 Kore7 says: Roughly one out of every six American workers commutes more than forty-five minutes, each way. People travel between counties the way they used to travel between neighborhoods.Until recently, I was one of these Americans. What started out as an invigorating drive through new urban environs eventually became repetitious and wearisome. Even though I was careful to fill my time with music, podcasts, audio-books, or phone calls, I don't miss this daily aggravation at all now, instead embracing the freedom public transportation confers. (Trains can be your friends...who knew?  .) The mental relaxation that comes with not being on constant heightened alert for all the unpredictable hazards is priceless and has returned a small measure of serenity to my life I thought I had lost. What do clippers think? Are extended commutes worth their return? Given its finite supply, shouldn't most of us be valuing our precious time higher? When I worked downtown I used public transportation. I loved it. I had all that extra time in the morning to read personal stuff, and catch a catnap in the afternoon going home. When I had jobs where I commuted in the car, there was one route I hated with a passion. I had to be on hyper-alert because there were accidents all the time and it was a boring straight road through an industrial area. Another job had a great route with lots of trees and beautiful old homes. I listened to the radio and thought all my deep thoughts in the car. LOL. Sadly the crappy route took me to a job I loved and the nice route took me to a soul-sucking nightmare. PS to Kore, I find your new love for the trains highly suspicious. I ride a bicycle most places, and use trains n buses too when I have to. The life of a car driver in Dublin does not appeal to me really.....my pal commutes 2 hours each way every day!!! Yuck. I knew trains could be friends. Growing up one of my best friends was a Burlington Northern EMD GP50, untill he killed my dog. We haven't spoken sense, though now that I think of it, we didn't really speak much before. I had a somber childhood. I think I'm going to go brood about it...  But actually, I live in town, even though it is a town the size of Belgium. The thing I love is that I can walk everywhere. It takes me 10 minutes to get to work during off hours. 1 hour to get to work during rush hour. But I can walk there in about 45 minutes, so I always have an alternative to the cars. I tried biking to work before, but for me, biking is strictly leisure. I love mountain biking, but wh... In Praise of Walking to Work... These days most of us grew up with cars. The effect of cars on the geography of our mind is interesting, and one I've explored. When you get into a car, you zone out. You focus on the road, and sometimes not even that. We normally only notice the cars that get too close to us, and the traffic lights that get in our way. Miles can click by without absorbing any of it. As a passenger we often get lost in the internal world of the car - the buildings through the glass seem as remote as distant cities in old movies. We are magically transported from one familiar local to another, but the terrain between remains essentially a mystery. But it wasn't so long ago ... Even a bike is too fast and requires too much concentration. You have to let your mind wander into the courtyards and apartment complexes, and run down shops or dark alleys. When you get on a machine, you disconnect from that world, and move into a far more practical one. Obviously, I'm a big fan of Will Self. Well put, Austin, and totally on-point. Car culture leaves us stranded inhabitants of scattered urban archipelagos, each person their own island in a rising tide of cars, trains, taxis, and ubiquitous white earbuds.... Will Self and a radio journalist navigate the urban obstacles between LaGuardia Airport and midtown Manhattan on-foot. Very funny. |
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