this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2025
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Today I Learned

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[–] semisimian@startrek.website 179 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Marchetti intended the constant to be 1 hour round trip, so a half-hour commute one-way. It's an important distinction, since here in Atlanta the exurban commuter is clocking in at 1.5 hours or more into the city, well outside of what is considered tolerable. Multiply that by a million and you get some irritated people.

[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 17 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Is housing that expensive in Atlanta?

[–] spongebue@lemmy.world 52 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Its traffic is notoriously bad, so you don't have to live far away to deal with a long commute.

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[–] Leather@lemmy.world 57 points 4 days ago

This is totally bullshit, the Starbucks CEO hardly minds his 2-3ish hr commute from CA to Seattle by private jet.

If the poors weren't so stupid and lazy they'd buy jets for a more comfortable commute too. /s

[–] CatDogL0ver@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

And productivty drops for most people after 6 hours of working.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 81 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I know a guy that's doing at least once a week, probably more, commute from DC to New York City. To be a product guy at a like 5 person company. As if you really need to be in a shared office to move jira tickets, ask eng again "How's that feature coming?", and so on. The CEO is a crazy person.

The CEO is also making the front end developer guy who lives in Connecticut come into the office 2-3 times a week. So he can work on his web page, the one with the code stored on github.

I hate all this "return to office" stuff. I don't care about management's feelings or real estate investments, and I don't care about people who hate their family and can't focus at home. Making people commute is a pay cut and a blow against labor.

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 38 points 4 days ago (1 children)

My department just got called in for an RTO with zero warning, with 3 days in person for a ~160 person department.

There are ~20 desks available. Do the math.

This next week is going to be a disaster for their coked up idea of good business practices.

[–] Mistakes@sopuli.xyz 26 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Please update us if you can, that sounds like a delicious level of schadenfreude.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)
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[–] AngryRobot@lemmy.world 63 points 4 days ago

I have diabetic retinopathy and about 10 years ago, I saw enough blind spots that I stopped driving. My company accommodated me by letting me work from home. We already had another employee who was doing that for vision issues, it was simple to do.

Because we were successful, they replaced our desktops with laptops at refresh time and started letting everyone work from home 1 day a week. Then when Covid hit, they just told everyone to bring their laptops home and WFH full time. The CEO talked about return-to-office for a year or two but decided to make it optional.

It's an amazing benefit. It gave me back about 90 minutes every day, and my dog doesn't have to be crated during the day. I can sleep later and have access to my own kitchen for lunch. Theres a reason that average tenure in my department is around 20 years.

[–] TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone 88 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Anything beyond 45 minutes is a schlep and there better be something good for me losing an hour and a half or more of day in transit. Especially a car where I can't even read or relax.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 13 points 4 days ago

Especially a car where I can't even read or relax.

I don't commute anymore, but spent close to 20 years with an hour commute each way. Audio books are the only way I can tolerate traffic.

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[–] zod000@lemmy.ml 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Sounds legit, I turned down multiple higher roles in my last company after doing a test commute to the more remote office. It was consistently 90-120 minutes each way. That would end up with me be away at work for 12-13 hours each day for 8 hours of paid work.

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[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

My limit is 30 min, anything more than that is a fucking road trip, not a commute.

[–] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 3 days ago

same. and even that is better paid well, because that increases my work time from 40 to 45 hours per week.

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I personally hit a wall at 41 minutes of in-car travel time for a daily commute. I've timed it. Every second after that feels like a whole level of abnormal waiting, a kind of cold torture or injustice that you must wade through to to your destination. It's not a healthy headspace at all. I've naturally sought out shorter commutes after this revelation, and yeah, the 30 minute estimate seems right.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I used to have about an hour long commute, and I kinda enjoyed it. I had shit to do at work, and shit to do at home, so being in the car for a while really let me calm down and center myself most of the time.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Imagine you had 2hours more every day so you could work through the todo at home and enjoy the rest of your time at home or anywhere else that is neither your work nor your car.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Valid point, but I guess after working in a greenhouse for a season I learned to appreciate having time to sit still in AC. My old Crown Vic wasn't such a bad place to be (cost an arm and leg in gas and oil, so that was a definite downside).

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I get it, but I just can't get to that place mentally in stop-and-go-bumper-to-bumper traffic for that long. Not even half that long. If that was a nice 50mph cruise the whole time, sure.

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[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 61 points 4 days ago (4 children)

There are people at a place I worked that did a 2 hour trip each way each day.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 59 points 4 days ago (7 children)

That's me.

I work in a very small city entirely surrounded by a much larger one. The one I work for is an enclave for the 0.1%. The average new home build here is over 10 times the price that of the major city that surrounds us, which is also very expensive for the region.

