Good luck to you I hope you can find something without such a hard commute! Its not uncommon in my suburban town for it to take 20 minutes to go less than five miles. Growing up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, my friends parents would take the Metra train into Chicago for their jobs. The further west you go (i.e. But hes got a scooter so at least doesnt have to change trains 5 times. Since the pandemic, he has only come home twice, each time with two-week quarantine. They qualify for the green stickers that allow you to use the carpool lane, even if youre driving solo. Since your boss wants you to stay late, maybe youll miss the bulk of the evening traffic. I worked swing shift, which helped, but I also had a sports car, which I *loved* to drive! It might be normal for some people, but that doesnt mean accepting it is your only option. By bus (three buses total) it takes an hour. My 40 minute commute was in a rural area and it was beautiful, winding road, lakes and lots and lots of wildlife. That was enough for us. Im in LA area and have decided to only use Waze if Ive feeling adventurous, have a full tank of gas, and my common sense has taken leave of me. This has NOTHING to do with some unwarranted assumptions on the basis ofa combination of style and socioeconomics and EVERYTHING to do with real threats shes had to her personal safety. Or Glendale to Long Beach. The weather is compatible and for that distance it should be much, much faster. I drove from southeast LA county to central OC for 7 years, about 35 miles each way. This 30-year-old commutes 4 hours and 140 miles for work in San Francisco every day. Hoping you get another job soon and closer to home! Door to door including the walk from my parking 15 minutes. I've travelled the same route before during rush hour and it varied. Even a cab will take me about 30 minutes due to rush hour traffic. AZ for the win. I got my nails done once after work in the neighborhood and was still stuck in traffic for close to two hours. But yeah, two hours isnt unheard of for any of those cities. I live six miles from my work, and it takes me fifty-five minutes by public transit (when its working on time, etc) and about an hour and fifteen by car. But the salient point here is that the OP is asking if she has to just suck it up because *shrug*, thats LA, and so many of us are saying that while LA traffic is indeed ridiculous, there are better and worse commutes, and we are reassuring OP that people in LA do indeed make choices that allow them to have more manageable commutes within the terrible, horrible, no-good traffic. Im in Atlanta too. Its also better for the environment and limits your cars exposure to CA freeway road hazards, because we all know theyre not very well maintained and CA drivers can be Irrational. You could cycle 8 miles in 30 mins. rt commute, it would definitely shave time off, but it would only be workable if you LOVE bikes. My employer pays for my bus pass and my current salary is decent, which takes away from the sting of this commute. Now that I work in DC, I leave my house at 6:28am to catch a 6:35am train and get to work at 7:45am, but I take a commuter train and get to sleep for another 45 minutes. our employee is taking nude photos in our office and posting them to Facebook, company says only moms can work at home, was I rude for turning down a carpool, and more, overreaching wellness meetings, rambling coworker monopolizing trainings, and more. So consume as much content as you can. Plus I got hungry on that long commute. It costs you weekends when you dont go out and do much because youre so tired and just want to stay out of the car for once. One hour might be okay if it was on the train, and I had a seat both ways, I could get lots of reading done and enjoy some TV shows and movies from Amazon and Netflix. I was going to suggest, shorter term, perhaps finding a gym you like close to where you are working, so as to cut down your commute time by either getting there early in the morning OR staying late to let some of the nonsense thin out. No idea if LA has decent public transit on your route, but you might check into buses, subways, or carpools (the company that operates our buses will try to help put together vanpools that commute to & from the same areas, so check LAs bus website for that if interested). I used to live in a northern suburb of chicago and commuted 30 miles to the south side of the city by car (public transit wasnt an option because of the areas it would take me through to get there). Theres the official Commuter Express routes run by LADOT, but many of the far-flung suburbs have a special express bus service to get people to LA (Foothill Transit comes to mind). If I moved to the mountains, barring a resort town I found find the same Im sure. Saying that, Im happy to abandon working with my other half if my job application for a job 15 minutes from home is successful ! I started biking to and from work because it took me 30 