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I've got you all beat. My husband worked with a guy who commuted to downtown Manhattan from Hancock, NY (for those who dont know, that is a very small town located way, way upstate - past Rockland/Westchester-a good 3 hr drive or so on the NYS Thruway). He left his house at 4:30 am to make it in by 9-10 am.
I also have a friend who commuted from East Stroudsburg, PA to her job in Times Square. She had no choice because her job in PA was eliminated and her next job was in NYC. She got fed up of the commute after about 6 months, and just moved to Queens to live with one of her grandparents about a year ago..
As for me, my commute is about 45 min in the AM and an 1 hr in the evenings. I go from south Nassau county to Rte 110 in Suffolk (I am sandwiched between the LIE and the SSP). It beats my old commute which was LIRR to midtown/Grand Central. I used to get home at 7:30 - 8 pm. Now I am home by 6:30 pm. It does matter a lot since I can squeeze in more gym time after work. That extra 1-2 hours every day really DOES matter to me!
I have a co-worker who commutes from the Bronx to Farmingdale by public transportation to work a 12 hour night shift. He does this 2-3 days a week and been doing it for over 10 years. I can't imagine dealing with that but he has a wife and three kids to take care of.
While long commutes wear on you, I think it's the time lost to do other things that really makes you crazy. I used to do a 12 hour overnight shift. My commute was 30 minutes or less each way. Once I got home, I would try to shower and go to sleep right away. Normally I would sleep until 3 hours before I had to go back to work and had to get all my errands done in that time, but most times I was just too tired to get anything done, even on my days off. Glad I'm no doing that anymore.
I have a co-worker who commutes from the Bronx to Farmingdale by public transportation to work a 12 hour night shift. He does this 2-3 days a week and been doing it for over 10 years. I can't imagine dealing with that but he has a wife and three kids to take care of.
While long commutes wear on you, I think it's the time lost to do other things that really makes you crazy. I used to do a 12 hour overnight shift. My commute was 30 minutes or less each way. Once I got home, I would try to shower and go to sleep right away. Normally I would sleep until 3 hours before I had to go back to work and had to get all my errands done in that time, but most times I was just too tired to get anything done, even on my days off. Glad I'm no doing that anymore.
I wouldn't mind doing a long commute if it meant I had 4 days off per week. You can get every errand imaginable done in one day off because everything moves faster...everyone else is at work. I had a 4 day a week job at one point and I loved that mid week day off. It meant on weekends I didn't have to do anything other than have fun. Need to go to DMV, no problem. Grocery shopping, done. Car repairs? Done. Minor repairs around the house? Done. I didn't have kids then but it would be even better with kids in school.
Yeah it is great - lots of hilly roads to the train and during the fall it is amazing - I walk around 3.5 miles every day all in so it is a great way to get much needed excercise as well.
You're in a nice neighborhood, especially for the commuter. I would love to live in Port Washington and commute into Manhattan everyday.
For several years, my commute was: driving all over the damn place on Long Island and Queens/Brooklyn. Most of the time it was Five Towns area in the morning (from Wantagh), then who knows. For awhile I would do Wantagh->Five Towns->Yaphank. I could be in Bay Ridge in the morning and Huntington in the afternoon, that's just the way the scheduling worked sometimes. I would drive by the Wantagh LIRR station each day and laugh at those poor, sorry idiots shivering in the cold. Huddling up in the hobo urine-infested waiting booth high above the street. "HAHAH!", I said. "Look at me in my nice warm car! I can turn the radio up as loud as I want, I can smoke a thousand cigarettes, I can spill coffee on the floor and no one will care! I can fart! I can pick my nose with reckless abandon! THIS IS THE LIFE!"
Then, I got a job in lower Manhattan. I was terrified to be without my fortress of solitude. "The train?! EW", I said, having never been a regular LIRR rider. And $254 a month? And "switching problems"?! CHANGING AT JAMAICA?!? But the job was too good to turn down. I'd just have to suck it up and live amongst these savages for at least 45 minutes each way daily.
Well, it took about a week to settle in and then I was sold on it. I know it's a commuter cliche, but the time flies by when you've got a newspaper/book or a halfway decent phone to play with - or you can shut off your consciousness entirely by falling asleep and magically teleporting to your stop the instant after your eyes close in Penn Station. If I had to do any longer a trip than I do now (about an hour all together, drive to station/train/subway), I don't know if I'd feel the same way - but at Zone 7 distance, consider me converted. It's far less stressful than driving anywhere on Long Island that isn't ridiculously close to home and it costs less than I was spending on gas/maintenance. I've done such a 180 that I'm essentially a progressive hippie scumbag when it comes to riding the train now... sometimes I even catch a ride to the station with a neighbor in the morning and then (gasp!) take the bus home or WALK after work! It takes a little longer, obviously, but it's great to get out and enjoy the nice weather while getting some exercise.
It's obviously subjective and varies greatly by person/location/situation, but having logged many miles on both the roads and rails - and unless we're talking about a sub-15 minutes drive, no traffic ever - I prefer going back and forth on the LIRR. I even get home earlier than I used to, at least when I'm not working O/T. I lose a few hours of sleep in my bed (that I wasn't getting anyway) and make it up snoozing in my seat. Just as good, as far as I'm concerned.
For several years, my commute was: driving all over the damn place on Long Island and Queens/Brooklyn. Most of the time it was Five Towns area in the morning (from Wantagh), then who knows. For awhile I would do Wantagh->Five Towns->Yaphank. I could be in Bay Ridge in the morning and Huntington in the afternoon, that's just the way the scheduling worked sometimes. I would drive by the Wantagh LIRR station each day and laugh at those poor, sorry idiots shivering in the cold. Huddling up in the hobo urine-infested waiting booth high above the street. "HAHAH!", I said. "Look at me in my nice warm car! I can turn the radio up as loud as I want, I can smoke a thousand cigarettes, I can spill coffee on the floor and no one will care! I can fart! I can pick my nose with reckless abandon! THIS IS THE LIFE!"
