longest commute

[parkinso]

Originally Posted by black_magic

I have a friend who commuted from Bakersfield to Long Beach. He did it for a year and couldn't take it anymore. I don't know how he did it for that long. I used to commute from Orange County to LA and I couldn't stand it.

Yikes, I drive from the OC to West LA every day. If I leave by 6 am I can make it in an hour and 15. Anything later than 6 am means 2 hours or more. Longest commute home is on Halloween afternoon or Friday afternoons - 3-4 hours back to the Orange Curtain.

I wish I had wings.

[dennismpat]

Originally Posted by bigdaddy5

I live in San Diego but I work in Santa Monica. I commute 2 days a week from San Diego (mondays, fridays) and I stay up with a friend in Downey and commute from there (tuesdays, wednesdays, thursdays). I leave my wife and 2 kids alone at home those 3 days while I'm away. I drive a Hybrid with carpool stickers and the Fastrak transponder. The carpool lanes and toll roads are godsends. It shaves about an hour from my drive if I should drive a regular car. Each way, I can make a 130 mile drive in 2 hrs, 10 minutes on a typical day. Even in traffic, the carpool lane can be congested and motionless.

I'm used to the routine. Since I bought my Hybrid, I've put about 30K miles in 10 months. We are planning to relocate northward (I'm not that crazy) and Irvine seems to be the best choice for us. We have friends in Aliso Viejo, Ladera Ranch and other parts of OC to mentor us when we make the transition.

My commute and sacrifices to work remind me of life growing up in a military family. My dad would sail overseas for months at a time, leaving me, my mom and my sister alone at home. It was tough but it had to be done (ask any present day Iraqi War veteran's wife for reference).

The mornings I drive from SD to LA, I kiss my young sons goodbye while they're still sleeping in bed. I pray nothing happens to me during my commute.

I grew up in SD but went to college in LA, that helped me prepare for LA traffic (and crime) at an earlier age. If a job as good as this appears in SD, I'm going to jump at it. I give myself another year before I have to change, my kids are growing up too fast and I'm missing out. Regret is a tough thing to live with, especially when it comes to your family.

I worked with a lady several years ago who did that same drive, every day. She lived in San Diego and worked in Glendale. I had lunch with her and a couple of other people one day. She said she would leave home at 3:30 a.m. and would arrive in Glendale about two hours later. Work didn't start until 8:15 a.m., so to kill the time, she would go to 24-Hour Fitness and work out until it was time to start work. The drive home would take her about 3-4 hours (the workday ended at 4:30 p.m.). Basically, when she got home, she'd eat dinner then go to bed and start all over again.

She was able to get a transfer to the company's office in Orange several months later. Still a long commute, but not as bad as going to Glendale every day!

[dennismpat]

I live in Lakewood (next to Long Beach). My last job was in Irvine. I lasted only six months at this job, and a lot of it had to do with the AWFUL drive from the Long Beach area to Irvine on the 405 south. I didn't realize until I started working in Irvine that SO many Long Beach-area residents commuted to jobs in Costa Mesa and Irvine every day. The 405 Freeway going in that direction in the morning was a parking lot starting in Westminster and didn't loosen up until just before John Wayne Airport. I also tried going on the 5 southbound with the same results.

I've had long drives to work before to other O.C. cities like Brea and Orange. But the commute to Irvine takes the cake.

I've read all the other posts in this thread of people commuting MUCH longer distances, and my heart goes out to all of you---REALLY!

I now work close by in Los Alamitos. I had to take a slight pay reduction, but to me, it was worth it. Life is too short to be stuck in traffic!

[bluejeans]

Originally Posted by fastfilm

WHAT all day transport pass, and to what end? We have commuter trains that only go about 10 miles, in a megopolis that spans hundreds of miles; we have a bus system that requires so many transfers that one realistically calculates a bus ride of roughly three times that which could be taken by car; and car trips take forever anyway due to our population of 4 million in L.A. proper, 9 million in the county.

And "county" is rather an eleastic word here. If you fly into Los Angeles, the thing that amazes most people is that the last half hour of descent overlooks solid development for hundreds of miles in all directions. All the "separate" city subsets that comprise L.A. have no breathing space between them, just solid development and its corollary here, 24-hour traffic jams. Do you remember that visual in the "Star Wars" movie of a planet of solid development? Think that.

Los Angeles had a commuter train system equal to those on the East Coast of America until the 1950s, when the train system was purchased by a Tire company who wanted to sell tires to car-owners so they promptly dismantled the entire train system. (The "Roger Rabbit" sub-plot was actually true!) The original routes were why L.A. developed these far flung communties.

Oh, let's say you arrive at LAX (airport.) You have to take a bus to the train, which will only take you Downtown. Downtown is comprised of office buildings, and the most dangerous people you probably have ever encountered. There's no where else to go by train, except Long Beach and Palmdale, the former being the port and its jobs, the latter being the desert and its jobs.

Your urban legends would be real here. Due to the median price of housing in L.A., ($550,000.00, with the NECESSITY of an $110,000.00 income to even qualify for a loan) many people opt to live in areas necessitating awful commutes to work. Locally, we NEVER refer to mileage, only hours of travel. R.e. Long Beach is one and a half hours away from the San Fernando Valley each way until approx. 9 p.m., then it's an hour away until approx. 5:30 a.m.

And by the way, 76% of the population here will not be able to converse with you or talk to you, because you speak English.

There are maniacs who drive 3 and 1/2 hour commutes each way. Most of them stop it after 2 years, as it drives them crazy and destroys all social life. They drive because there are no train or bus options for those distances.

I picked up the info about the $3 pass from mta.net. It supposedly covers all MTA buses (Malibu-Anaheim was the longest "ride" I could think of inputing) and the green/gold/red/blue line subways. They probably are pretty insignificant for commuters - I posted this quite a while ago, and didn't know about metrolink back then.

[LivingLikeAGradStudent]

I live in San Marcos and work in downtown LA. I sleep in our bed three nights a week and stay in a nice Miracle Mile townhouse the other nights while its owner works in Redlands (it's a long story). Everytime I think I should just suck it up and drive back and forth each day, I get stuck in I-5 quagmire in Commerce and think better of it. When (if?) the housing market turns around, we'll sell and move closer.

[gas11]

my commute is not the longest, but just to give you an idea... from Burbank to Culver City 5 days a week, about 25 miles, but will typically take an hour and 10 min. Plus, i drive from culver city, to sunland, then back to burbank twice a week. This about 40 miles and ussally takes over two hours. My gas bill was getting so expensive, i had to take drastic measures and get car that gets <a href="Gas Sipper Home" target="_self">amazing MPG</a>.
Again, my commute is not worste. A guy I work work with, dirves to/from riverside everyday and says it has taken him 6 hours to get home before. From my experience, you can figure that can go about 20 miles per hour, on average, in LA traffic.