When I go to the office, my commute is currently ~30 minutes. It is definitely right on the edge of being too long.

My main problem with a commute is not that it's 30 minutes, but that it's 30 minutes by car. I despise driving. It seems like such a complete waste of time in general. Plus, it's dangerous dealing with a bunch of idiots on their phones. /rant over

That's such a shame! I live in the UK and I love driving - but also have had a special commute that few get to experience.

In short, living an hour outside of London in a small village meant that the drive to the station (to take the train to London) involved rolling hills and long and twisted scenic roads. It was really enjoyable - usually my favourite time of the day - even more so if like me you are into your cars and bought yourself a nice car to enjoy it with.

On summer evenings after work I would find myself taking 1 to 2 hour detours discovering new roads and sceneries, usually until the sunset which at peak was somewhere between 9 and 10pm. It was the best thing I ever did for my mental health, but now I live in London it's not something I can do anymore. I walk to and from work through a very busy, stressful and polluted city.

In the US, most commutes by car involve long stretches of crawling, bumper-to-bumper highway traffic where nobody wants to let you change lanes. Frankly, even if you love taking your car for a spin, I feel like you'd have to be pretty eccentric to enjoy that experience.

It's funny, because I specifically didn't want to live too close to the office for the exact opposite reason - I like driving, and living within walking distance would mean that I don't get to drive every day.

Same. It gives me a good change to unwind/listen to music. My driving commute back can be a real pain though, being 15 minutes longer than the trip there (30 to 45 mins).

I enjoy driving... but driving during rush-hour?

I live in a small-ish city so it's not too bad - if I leave before 8am the roads are pretty much empty.

Not everyone who lives in a city lives in one that is massively over populated relative to its transportation infrastructure.

Even if you do not live in a major city it is often miserable to, for instance, use the interstate. Previous major infrastructure attempts to eliminate congestion have happened in, for instance, Los Angeles... try going for a drive there at 5:00 in the afternoon and see how much you enjoy it.

I didn't say "major city", I said "one that is massively over populated relative to its transportation infrastructure" (which just so happens to include most cities that most people would consider major cities). Most medium cities are nowhere near that bad. The person I was replying to said "cities". Not "major cities that many people on the internet assume everyone who lives in a city lives in".

Unless you're quite familiar with New England you've never heard of the cities I've lived in. Nevertheless, driving still sucked. I really don't see that "people have heard of the city" has much to do with it.

I'm saying that big "brand name" cities that everyone has heard of are a clusterfuck with regard to traffic (and whatever public transit they have is equally bad). Many of the medium and small cities that compose a large amount of the population don't have this problem. Except for the state capitals, Worcester, New Haven and maybe a couple others you'd be hard pressed to be in traffic for more than 30min in Southern New England unless your commute involves the same routes in the same directions as the commuter traffic from those cities. For example, if you left work at 5pm in Lowell or Fall River traffic conditions on your way to wherever you're going would be fine by 5:30. In northern New England the only way to be stuck in traffic is to travel on a Friday or Sunday afternoon in the summer in which case the roads will be full of Massholes but one could make the argument that you're really just in Boston traffic in that case. Maybe if you get out of work in Marlboro and need to take the highway in the same direction as all the Boston traffic you could be in traffic for more than 30min but once again I'd argue that you're really just sitting in Boston traffic.

Yeah unfortunately some dumbass built all the roads so they go through multiple cities.

My commute now is actually longer than it used to be, but it's mostly by train and it's definitely a lot less stressful.

Self driving cars can't come soon enough.

I'd prefer better public transit and bicycle infrastructure.

Self driving cars still waste a lot of space, if they're only transporting one or two people.

The ideal distance is like 15 to 30 minutes by foot. So you can plan to get some exercise while "gearing up" for work, but also be 5-10 minutes away by Uber in case you oversleep or emergency (at work or at home) calls.

I'm 19 minutes by foot. it's hot and humid where I live so 5 minutes out my clothing is drenched with sweat and by the time I make it to work I have to wait about 20-25 minutes to dry off