% of cars over there autos or is that a huge generalisation?

 

Have you a European motor or do you prefer manuals?

I generally like driving manuals - I had a 96' VW Jetta and now a 2006 Scion xB - those both have fairly loose clutches though. I feel more in control overall. My next car has to be auto though - too much slow traffic driving day-to-day and I'm sure when I have kids it'll be a mutual benefit having an automatic.

2012 - 7% of cars sold with manual transmission, don't think it includes sports/luxury cars with paddle-shifters or dual clutches, etc. A lot of people in their 20s and 30s have no idea how to drive manuals - I was shocked when I briefly worked as a parking valet that there were coworkers hired who couldn't drive shift. I don't think they're going to be around for long in "standard" cars - personally I think in the decades to come it'll be self-driving cars as the new "automatics."

I drive about a half hour. but i live in a beautiful little community with no traffic at 5am (I am on the mainland but the only way to get to where i live is by ferry or seaplane) so the drive is a pleasant way to start my day. coming home is much harder.

  On 10/2/2012 at 7:54 PM, theSun said:

 

the commute is great until i get closer to the city. or i get stuck behind some jerk herp derping in the left lane at the speed limit, going exactly the same speed as the slow traffic and somehow not noticing the 15-car-pile-up-accident-waiting-to-happen behind him

flol

there was an extremely twitchy, clearly insane man sitting next to me on my commute this morning, who kept mumbling savagely to himself while making small jagged movements with his hands.

3.9 mile cycle Brixton -> Battersea. 20 minute train -> Brentford ~ £15 p/w Can leave 40 minutes before work.

If I cycle.

Otherwise at least 1 hour 20 minutes of hell walking and swiping in and out of stations haemorrhaging money. £50 p/w - have to leave 90 minutes before work.

I chose Battersea as the train is empty at that stop, fucking poor people who get on at Clapham Junction in a scrum. Fucking standing up enroute to work, fuck it with an expensive stick.

  On 10/3/2012 at 11:34 PM, BCM said:

there was an extremely twitchy, clearly insane man sitting next to me on my commute this morning, who kept mumbling savagely to himself while making small jagged movements with his hands.

I hadn't had my bircher muesli.