Suffice to say, I can't live here. I live in a shitty trailer that's about 2 hours away with traffic, but costs $700 a month as opposed to $3000+ for a tiny 1-room apartment near work.

The commute sucks, but I save $115 every day I commute.

Fortunately, I like audio books.

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 35 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Do you work in the Vatican?

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[–] HexesofVexes@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I do wonder if the limit varies between personally operated transport (walking, bike, car) and public transport (bus, tram, train).

A 1 hour bus journey is much more relaxing than a 1 hour drive.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not always. During rush hour, most buses will operate at their maximum passenger capacity, if you're one of the many that's not seated, it's anything but relaxing or comfortable.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

With good enough infrastructure and with good enough working culture, it stops being a problem. More transport options, more units in rush hours, better logistics, morr flexible hours, that sort of things

[–] frank@sopuli.xyz 25 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I wonder how this looks for people with flexible commuting methods. I can bike to work (45 mins each way) or take the train with some walking (40 mins), or take the metro to the train with very little walking (50 mins). The fact that it's sometimes exercise helps break it up, and I don't much mind it

[–] NateNate60@lemmy.world 22 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Imagine having a choice for how you get to your destination

(this comment made by the American gang)

[–] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 5 points 3 days ago

Would you like to commute in a car, or in a pickup truck?

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[–] XTL@sopuli.xyz 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

To me, two hours of my life I'm not getting back looks like two hours of my life I'm not getting back. Happy to do that for the exercise or something some of the time, but regularly it's a very high cost.

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[–] Bunbury@feddit.nl 21 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (15 children)

I’ve in my entire life never had this short a commute. All the following is one-way commute: 45 minutes to school growing up. 2,5 hours to university 5 days a week for years. 1,5-2 hours to work since. Since the pandemic only 2 days a week though, which is a relief.

Sure it would be nice if it were shorter, but using public transport helps. At least I get to relax, play a game, knit, etc. And not living in a polluted city and having a yard makes it worthwhile.

[–] iglou@programming.dev 15 points 4 days ago (3 children)

2.5 hours is wild. You spent 5 hours a day commuting?

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[–] halloween_spookster@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago

When I interviewed at a company some years ago, the commute would have been ~an hour on a normal day (potentially longer if I did park-n-ride). I was very forward about wanting to only come into the office once or maybe twice a week. The manager I was talking with brushed off my commute time by basically saying that the commute wasn't that long and he knew others that commuted much longer. That was a huge red flag for me and I did not proceed with them. I don't care what others will tolerate. If management is going to ignore concerns like that, I don't want to work there. It was really apparent that he wouldn't let me work from home more than maybe once a week if I was lucky.

[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don’t think people who made this law ever lived in Toronto. I used to do a 90 minute commute each way, 2 hours easy during afternoon rush.

[–] PoliteDudeInTheMood@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago

My company closed its Scarborough location, they opened a new plant in Hamilton. I was going to commute to the new plant. Everyone, including upper management told me how stupid that was. We have to run our logistics during the night because the truck drivers refused to drive in traffic during the day. Truck drivers... How bad is the traffic if truck drivers are refusing

[–] BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

My dad commuted 2.5 hours each way my entire childhood. All through the 90's. It wasn't until DSL got to my parent's area in the 2010s and I was out of college that he could work a hybrid schedule. I couldn't do it. I work 30min away, hybrid 2/5 of the time. It's still more time than I want to soend in the car.

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 days ago

Looks at Toronto and 3 hour commutes…

[–] Xaphanos@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago (8 children)

Marchetti never went to NYC.

[–] hersh@literature.cafe 23 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I was thinking that it sounded about right, until I read beyond the headline:

Its value is approximately one hour, or half an hour for a one-way trip.

WHAT. I thought he meant one hour each way!

Are there any cities where that is the norm??? I've had sub-30 commutes in my life, and it felt like the height of luxury.

I had a 1.5 hour (one way) commute for a while, and I was burned the fuck out after a year of that. It takes a toll on your health.

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[–] abbadon420@sh.itjust.works 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I do an hour and a half single trip. It's only twice per week and it's by train. So I read a book or I bring my steamdeck. I really don't mind it. I'd be less happy if it was 5 days per week. I'd still be going by train, but also looking for a better job.

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago (3 children)

If my commute isn’t a 30 second walk to my home office I won’t take the job.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 13 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

laugh-cries in 4 hour commute to a job only 50 miles away

Fuck the Altamonte, man... Where's our fucking high-speed train?

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 17 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Bro sell drugs instead wtf

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