I'm doing ~4h per day. Every day, from Monday till Friday. I use the train. 1:40h is one way + some foot walk.
But it's really annoying and it feels mostly like wasted or very unproductive time.
I would argue that the train is still a better place to work than the car because it has much less abrupt accelerations. I would get motion sick working in a car when driving through a city.
Anyway, the mobile Internet connection still sucks, and in addition the data plans usually are only about 100MB per month. In the morning, I usually try to sleep somehow, but I cannot really, and it fells far less restful than in bed. In the evening, I often try to work but the productivity very much depends on the task. Some task require a constant good SSH connection (Mosh makes it a bit better) and you have to edit files and switch forth and back remotely through apps. If you sometimes have to wait a minute or even if it's only seconds to complete some keystrokes, you get insane. Sometimes I read some research papers, but you don't have a big desk in front of you where you can put other papers, a notebook + computer to look up other things while reading, or make notes, etc - the place is just not there. Also, it's often very loud and other people talking constantly directly next to you. You can try with earplugs or music - but it's just not as productive as you would be in a silent environment.
That is in Germany, the RE4 train from Wuppertal to Aachen and back.
I would move to Aachen and I will move when my girlfriend is finally finished with her education in Düsseldorf + Krefeld (again other cities...).
Wow! that is a long commute. I have a friend who commutes from Leichlingen (20mins out of Cologne) to Aachen every day! He catches the RE48 into Cologne, and then ICE to Aachen, about 90mins one way. He said that the changing of the trains really stops him from doing any meaningful work on the laptop. I can understand that
He said that he use to drive, but that was killing his motivation. He told me is biggest fear is his reliance on the public transport with strikes and transport reliability. Fortunately, both are quite rare in Germany when compared to other countries.
A four hour commute with a self-driving car will be just as painful as four hour communute with a train, except that the cost with the car will be much higher. I honestly don't see self-driving cars changing a lot here.
Honestly, how many people can get up in the morning, get ready for work, go to a car and then just fall asleep again? I guess the percentage of people who will be able to sleep on a commute will be quite low; I know I wouldn't be able to do that.
Not quite. It will be painful from a family standpoint (cannot have breakfast/dinner with family) but commute-wise I would imagine a much better experience:
1. You would be guaranteed a seat. Even when I get a seat on the MetroNorth, the first and last miles are painful -- it still requires a 45min standing subway ride to Grand Central and a 10 minute standing ride from the station to the office. Same thing on the way back.
2. You would be able to sleep in the car since it would likely not require transfers or the risk of missing your stop
3. You could keep all your stuff in your car - laptops, books, etc. The space I have in a NYC subway car is pretty minimal
Charles Montgomery wrote a book, The Happy City, about how urban design affects people. He cited multiple studies that showed that long commutes are very detrimental to people's happiness. Long commutes dramatically increase divorce rates for example.
>Wait till cars become automatic. 4 hour per day commutes could become quite normal.
and now you will be able to work all these additional hours. Your employer will even generously provide you with the good mobile connection, or even with the whole connected autonomous car :)
Cars are already "automatic". Automatic in the sense that I hop on the train and 40 minutes later I'm at work. During the trip I either get started with work or read a book and have tea depending on what's going on. Plenty of people do it, I assume it's the main reason trains have free wifi here.
I still wouldn't consider anything over an hour-long commute, simply because it'd be taking way too much time from the rest of my life.
clearly you have never used caltrain as a method to get to work.
4h commutes ARE normal in the bay area. the transit system is the worst in the world asz compared to general income and overall development of the country
But it's really annoying and it feels mostly like wasted or very unproductive time.
I would argue that the train is still a better place to work than the car because it has much less abrupt accelerations. I would get motion sick working in a car when driving through a city.
Anyway, the mobile Internet connection still sucks, and in addition the data plans usually are only about 100MB per month. In the morning, I usually try to sleep somehow, but I cannot really, and it fells far less restful than in bed. In the evening, I often try to work but the productivity very much depends on the task. Some task require a constant good SSH connection (Mosh makes it a bit better) and you have to edit files and switch forth and back remotely through apps. If you sometimes have to wait a minute or even if it's only seconds to complete some keystrokes, you get insane. Sometimes I read some research papers, but you don't have a big desk in front of you where you can put other papers, a notebook + computer to look up other things while reading, or make notes, etc - the place is just not there. Also, it's often very loud and other people talking constantly directly next to you. You can try with earplugs or music - but it's just not as productive as you would be in a silent environment.
That is in Germany, the RE4 train from Wuppertal to Aachen and back.
I would move to Aachen and I will move when my girlfriend is finally finished with her education in Düsseldorf + Krefeld (again other cities...).