How Long Is Your Commute to Work in ATL? (Atlanta: condos, construction)

[CCATL]

Originally Posted by treesgreen

Those are the people that choose to live far away from their job. I choose to live closer.

In what world is 20 miles "close" to your job? That's still a very long drive - 40 miles/day must be a good amount of gas money. In many cities, this is considered far from work, and it's kind of sad that people in Atlanta consider this close.

Anyway, my commute is 4.5 miles. I usually bike (23 minutes) or take the bus/train if it's raining (40 min). If I drive, there is some traffic and stop and go at the lights, so usually about 20 minutes. I couldn't imagine living any more than 10 miles from my job - I agree with you that living far and spending that amount of time on a commute greatly inhibits a desirable work/life balance.

[jsvh]

I don't think people have realistic commute distance expectations in Atlanta. People that commute from Cumming to the Airport drive further that the distance between Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

Me? I live and work in the city: 15 min commute.

[noah]

Less than 2 miles, about 10 minutes, but my previous commutes I have had in Atlanta were 10 miles and 17 miles. I would be hard pressed to accept anything more than that for more than a short time. I agree its more common in Atlanta but it does happen all over and in just about any metro of any size average commutes will be at least 30 minutes.

[residinghere2007]

I work about 6-8 miles from my house. It takes me about 22 minutes to get to work but I don't take any freeways and I have to drive through downtown.

Once I get to Peachtree St, it only takes me about 8 minutes to get to work on a good day, the rest of that time I am stuck at red lights on North Ave downtown near GA Tech because for some reason one light will turn green, then the next one will turn red, and so on and so forth all the way down the street to Peachtree. The lights are horribly timed and I'm sick of notifying GDOT and the city about it so I just deal.

FWIW, I also live near 3 train stations. If I didn't have to carpool kids, I would take the train because it is only a 17 minute ride from Ashby station. I do take the train on days when I don't have to carpool and I will next year every day hopefully since both my kids will go to the same school. FWIW, that 22 minutes includes me dropping my daughter off at pre-K which is on my way to work.

For my carpool before I got to work, I would tack on another 7 minutes. I have gotten the kids to school in 5 minutes before. The school is about 4 miles away from us going west. I work east near downtown Decatur.

[glovenyc]

about 20-25 mins, to travel 9 miles by car.

When I lived in NYC, I lived about 16 miles from my office near Wall Street and my commute was 1 hour and 20 to 30 mins by bus and subway.

[lorilove]

Commutes get a bit out of whack these days because we don't stay in our jobs like they did in the past.

When you used to work for one employer your entire adult life, you could find the job first and then find a home near by. But since I have owned my house, I have worked for 4 different employers and will definitely change jobs at least one more time. Selling and moving for each employer is not feasible and restricting your job search to only within x miles is too limiting.

[cqholt]

45 minutes, via MARTA and a bike.

[ElleKaye]

At worst, I have taken around two hours one way to go 20 miles and that was a frequent occurrence. I underestimated the value of a reverse commute when I moved here. Fortunately, I don't have to go to that location every day.

I also got exceptionally anal about morning departure times because one minute's difference can add half an hour. I learned to deal with it but still haven't truly gotten used to it, and how I deal with it may not be all that conventional. I have gone so far as to get a hotel room and buy something to wear the next day when I just couldn't put up with the drive home.

[Mishap]

Have done it all:
Vinings -> Doraville - 40 min
Snellville -> Doraville - 35 min
Lilburn -> Duluth - 30 min
Duluth -> Duluth - 10 min
Duluth -> Norcross - 20 min
Marietta -> Norcross - 45 min
Midtown -> Norcross - 30 min
Midtown -> Vinings - 15 min

Today:
Midtown -> ATL -> LAX -> Irwindale - 8 hrs

[AnsleyPark]

22 miles. About 40 minutes unless it's raining. I generally work from home 1 day per week and if the weather is bad. I would certainly prefer not having such a long commute, but, alas, there are circumstances beyond my reasonable control. When I lived in town, though, my 2 or 3 mile commute would sometimes take 15 to 20 minutes, depending on what time of day I was traveling.