mins regardless of what trafficwas . I am so thankful that I work from home. I think that explain it all. If you otherwise like your job, is moving closer to work an option? I'd only have the radio or a small collection of CD's to help pass the time. Unfortunately, for that area and the commute you are doing 1.5 is the norm. However, I know not every long distance job has carpool buddies, so I understand that can be difficult. And if your car breaks down, it's gonna be a difficult and lengthy public transport commute to work. I considered that a good commute it was the shortest one I had the whole time I lived there. Its just a matter of life in a major metro area. Im contemplating a long (1.5 hr) commute as part of my next job. That makes it more bearable. Yeah, I already made up my mind Im leaving. I live 15 miles from all directions from Boston. Short commutes on the east coast are for people who can afford to live close to work. I drove through 6 school zones. There are only a handful of cities where you can really rely on public transportation. ! turns out, its even worse than people said. Are there any yoga classes after work? I moved northeast from my job in Fairfield county, CT and went from 20 mins each way to at least an hour, sometimes 90 mins. I lived and worked in L.A. in the 80s, and I spent 60 minutes driving each way. What can you sustain long term without living in misery? Right now my commute is 45 minutes by bus, which I love. I couldnt handle that. heres some free help preparing for job interviews. I live/work in northern VA (just south of DC), and traffic is notoriously bad here, as well, though not as bad as in LA. Good luck to you! I got tired of leaving 20 minutes early just in case (even though in the end my bike ride took the same amount of time, it was just more consistent). I used to live in LA got a job in Santa Monica and commuted from the Valley. You would think they would make a more robust commuter system there, but then again, I am not totally sold on how well we can manage train systems in this country either . That's train, tube, walk and drive to the station. Id also like to +1 on the ability to search google maps for drive time estimates for your next position. I would move closer to work but cant afford it. Oh and the surrounding areas that are between my home and LA lets just say Im not out to gentrify those plots. I have TAP cards for both LA and San Diego, and I live in Orange County. The mitigating factor there was that I worked from home 2 days a week and had additional flexibility, otherwise it would have driven me insane. Your response seems fairly normal (and not at all stupid!) fully agree on the audiobooks it saves me from road rage on my commute! If I left after 4 it was definitely going to take at least 2-3 hours. Ill check them out again, though, thank you! I dont think there is anything wrong with looking for a position closer to where you live. They say the key to happiness in LA is a short commuteits totally true. It is already better than Orange County(by far) and seems about as mobile and easy as Los Angeles, but with more trolleys and light rail, rather than subways and light rail like LA. For almost 3 years my commute was 4 hours daily and another commute was 3 hours with a toddler buckled in the car seat I needed her day care to be close to my work because of emergencies. I work in DC and commute from less than 8 miles away. Driving would be too stressful. A common saying here is to live where you work and thats exactly what I did. I actually lived in Boston and LA so am qualified to answer. OK, I realize this is coming at the end of a loooong thread, but this all simultaneously made me weirdly homesick (Bay Area native) AND thinking about The Californians sketch on SNL and how true it is, Get on the 405 and never come back, Steeeewarrrrt!. In fact, note to OP, in NYC there are plenty of people who commute 2 hours because they have to in order to afford rent. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. I took it once: it was a two-hour train ride from end to end. No wonder. If youve ever seen LA traffic in a movie or on the news, where the freeways look like parking lots, you are seeing the reality of it- some places look like that almost all day long! I grew up in Fairfield/Vallejo area, in fact, for that exact reason it was where my parents could afford to live, and my dad commuted from there to Hayward for years. For a couple of years I drove from the Hampshire coast to Bristol Monday morning, stayed in digs, drove home again on Friday evening. Ive commuted 90 minutes for one job and 40 minutes for my last job. Yeah once I had stopped an hour commute, I shudder thinking about ever having to do that again. Ive been lucky in that Ive very often lived walking or bicycling distance from work (although my definition of bicycling distance is probably a lot longer than other peoples). I live in a big city with a lot of surrounding suburbs that makes a huge metro area. All