[BDubLR]

Its not uncommon in Little Rock to see people commuting from as far as Monticello, Arkadelphia, or Russelville, with many more if not a majority commuting from Conway, Cabot, or Benton. In Fort Smith, many commute from as far as Clarksville or Mena. Do Arkansans really enjoy their 1-2 hour commutes? Do they find them necissary?

[Bail_Khan]

Who commutes to Fort Smith from Mena? People from Mena sometimes come up to shop and stuff but I've never heard of anyone driving back and forth to work. Yes I do imagine people in Mena see this as necessary.
I knew a guy that came up from Waldron once a month to do national guard drills but that is about it.

[Rainbow Island]

Just a guess but maybe they like where they live and don't want to move. Not able to find work closer to home??

[Fasder]

Its all about commerce, as in LR is the major city in AR, and has much of the sizable industry in the region. Smaller cities in AR have local community business and attractions but nothing of the scale of LR.

Another area that people commute/travel is Northern AR as people travel to major jobs and drive home to their rural communities. But I do not think this is unique to AR. I lived in Houston and had a hour commute to work driving nearly 40 miles each way. Living now in Dallas, I know of several of my co-workers that drive 20-30 miles.

[shamrockrover]

Yeah, they do it for fun. They just LOVE to drive for the life experience.

They either can't find work anywhere else and don't want to move, or simply want to live in a smaller town away from the traffic.

[northbound74]

I think it's pretty common everywhere. I never understood why anyone would live more than 30 minutes from work. Any more than that, and you don't have much time to spend at that home way out there in the peace and quite, safer neighborhoods, or whatever.
I'd like to live in the boondocks in the not too distant future, but I'm not going to do it until I can find someway of making at least a simple living out there.

[PurpleLove08]

There are also people in CA who have hour long commutes...
There are lots of people in many places who have long commutes, it is not just an Arkansas thing.
I personally wouldn't want a long commute because of the CO2 I'd be putting into the atmosphere and when gas goes back up, it will be more money I will have to spend, until a viable electric car goes onto the market...even though I don't really want to have to depend on a car but should I choose to keep living in AR, I know I'll need a car for the most part.

[Stormcrow73]

The average commute time in AR is among the shortest in the country. Yes, we do have some people commuting ridiculously long distances. I work with people who commute from near Clinton! They do it because they want to live rurally but still need to work. Having spent over 2 hours of my day in traffic for 5 days a week over the course of 7 years, I couldn't do it anymore.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by BDubLR

Its not uncommon in Little Rock to see people commuting from as far as Monticello, Arkadelphia, or Russelville, with many more if not a majority commuting from Conway, Cabot, or Benton. In Fort Smith, many commute from as far as Clarksville or Mena. Do Arkansans really enjoy their 1-2 hour commutes? Do they find them necissary?

golly, I haven't heard of anyone that commutes an hour or so. We do have people here in NWA that work in Bentonville and drive in from So MO, but even that (during rush hour) is no where near 2 hours. In fact for most not even an hour.

Nita

[Luvvarkansas]

Originally Posted by LiveTodayLez08

There are also people in CA who have hour long commutes...
There are lots of people in many places who have long commutes, it is not just an Arkansas thing.
I personally wouldn't want a long commute because of the CO2 I'd be putting into the atmosphere and when gas goes back up, it will be more money I will have to spend, until a viable electric car goes onto the market...even though I don't really want to have to depend on a car but should I choose to keep living in AR, I know I'll need a car for the most part.

Got an extra $109,000 just lyin' around? Try this:
Tesla Motors

Or, wait for the GM Volt....supposed to be out in 2010. Still $40,000, though, waaay more than my budget can handle. I did read about some little Chinese company that was making cheaper electrics, gotta think hard to remember where I read about them....or maybe I saw it on the news. Here it is (BYD), in an article in Mother Earth News magazine....this also tells about all the different electric cars in the works....it's interesting:

Electric Cars Coming Soon