Then, I got a job in lower Manhattan. I was terrified to be without my fortress of solitude. "The train?! EW", I said, having never been a regular LIRR rider. And $254 a month? And "switching problems"?! CHANGING AT JAMAICA?!? But the job was too good to turn down. I'd just have to suck it up and live amongst these savages for at least 45 minutes each way daily.
Well, it took about a week to settle in and then I was sold on it. I know it's a commuter cliche, but the time flies by when you've got a newspaper/book or a halfway decent phone to play with - or you can shut off your consciousness entirely by falling asleep and magically teleporting to your stop the instant after your eyes close in Penn Station. If I had to do any longer a trip than I do now (about an hour all together, drive to station/train/subway), I don't know if I'd feel the same way - but at Zone 7 distance, consider me converted. It's far less stressful than driving anywhere on Long Island that isn't ridiculously close to home and it costs less than I was spending on gas/maintenance. I've done such a 180 that I'm essentially a progressive hippie scumbag when it comes to riding the train now... sometimes I even catch a ride to the station with a neighbor in the morning and then (gasp!) take the bus home or WALK after work! It takes a little longer, obviously, but it's great to get out and enjoy the nice weather while getting some exercise.
It's obviously subjective and varies greatly by person/location/situation, but having logged many miles on both the roads and rails - and unless we're talking about a sub-15 minutes drive, no traffic ever - I prefer going back and forth on the LIRR. I even get home earlier than I used to, at least when I'm not working O/T. I lose a few hours of sleep in my bed (that I wasn't getting anyway) and make it up snoozing in my seat. Just as good, as far as I'm concerned.
Yup, driving on LI is very stressful, congested and dangerous. Either way, too many people, ridiculously outdated, crumbling infrastructure and corrupt public managers/politicians all add up to lose/lose. Drive, you lose, take the train, see you over the weekend.
You do get to sleep, surf the web, read, work on the LIRR, but between the obnoxious riders on their cell phones, dropping food all over the train, poor service and high fares, it gets old real fast. We all tell ourselves, '...what are you going to do?....' it is what it is. But in reality it's a huge chunk of time out of your day, out of your life. When I think of how much time I spent commuting and missing my kids grow up, I realize time is truly a gift. Now that my kids are older, I find sitting on the train for such a long period of to be very unhealthful. Time I'd rather be running or swimming.
40 miles one way, commute time varies from 1-1 hr 45 minutes in the AM depending on the day of the week and weather, and 1.5-2.5 hours home. Spending about $70 a week in gas and $5 a day for parking, thankfully I work 3-4 days a week.
I have the pleasure of taking the LIRR to Manhattan. 4 HOURS a day, assuming the train and subway are running on time (and you know what that means if you know the MTA). Made the decision to live here in 1998 and have lived to regret it every day.
For several years, my commute was: driving all over the damn place on Long Island and Queens/Brooklyn. Most of the time it was Five Towns area in the morning (from Wantagh), then who knows. For awhile I would do Wantagh->Five Towns->Yaphank. I could be in Bay Ridge in the morning and Huntington in the afternoon, that's just the way the scheduling worked sometimes. I would drive by the Wantagh LIRR station each day and laugh at those poor, sorry idiots shivering in the cold. Huddling up in the hobo urine-infested waiting booth high above the street. "HAHAH!", I said. "Look at me in my nice warm car! I can turn the radio up as loud as I want, I can smoke a thousand cigarettes, I can spill coffee on the floor and no one will care! I can fart! I can pick my nose with reckless abandon! THIS IS THE LIFE!"
Then, I got a job in lower Manhattan. I was terrified to be without my fortress of solitude. "The train?! EW", I said, having never been a regular LIRR rider. And $254 a month? And "switching problems"?! CHANGING AT JAMAICA?!? But the job was too good to turn down. I'd just have to suck it up and live amongst these savages for at least 45 minutes each way daily.
Well, it took about a week to settle in and then I was sold on it. I know it's a commuter cliche, but the time flies by when you've got a newspaper/book or a halfway decent phone to play with - or you can shut off your consciousness entirely by falling asleep and magically teleporting to your stop the instant after your eyes close in Penn Station. If I had to do any longer a trip than I do now (about an hour all together, drive to station/train/subway), I don't know if I'd feel the same way - but at Zone 7 distance, consider me converted. It's far less stressful than driving anywhere on Long Island that isn't ridiculously close to home and it costs less than I was spending on gas/maintenance. I've done such a 180 that I'm essentially a progressive hippie scumbag when it comes to riding the train now... sometimes I even catch a ride to the station with a neighbor in the morning and then (gasp!) take the bus home or WALK after work! It takes a little longer, obviously, but it's great to get out and enjoy the nice weather while getting some exercise.
It's obviously subjective and varies greatly by person/location/situation, but having logged many miles on both the roads and rails - and unless we're talking about a sub-15 minutes drive, no traffic ever - I prefer going back and forth on the LIRR. I even get home earlier than I used to, at least when I'm not working O/T. I lose a few hours of sleep in my bed (that I wasn't getting anyway) and make it up snoozing in my seat. Just as good, as far as I'm concerned.
You must ride a different LIRR than I do. No commute is worth is $254 a month... especially when it's never on time. I'm late everyday for work and I already take an earlier train than I need to avoid being late. I'm going to need to start taking an earlier train now. LIRR is destroying my life!
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