on Audible and all great! No one here can really give you that insight, and based on your letter, it sounds like this simply isnt going to work. But in this case there is wide spread collective knowledge that confirms the traffic. etc. Most of it is interstate driving. The most frustrating thing about it is we could have had such a nice light rail system by now had people in the late 60s/early 70s not voted down the initiative (with 2/3rds of the project federally funded). It might be normal for an area, but that doesnt mean its a good thing. Southern California is wonderful, but the traffic is just miserable, but again, it is a trade off for living there. In first period, kids were talking Man, did you see that flat squirrel near the main entrance? Yeah, it was SO FLAT! The only time Ive ever gotten stuck in traffic in my commute is when theres a wreck, and everyone decides to exit in one lump. If there is a problem it gets worse (on all my possible routes). I didnt love it, but it wasnt too bad since it wasnt a straight-up crawl unless there was an accident. Now driving, that's a different issue. SO much better. Yeah, I think this is the disconnect for me in theory, you could pack in the cars all driving 1 foot apart at 60 mph just fine and everyone would get there in the same time as if they were alone on the road, but humans will never drive like that. One way!). I was just about to point out this every same thing. That is three hours a day or 15 hours a week that they waste in the car or train. Mine is 35-45 minutes by public transport, and thats about my limit. Total travel time: 12 hours. It was horrid. Im putting in my notice during my 3-month review.No point leading them on, I know even if I stayed another month Id still quit in the end and its impossible to interview without calling out with these hours. Some people sleep (completely safe to do there) and its great to see how many read books. Ugh, 4 hours a day commuting sounds awful. Theres a radio sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound, his autobiography Back Story and a radio panel show called The Unbelievable Truth. This is so bad for the environment it makes me want to cry. I no longer am off at noon on Fridays, but Im also on top of chores and household tasks, so that by Friday Im off Im not spending it cleaning the whole house. Long Beach is SO much nicer. Im in the Tulsa, OK area and our average commute is 20 minutes so 2 hours is absurd given my frame of reference. It was ridiculous; I stuck it out until I was able to transfer closer a couple years ago. No, Id have to move or find another job! Ive done a 90 minute commute for a while, but that was a solid train trip where Id reliably get a seat and could happily play with my phone or read to unwind on the journey to and from work. It would take me only 15 min longer to walk, which I should probably start doing! 30s, 53, female here. Now Im constantly having friends visit and being like OK so were going to stay in Santa Monica and tomorrow well go to the Norton Simon museum and then Universal Studios. Oh no! That article *really* misses how inflated housing cost are in some urban centers. How is it? Its really all about what youre willing to trade for a shorter commute. If I work 8-5 or 8-4:30, its closer to an hour each way. Absolutely brutal. I assume the writer lives in the valley and works on the ocean side which means theres only one way through the mountains the 405, aka the busiest highway in the country. If he doesnt know any different, it wont seem that bad. Have you actually taken the train? SoCal living! Our combined household income was about 60k; according to sperlings COL calculator itd need to be about 150k to get the same QOL in SF. That seems like it would probably be the best solution in this case, given that you seem to be pretty happy with where you live otherwise. I also knew many many people who commuted to the central valley from the Bay Area on a daily basis because thats where they could afford to buy a house and that could be two hours each way which sounded like a nightmare (the commute and cost of housing is why I no longer live in CA). It depends on where you start and where you end up but I am not surprised. I decided to move to a location thats 20 minutes by bus from work. I always changed the subject when people got bug-eyed about my commute time or complained about an accident. Around Chicago, my commute is a 30-40 minute drive from suburb to suburb (Schaumburg/Elgin to Mt. Keeping your car clean will probably also help a lot. My point count your blessings everytime you feel that your commute of 1 hour took too long. haha, i had to leave. I grew up in NJ and live in south Florida now, FWIW. And of course the more high-paying tech jobs are added there, the higher the demand for housing there is. Come on. For a while, my work commute was about 3 minutes, which was nice, but that was when I was living in Ogden, and commuting to Salt Lake for school, and I hit rush hour