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My co-worker has a horrible commute, and I have a good one. Funny thing is that we get on the bus at the same stop everyday. Guess it is just how you look at it and how happy you are in general
Unless you have an extreme commute, I'd say the toll is much more mentally exhausting than physically. I did the commute for about 10 years. It is soul sucking and soul crushing much of the time. I just recently escaped the commute and it's been one of the greatest decisions of my life. When the opportunity arose to eliminate the commute from my life, I felt like I had blinders removed with the sobering realization of the number of hours I was frittering away each week. It's not one particular aspect that affects you doing that commute, but more like grains of sand blowing across a beach, slowly eroding you away.
with a good podcast to listen to or good music, it doesnt bother me. I also enjoy people watching. If your taking the bus or train you may also have time to get work done that you dont have to do when you get to work or get home.
with a good podcast to listen to or good music, it doesnt bother me. I also enjoy people watching. If your taking the bus or train you may also have time to get work done that you dont have to do when you get to work or get home.
I agree completely. I've been doing the train commute for less than a year, but the key for me is to be doing something that is either productive for work or something that I enjoy (like reading a book). On a day when my kindle ran out of battery, the commute seemed to take so much longer and I was acutely aware of each and every stop.
i spent 3 years commuting to midtown and the chelsea market area from new brunswick (NE corridor).
Plus side: not sitting in traffic, i slept, read, played games, stared out the window, etc, somewhat reliable time tables
negatives: cost me 360/mo just for the train pass and another 100 for a monthly metro. about 3 hours a day commuting, dealing with weird people who sit next to you on the train, PENN STATION!!!! this is the biggest negative that drains the soul out of your being. waiting around the little tv screens waiting for your track number to be posted with everyone else and then sprinting to get a/"your" seat in the super heated underbelly of NYC.
i commuted into grand central for a while when i lived in white plains and the experience of grand central compared to penn station cannot be overlooked. i never felt like i was dying a little each day at grand central. penn station will crush your spirits. oh and the delays!!!
i spent 3 years commuting to midtown and the chelsea market area from new brunswick (NE corridor).
Plus side: not sitting in traffic, i slept, read, played games, stared out the window, etc, somewhat reliable time tables
negatives: cost me 360/mo just for the train pass and another 100 for a monthly metro. about 3 hours a day commuting, dealing with weird people who sit next to you on the train, PENN STATION!!!! this is the biggest negative that drains the soul out of your being. waiting around the little tv screens waiting for your track number to be posted with everyone else and then sprinting to get a/"your" seat in the super heated underbelly of NYC.
i commuted into grand central for a while when i lived in white plains and the experience of grand central compared to penn station cannot be overlooked. i never felt like i was dying a little each day at grand central. penn station will crush your spirits. oh and the delays!!!
Completely agree! Penn Station is a sewer. It is so depressing. I use to watch all these people with ashes on their head on Ash Wednesday pushing each other down the stairs to get to their track. I would think to myself, why get ashes to display your faith when you're an animal with no compassion? Watch the animals push each other down the stairs and escalators when their track is called. These are not normal people.
When you work in NJ, and drive, its a whole different animal than taking public transit and walking.
I accepted a job in Midtown and don't know what new to expect, I've been many times, but always left tired due to extensive walking. So hear hear, what do you say? (I hope the question makes sense)
I don't mind my driving-commute, but any day i encounter traffic, I miss the days where I just sat on a bus to PABT then walked to Grand Central down 42nd street. The only days that commute was miserable was extremely humid days. I don't mind the cold, but really messy winter days weren't much fun either.
I enjoy driving, but not in traffic at all. Luckily, my route is mostly smooth sailing.
I would say its more mentally exhausting than physically. I used to live in Brooklyn and commuted to the Bronx on the train. Took about 1 1/2 hours. Hated it! Now I live in NJ and have the option of taking NJ Transit train or bus or the Path. I would travel to my office in Times Square or to other sites in other Boroughs. Either way its about an hour or more. The Path saved money but it took longer. I don't mind the walking. I just hate the cost. Commuting to NY is expensive. I did hate being on crowded trains and allotting myself extra travel time when the trains are too crowded for me to board. Now I prefer driving in NJ over commuting to NY. I like the peace and quiet of my car and my music even if I do have to sit in traffic at times. I had a saying "taking public transit in NY is a full time job that we should get paid for." Just make sure you have something to take your mind off everything while you're on the train or bus.
Ditto all the people who said it is more mentally exhausting than physically so. I feel that even if I hit traffic, when I am driving to work, it is still direct and a single hop if that makes sense, so I can kind of tune out. But to commute to the city, it usually involves a few transfers (walk/drive to the train/bus/PATH station, sit for a few stops, connect trains/transfer to subway, walk to office, etc) and each of those transfers wore me down, even though time-wise the commute was similar. I hated being stuck waiting for a delayed train or subway because I knew it would push off the rest of my connections and possibly I would miss the express train and get stuck on a local (gah!!).
Oh and I'd also like to add, on days when I have a lot of baggage, public transit kills me. When I first went back to work after baby, I had to lug breast pump, cooler bag, etc. in addition to my regular purse and lunch box. Those days I really really REALLY wished I could throw all that crap into my car and drive.
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