90-minute ‘super commutes’ more common as Bay Area housing shortage intensifies

Re:90-minute ‘super commutes’ more common as Bay Area housin... by Steltek on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @02:50PM (#16924759)

Well, a walking commute like that is probably not going to happen in Boston without tradeoffs. I think extremely few people are lucky enough to have a commute like that in the US. That said, Cambridge has a the highest percentage of "pedestrian" commuters in the country.

Anyway, off the top of my head: Medford, Quincy, Braintree. Schools might not knock it out of the park like Lexington but they're not crap either. A decent MA school is better than a lot of "good" schools in other states. However, a "tiny" house is in the eye of the beholder. I'd consider 1500sqft pretty decent whereas some people would want 2000+ with an attached garage, which is incongruent with urban living. The "real T" access alleviates a lot of commute woes; T delays are blown out of proportion compared to the daily car-crash-induced traffic jam.

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Re:90-minute ‘super commutes’ more common as Bay Area housin... by replicatorblog on Wednesday April 25, 2018 @03:48PM (#16925344)

All good points. My co-worker drives from medford, despite being just a few miles away, it's a 30-40 minute drive. I've never lived in the southern part of MA, but Google Maps still makes it look like an hour-ish drive from either of those towns.

I'm not complaining, just noting that it's the tax of working in cities with a lot of economic activity. The major alternative is moving to a smaller city with fewer job options, but higher quality of life, e.g. Salt Lake City, which only has 3-4 unicorns, but balances that with 5 minute commutes to gorgeous new construction. Pick your poison!

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