going to school, so it was a lot worse. I spoke to my manager, and he agreed to this and said I can commute once per week (when the office opens up again). Being able to flexible about starting and ending times was the most helpful thing, but learning the traffic patterns is also key, especially on the freeway. So I dont have to be actively driving. I used to have a 15 mile LA commute that was never less than 45 minutes and would reach 2 hours at least a couple of tines a week. Im in Atlanta, which is notoriously bad for commutes. Ive been running after aliens in 4-inch heels and Mulder just does not appreciate that as much as he should. We live in the same town where we work, but across a dividing highway with limited cross-over options, so some of it is just crossing the highway or navigating campus traffic. I love driving but I hate commuting. (Also no left turns! Im a slight woman, Asian, in my mid twenties and took the train from LB to DTLA for work. That said, how normal or common something is isnt always relevant to whether it works for you! door to door. You would think Id have an easy quick commute. If youre not willing to move, youll have to switch your hours to off-peak commute times or get a new job. I grew up in CoCoCounty (fam is still there), and so much of the County was working class that I never really thought of it as unaffordable until the last 10-15 years or so. Also consider LA County healthcare jobs closer to where you live Russian is considered a threshold language in the county, so there is a requirement to make written materials and services accessible to Russian-primary or Russian-only residents. Your commute time hasnt changed to worse from NYC to LA, your commute distance did. But 2 hours? I feel so blessed that they didnt hire me! When my lease ended, I moved to Cathedral Heights, and Ive really loved the neighborhoodI have 25-minute walking commute, and its lovely. (I mean, you can also take the Sepulveda pass but nobody does). Its a problem of too many people, too many cars. My aunt lives in Palos Verde. Could easily be an hour. You do have control over your car! It was part of the reason I ended up quitting that job. Hopefully these new transportation options will benefit commuters like OP. I miss some things about city life, but I dont miss city commutes, and I will have to be living somewhere amazing to go back to that kind of lifestyle. When I lived in New York I knew people who commuted in from the suburbs, and it generally took them about 2 hours. Even if it is closer/more flexible. Im 54 and not exactly tough-looking, but I used public transit regularly while living in downtown LA for seven years before moving out of the area last fall. The other day I had to leave at 4 p.m. to take my cat to the vet at (6:30 p.m.!) A commute of 40-45 minutes per day is good for this area. But my personal situation requires more flexibility than a carpool would allow and the stress of heavy traffic every morning and evening is just too much. As youre looking for your next job, maybe try putting the commute into Google or Bing Maps with your normal leaving or arrival times? is not affordable at all. I dont even care if its normal or not for the area, it feels awfully stressful and unhealthy. Of course this being LA, die down is relative. Uh, it totally depends on what your commute is the Bay Area too. I had a commute that was about 40 minutes each-way in no traffic (Atlanta). I live and work in different parts of LA than you do, but I and my husband have both had some really awful commutes since weve moved out here. Two hours by car in traffic sounds utterly vile. What gets me about your situation is that your commute is all driving if you were on a train or a subway you could at least multi-task with other activities. But I will say even when I worked 12 miles from my home, it was 40-45 minutes. My parents are the same waysmall city folk who come to visit in my mid-size city and are like, Do we HAVE to drive downtown? And when Im home they encourage me not to go places during rush hour, which equals just steady, moving traffic. So my only advice, which is pretty unhelpful, is think seriously about how long you might wanna be in this job and then, if it seems like a while, just move closer. Im in the DC area and for a year my commute was 1 hr in the morning and 2.5 hr in the afternoon (on good days) so I feel your pain. by foot : 30 minutes I know people who do it but they all hate it. Also, Metro is beefing up security on lines and I would always see sherriffs on board checking fares. Is it worth travelling 1.5/2 hours to University everyday or would it be better to live in halls. I had a 15-minute commute for 11 years. I didnt want to go ahead and find a place in Anaheim and then find out I was gonna have to commute to Burbank every morning. Ive done a 2 hour each way commute, but I hated it. I once had a job where, about a month after I arrived, my boss decided instead of working on the main site (lovely building, 