Posted on Feb 2, 2015
CW5 Desk Officer
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Commute
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EDIT: Check out this man's "commute": 21 miles round-trip, ON FOOT! Four hours each way. Watch the video, 'cause it's a good one:

http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/02/03/hes-amazing-person-donations-pour-man-who-walks-21-miles-and-work

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I'm asking because I have had great commutes and not-so-great commutes.

One time I lived and worked on post, and my "commute" was a ten-minute walk.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I live near Baltimore and commuted to the Pentagon - by car, commuter train, and Metro - which was about 90 minutes each way.

And I currently have about a 25-minute drive to work, which I think is very good.

A D.C. radio station does an annual take-off on American Idol to see who has the worst commute in this area. It's fun to see the lengths to which some folks will go to get to work.

How about you? How's your daily commute? Does anyone tele-work? That's the best commute of all!

http://dcist.com/2014/05/winner_of_wtops_commuter_idol_spend.php
Posted in these groups: Transportation logo Transportation
Edited 9 y ago
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Responses: 31
LTC Stephen C.
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CW5 (Join to see), less than 15 minutes, even with traffic. I voted Other since I consider my commute to be greater than Great!
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CW5 Desk Officer
CW5 (Join to see)
9 y
That is a great commute, LTC Stephen C.!! Thanks for your reply.
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SP5 Michael Rathbun
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My current gig is a grueling 20 feet, from bedroom to office every morning at 0730.

Back when I was at Microsoft, it was, weather permitting, an 18-minute walk through a temperate rain forest.

A lot better than the 48 miles each way every day with a trip through the "Mixmaster" system in downtown Dallas during peak hours, back when I lived in Frisco TX and was compelled to commute to Lancaster.
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CW5 Desk Officer
CW5 (Join to see)
9 y
Microsoft sounds like a great place to work. There and Apple. I've heard great things about both companies.

And your current gig is, in my opinion, the best that it gets.
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SP5 Michael Rathbun
SP5 Michael Rathbun
9 y
Microsoft was a wonderful place, indeed. In many ways I wish I could still be there.

Unfortunately there were some things about the culture that did not work out well for me. The job description began to change to something far from what they hired me to do (it originally took them almost a year to find someone with my experience and skills, and I was doing less and less of that), and after a couple of years the stress level rose to the point that I was in ER twice.

Fortunately this gig more or less dropped into my lap (one of those networking things) just as we were contemplating a partial disability retirement.
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SGT 94 E Radio Comsec Repairer
SGT (Join to see)
9 y
SP5 Michael Rathbun, thanks a lot. You dredged up terrible memories of my commutes through the mixmaster, lol. I used to drive from Mesquite to Richardson and sometimes it took me 2 hours to get home at night. Anyway, I'm glad you get to work from home now... sounds ideal!
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SP5 Michael Rathbun
SP5 Michael Rathbun
9 y
SGT (Join to see), what made that particular commute even more infuriating was that I had earlier been working from home, but the CEO decided that it would be fun to compel everybody local to commute in to a ridiculously remote location that was convenient to his "ranch". Only 3% of the people I supported were in that area, and I had significantly superior working conditions (servers, bandwidth...) provided at my own expense.

But if you are a ne'er-do-well millionaire you get to play silly games with the troops. I was glad that he had never infested the Armed Forces of the United States. I suspected that he was slightly jealous that I had.

He would have been an exceptionally toxic officer.
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Maj Matt Hylton
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Edited 9 y ago
My current ~30-35 minute commute is great. I'm driving 22 miles down some back roads and one US highway with a 55 MPH speed limit to get from my house out in the country and up on Lake Jordan down to Gunter in Montgomery, Alabama.

My previous ~20-30 minute commute SUCKED. It was only about 4.5 miles of all side streets driving (or bicycling, no difference in time) through multiple stop lights on the extremely busy streets from Redondo Beach, CA to Los Angeles AFB, CA.

To me, it's less about the time involved in the commute (so long as it's not REALLY long) vs. the stress associated with what conditions you are driving through. It's always something I take into consideration when looking for a place to live wherever I am stationed.

In LA, living in a smaller house somewhat close to the base was better than living in base housing (45-90 commute away from the base) or other areas of town; but it was still a stressful commute on some days. I can deal with the same length of commute here in AL because I'm not dealing with that volume of traffic and the place we are living is worth the drive.
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TSgt Kevin Buccola
TSgt Kevin Buccola
9 y
I leave early so i beat most of the traffic, the return trip is the worse...roughly 68 miles - 24 over water - when there is an accident it can turn a 60 minute commute to several hours.
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CW5 Desk Officer
CW5 (Join to see)
9 y
Early travel is good in my area as well, TSgt Kevin Buccola . That's probably almost universal. I deplore sitting in traffic and stop-and-go traffic, so I avoid it at all costs. That usually means leaving very early when I have to drive to D.C. And even then it's no guarantee, but the earlier you go, the better the chances for a smooth drive.
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TSgt Kevin Buccola
TSgt Kevin Buccola
9 y
DC driving CW5 Scott Montgomery has got to be tough. I've driven that area a few times but usually take the trains. I try to avoid DC, New York, Boston...I no longer have the nerves to drive in those areas anymore, i pay other to drive in those areas.
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CW5 Desk Officer
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9 y
Yes, it is, TSgt Kevin Buccola. That's why - for the entire six years I worked at the Pentagon, I did not drive even one day. I drove to the BWI airport, took the MARC train to Union Station in DC, and took the Metro to the Pentagon. Me and thousands of others, but it still beat driving.
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