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Old 09-28-2014, 04:46 PM
 
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You lose time from traffic/public transportation; you gain time from everything being close and from often not having to park. Whether it's a win or loss depends a lot on your individual situation. For commuting in particular I suspect a loss for dense urban areas; the NYC area has the best public transportation in the nation... and the highest commute times.

But even in NYC... live in a neighborhood where you can do most of your day to day things, with easy access to a no-transfer and not-too-long subway ride to work, and you'll probably come out ahead, even on the commute. Of course neighborhoods where this is practical tend to be expensive.
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Old 09-28-2014, 05:40 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Malloric View Post
Well, that's mostly your fault. Even at the extremely high end, taxis aren't that much. I mostly use Uberx in San Francisco when I need to get somewhere that I can't walk to and transit isn't convenient. It's $2.20/drop and $16/hr or $1.30/mile. A five mile trip would cost <$15, maybe $17-18 with tip. Of course, it depends on how much traffic we're talking but if surface speeds are 15 mph, you'd be there in 20 minutes. I'd spend $15 every day to save an hour. Also, where the heck were you that there wasn't any parking? There's one or two neighborhoods in San Francisco where parking is actually hard.

Now I live in a suburban area, sometimes work in San Francisco and frequently in the East Bay. It's a trade-off. I cover more geography here than I would in the Bay Area. In the Bay Area, traffic is much worse. It ends up being not really that different. I'd regularly drive up to an hour and a half either way, I just sit in more traffic going to the Bay Area. If there wasn't the extreme COL difference, I'd prefer to live in the Bay Area, although not in San Francisco itself.
Malloric,

The 3 hour commute time was in Pittsburgh Pa.

I have lived in Sacramento and you can't tell me you don't have horrible wait times on 50 and 80. What about having to wait through 3-4 light changes at every corner on Fairoaks, Howe, and Arden Way. That's not to mention Sunrise and Hazel Blvd. Citrus Heights and Carmichael are like total gridlock. That's just to mention a few areas of town. I used to have to go to meetings in San Francisco and 80 was bumper to bumper stop and go for 80 miles from Sacramento to San Francisco.
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Old 09-28-2014, 06:16 PM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
46,001 posts, read 35,010,603 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eccotecc View Post
Malloric,

The 3 hour commute time was in Pittsburgh Pa.

I have lived in Sacramento and you can't tell me you don't have horrible wait times on 50 and 80. What about having to wait through 3-4 light changes at every corner on Fairoaks, Howe, and Arden Way. That's not to mention Sunrise and Hazel Blvd. Citrus Heights and Carmichael are like total gridlock. That's just to mention a few areas of town. I used to have to go to meetings in San Francisco and 80 was bumper to bumper stop and go for 80 miles from Sacramento to San Francisco.
That sounds like you were living in an area that had very poor access to where your job was with possible bottlenecks due to the terrain. My guess is you were living in the wrong area in comparison to where your job was.

This site says the worst average time for commuting in Pittsburgh is an average of 30 minutes.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

My guess, the terrain was more your problem in Pittsburgh than anything else. Though it sounds like you are much happier in a rural area that has little traffic and probably no bottlenecking routes to worry about.

Last edited by Yac; 10-09-2014 at 08:29 AM..
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Old 09-28-2014, 06:27 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanlife78 View Post
That sounds like you were living in an area that had very poor access to where your job was with possible bottlenecks due to the terrain. My guess is you were living in the wrong area in comparison to where your job was.

This site says the worst average time for commuting in Pittsburgh is an average of 30 minutes.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

My guess, the terrain was more your problem in Pittsburgh than anything else. Though it sounds like you are much happier in a rural area that has little traffic and probably no bottlenecking routes to worry about.
I had a traditional 9-5 job in downtown Pittsburgh. I lived 5 miles from where I worked. It wasn't just my situation but the situation for thousands of other people who lived in the city.

I think this kind of lost wait time is found in most metropolitan areas.

The average commute times in the attached link are probably on a 24 hour basis and not during what is considered business hours.

The traffic in Pittsburgh is so bad that it has become a joke, but I've seen the same in other major urban areas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LySIihUT34

Last edited by Yac; 10-09-2014 at 08:29 AM..
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Old 09-28-2014, 06:40 PM
 
415 posts, read 761,185 times
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Default I sneak in n sneak out Cha Ching : )

He Hee.... I SNEAK IN DURING THE CLOAK OF DARKNESS around 5 am i head east to ChiTcago N park on our loading dock for FREE, ZERO n ZIP.... Then at 2 on the dot I shoot due west back the burbs.. Been doing this for 20 years, yum .....
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Old 09-28-2014, 06:47 PM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
46,001 posts, read 35,010,603 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eccotecc View Post
I had a traditional 9-5 job in downtown Pittsburgh. I lived 5 miles from where I worked. It wasn't just my situation but the situation for thousands of other people who lived in the city.

I think this kind of lost wait time is found in most metropolitan areas.

The average commute times in the attached link are probably on a 24 hour basis and not during what is considered business hours.
Which route were you taking? It sounds like a bottleneck issue due to terrain more than anything else. Though again, it really doesn't matter because it sounds like you were unhappy with where you use to live and are now happy with where you currently live.
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Old 09-28-2014, 06:55 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by urbanlife78 View Post
Which route were you taking? It sounds like a bottleneck issue due to terrain more than anything else. Though again, it really doesn't matter because it sounds like you were unhappy with where you use to live and are now happy with where you currently live.
Portland is the 8th most traffic congested city in the nation.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxOsrlZK5xQ

Urban commuting is only one of the many urban time robbers.
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Old 09-28-2014, 07:17 PM
 
Location: Centre Wellington, ON
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I can see some outer suburbs being a 1.5 hour commute by transit from a city's downtown, but places just 5 miles away? I think that's pretty unusual.
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Old 09-28-2014, 07:41 PM
 
18,073 posts, read 18,694,948 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by eccotecc View Post
Time...How much time is lost living in a major urban city? If time is money, how much does it cost in lost time to live in a city?
To determine how much in cost lost time is, we need to know how much the time is worth; how much?

As for how much time is lost in the city, depends where you are going on what you are doing.

Quote:
Originally Posted by eccotecc View Post
I think of all the lost time that is spent waiting for buses, waiting in traffic, waiting in lines at checkout stands, waiting to get into a park or sports arena, driving around looking for a place to park. I'm sure many can think of other time robbers.
Yes, these all use up time, but I do not see how this is a major urban thing only, there are plenty of time wasting scenarios living in a non-major urban area.

Quote:
Originally Posted by eccotecc View Post
If a person where to take their weekly hours of lost time and multiply it by their hourly wage, how much is it costing a person in lost time waiting in lines?
It does not work that way, this scenario assumes a person would be getting paid in lieu of wasting time doing something like commuting to work, which is not true.

Quote:
Originally Posted by eccotecc View Post
It's something to think about if a person is living in a city or planning to move to one.
It is nothing to think about at all, as I mentioned, there are plenty of time wasting scenarios for people who do not live in the city.
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Old 09-28-2014, 07:53 PM
 
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Some people know how to make the most of their time while being victimized by an urban time robber such as waiting for a bus.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9cd0ortxu0
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