10-minute walk from my flat, in a fun, vibrant city), Id spend 80% of my time at an alternative site. Learned that lesson the hard way! I would text my friend/workers a picture of myself sitting on my couch at 5:20, while they were still at the subway stop. Unfortunately it is normal. Even then I thought I had no time for anything outside of work! I probably massively bore my friends lately by pushing audiobooks and going on about my favourites. If I left super early I could avoid it, but I would hit it on the way home. This is usually out of desperation or not grasping how the commute issues will effect you. When I lived in LA, I worked off hours (usually 1pm-9pm) and still spent most of my drive not moving in traffic so what should have been a 30 minute commute was normally 1-1.5 hours. Somewhat staggered hours. ), and I will have some time for me again. 8 oil changes a year, $320. im so excited. Ive lived in the greater LA area my entire life traveling from the eastern edges of the county westward into LA and a 2-3 hour drive into the downtown area has always been the normal in my experience. My current drive isnt bad at all, but it is certainly not as pleasant as riding the bus. I moved recently (several blocks down the street) and joke about how my commute doubled from 4 minutes to 8 minutes. I know most people would love that, but living that close to work would stress me out (not being able to disconnect, running into people after hours, etc.). I think thats my cutoff. Delays are constant, leaves on the track, problematic signals, repair work etc. If youre in Norwalk or somewhere similar, it might be possible to go to the nearest Amtrak/Metrolink station, park, and take the train the rest of the way. Yeah, this is an interesting point. I used to live in southern California and that is not unusual. Thats true. So for all of the people saying its normal, it may not be abnormal, but its also not particularly common. (None of this is easy in LA, but its the only solution for long-term happiness.) My commute is 7 minutes from door to door. It was 27 miles, and 2 hours one way most days. Find a coffee shop or library, get shopping done, get a haircut, or take your coworkers out for drinks until later in the evening when everythings died down. Loads of people have to do that daily, so twice a week is piece of piss. DC area. Oh, OP, I feel for you. And there wasnt an accident or anything, just traffic. Intolerable. One thing I love about my bike commute is that the timing is very dependable regardless of traffic or conditions. If its just a paycheck.Id be looking elsewhere or to move. When I lived in Chicago, I commuted reverse from just south of downtown to a suburb out by the airport, and it was routinely 2 1/2 hours one way. I ignored that rule in ex job and spent four years regretting it when I had a 90 minute commute each way that occasionally stretched to 2 hours (thank you and goodnight South Western railway). (Think of Clueless, when Chers dad tells her Everywhere in LA takes 20 minutes. That is just for the city center of LA, like Hollywood to the Westside, on a good day. Not only are all houses money pits, my executive function issues are too severe for me to deal with the major responsibility of it all. It made a huge difference for me. I take an express bus, so with traffic, it can be 2 hours one way. Did 2.5 hours each way in the Bay area. Makes the journey so much more enjoyable, to the extent that sometimes Im even looking forward to getting into the car for an extended period. I have a 45 minute commute 1-2 days a week and 10 minutes the rest of the days. It doesnt seem excessive compared to the commutes of others in my office. That is 48,000 miles on your car each year (just for work, closer to 52,000 all in). We had to carpool (one care) and it was fine most of the time, but if something came up, the logistics got complicated. It once took me 3 hours to drive the 15 miles from west LA to Torrance. I dont have personal experience with it, but I have heard that EMDR therapy can work well for PTSD. I love reading, but I have a really difficult time keeping my focused on audiobooks or podcasts or any kind of talking that I need to pay close attention to, and if Im driving I cant follow it at all. Me personally, Im taking a vanpool from the IE to the OC. I do a 2 hour commute each way 2 days a week and it's not too bad, actually quite enjoy the time to myself to read a book. Walking (due to rain or bike injury) takes me about 20-25 minutes. Traffic is bad here but luckily there are trains so I dont have to keep a car. I think its the opposite, actually someone has to work in the restaurants and such in the citys downtown core, and you know the food service workers arent earning enough to pay $2,500/month for a one-bedroom apartment. LA does have public transportation systems, HOV lanes and toll roads to help ease traffic, but they are really inefficient, inadequate and expensive as you get further away into the suburbs