+ Car gives me 1 hour of extra time at home and 1 hour in the car, per day. High in cost, high in stress (for me), high in freedom.
+ Bus gives me 2 hours on the bus, per day. Low in cost, medium in stress, low in freedom.
On a personal level I can't utilize the hour each day driving very well. So if I drive I think I get an effective 1.5 hours of work out of it (50% utilization while driving, 1 hour at home). Whereas with the bus I get 2 hours of work pretty reliably. As a recent college graduate, the additional hours of work and savings fit me perfectly. This is a time period where it's smart to rapidly increase your technical competency and savings. As I grow older and have a family, the tradeoff looks different. I think then it would make more sense to spend the money and lose a bit of work time, but have a lot more time at home and a lot more freedom.
Contrast with home where the answer is: "anything and everything." Then reading a giant technical treatise is not quite as appealing an option.
I'm not advocating long commutes but there is perhaps something to be said for artificially limiting one's choices at times.
Ref: http://judaism.about.com/od/sabbathdayshabb2/f/electricity.h...
It's wonderful that he's managing to use 2 hours of his day that would otherwise be unproductive and un-fun, but if he had those 2 hours at home, he could choose to do so many more things, including spending them with family or friends.
If you're the type of person who can't do anything productive or healthy unless forced into it, a forced commute could be helpful, I guess. If you have control of yourself and your destiny, a forced commute is a negative thing.