so there isnt a big incentive for people to use them. I am in Orange County and it takes me anywhere from 35 minutes to over an hour to drive 14 miles. I would push hard for the flexible schedule idea. Also, Im super surprised about how many AAM readers live in LB yay for us! There are ever-growing RV encampments all over with people just trying to make ends meet. Currently Im at about 25 minutes depending on traffic. Someone mentioned Santa Monica above you would be hard pressed to find a 1-bedroom apartment for under $2000 a month. Going home is just the same thing in reverse. Its not over the top. And thats my hard limit! I used to commute to San Francisco from Redwood City and even taking the express train and express bus to the financial district and back it still took me 2 2 1/2 hours per day (twenty minutes of that was driving the one mile home from the train station), and I thought that was a lot. Its become a phrase to mean I relate too hard in some corners of the internet. I dont live in LA, but I visit frequently and have close friends who do live there. Were not even talking about using any freeways here that would be even longer. It would have to be a pretty awesome job to be worth spending 4 hours daily commuting. On google maps, its less than 10 miles, door to door. At one point, my ATL commute was 2 hours each way, and that was a bit much. I commute 1 hour each way to work (55 miles each way). I have a 10-15 min drive to/from work. I rent a house, and am SO grateful not to be the one that had to pay for repairs! There are so many freeways, and so many work areas nowhere near a freeway. It costs you hours of pay that have to be diverted to higher car maintenance expenses. Im in the Boston area. NYC. I realize its a bit hyperbolic but almost nobody (relatively speaking) has a home in Los Angeles (city) they live in thousands of surrounding communities in the greater LA area and where you live has a lot of class distinctions. Plus, I live near a mall and practically next to a few grocery stores and gas stations, so traffic always sucks in the afternoons. Its one of those things you have to be okay with in your work-life, so if the OP needs a different job with a better commute, that makes total sense to me. I had an hour long commute by car not long ago and I found that audiobooks made the journey so much more enjoyable. Traffic has been getting worse over the last few years, and I tell myself if the drive ever hit 1.5 hours, Id start looking for another job somewhere closer, but the truth is I probably wouldnt. And its tough. OP cant expect her commute to go from 2 hours to 15 minutes because the boyfriend has told her that isnt normal, but she can make reasonable decisions now on how to cut the commute down to a more acceptable hour or hour and a half. My current commute is 14 miles and takes 16 minutes because I work in Sunland, where no one goes ever, so no traffic. Drive, train and subway. Once I figured that out, I started walking the 6 miles to work in San Francisco. In the end, I was only able to handle this for a year. Sitting in traffic makes me miserable person to be around rest of the day. If the traffic in LA in untenable for you, it isnt unreasonable to move to another city if that is a possibility for you. For a while, my husband and I were both commuting in opposite directions from our house, each taking roughly an hour. I live in the suburbs and work in a mid-Atlantic city. There was no traffic. I should have been tipped off by the fact that the HOV lanes run from 5 am to 7 pm both directions seven days a week. My husband has a couple co-workers who wanted to make their home-buying budget go further, so they bought homes and hour and a half from work, two or more hours on heavy days. But sadly, its the norm for a lot of people in the metro areas. So, yes even in LA, a 2-hour one-way commute is on the extreme end of the bell curve of commute times, particularly for auto commute. Traffic during the commute varies widely depending on time. Unfortunately, my university was in deep NW, and my door-to-door commute was about an hour (assuming the Red Line behaved), which was NOT fun when classes get out at 8 PM. That area has decent bus support too for the times youre not feeling a 20 minute walk in the rain! Oh, missed the only twice a week bit. If it's a good work opportunity you might as well give it a try. You get used to it. Another option for the OP, if she is up for it I have some coworkers who have a membership at a gym close to work. Thats just over 33 minutes. I come home for lunch and do dishes, light household chores. Still, commute times in all peer metros have worsened and the Bay Area now falls in the middle of the pack. I picked housing that was 15 miles away instead of the 30 miles away better areas that everyone else thought I should go to because I didnt want an hour commute so Ive been a little disappointed with the 45 minute days, honestly.

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