Your commute... How bad does it suck?

[JoshEEE]

I have lived in various parts of Seattle over the years, and was subjected to the 2nd worst commute in the world (second only to a certain part of LA according to some news report I saw some time).

Its' this 13 mile stretch from the East Side over a bridge to the West Side. If I wanted to work 8 or 9 to 5 or 6.....I had 40 mins each way on a good day, and up to 2 hours on a bad day.  The record though....was one day when it took me just over 3 hours to get across that bridge. I think it was a Mariner's game and Sonic's game on the same night, and I was trying to leave work at 4:30.  OH MAN.

Anyway...that royally sucked, so I bought a house on the East Side. I now live within biking distance of my job, and I can get to and from work within 15 minutes on a bad day.

But....I'm finding myself missing the city sometimes, and I kind of want to move back over there......

Uh oh.

[Morgbug]

I agree with Josh.  Seattle sucks for driving.  I was down there last year to visit a friend and had to go from the Canadian border to a neighbourhood on the south side at the same time as folks were going to a Mariners game  

Holy crap, does I-5 ever suck.  Huge.  Then we had to turn around and go back for the rest of the game.  

Great assortment of toy stores in that area though.  Lots of Target, TRU and Wally's.  Found a few KB's in the malls too.  

[Ben]

The one good thing about living in a small city is that there is rarely gridlock. When (if ever) I get to L.A., I'm selling my Hyundai because I don't think I'd handle the traffic all that well.

[JoshEEE]

Yeah. But sometimes they have what they think is traffic.

 When I first moved from CA to WA, I used to live in a small town, and every summer, there would be a little bit of of a backup on the main roads as tourists used it both as a highway, and a stop on their way to the Olympic National Park.

You'd actually have slow down a little as you went down the main drag, and SOME days it required more than 5 minutes to get to where you were going.

They called it "traffic".

 

[Lemon-Viper]

I can feel the hate that's gonna be coming my way in about 5 minutes.  My "commute" to work consists of a block of walking down a back alley, across the main street of town, and up the street about half a block.  Then I'm at my work shop.  It's pretty nice being able to walk to and from work for lunch in a shorter amount of time than it takes most people to get to the nearest McDonalds or whatever.

I get up at 7AM, shower, shave, eat, watch a little TV, walk to work by 8AM.

Not bad, eh?

Bring on the HATE mail!!!

[dustrho]

Bring on the HATE mail!!!

No need to send you hate mail, but you are on lucky S-O-B!    

[JoshEEE]

Hey, I can get up at 8am and be at work by 9am too. It's just that I don't have time for all that "TV" and "Breakfast" stuff that you do.

I have to do all that when I get here.

 

[Morgbug]

I have to do all that when I get here.

I thought that's what the commute was for?

[E.Z.]

My commute consists of getting out of bed and walking to the "daycare room". Traffic is usually pretty damn good.  

[JediMAC]

Well, if yesterday and today are any indication of my average commute, I'm going to be looking for a new job pretty soon!     Took me a good 35 minutes yesterday to get into the office.  Started off smoothly for the first 15 miles, and then nothing but a parking lot on the freeway for the last 5 miles.  But today was twice as bad, as it took me over an hour to get in - 10 miles of pure gridlock!

Well, that was long ago, and my bosses have recently changed the "arrival time policy", so I have to be in at 9am sharp now, instead of sometime between 9:30 and 10am.  That's added an average of 30-40 more minutes to my previous commute, so nowadays, making it into the office within an hour is great.    It usually takes me an hour to an hour and a half in BOTH directions now, and we're only talking about a 20 mile distance here.  (you do the math)

This is absolutely sickening, and I pretty much start and finish every day be wanting to shoot myself (and many other drivers).  Keep in mind that before we moved, my commute was about 5 minutes, just up the street.  I'm definitely considering job searching closer to our new home now, 'cause I can't deal with this any longer.  I'm teetering on the brink of going completely insane, and possibly homicidal as well.  The filth that comes out of my mouth, and from my fingers, every day is probably enough to last the average angry teenager a solid year.

Oh, and by the way, when they recently announced the worst freeway bottlenecks last month in the news, the 101/405 interchange here in L.A. ranked as the worst one in the country.  That's exactly what I drive straight into every single day, as my office is located immediately beside that interchange (like 50 feet away from it).  Here's the disgusting confirmation of that from CNN (scroll down to Study: Worst U.S. bottleneck is in Los Angeles)

Study: Worst U.S. bottleneck is in Los Angeles

Signed,
Sincerely miserable and pissed off in L.A.

[Scott]

Just imagine a sweater...scary thought

[Mikey D]

The report also says traffic clogs have been eliminated in Boston, Massachusetts

Bull sh!t.

While the Big Dig has helped a little, there is still traffic.  Hopefully soon this will all change for me.  I might possibly have another job offer coming and if I take it, I'll be driving in the opposite direction of traffic both to and fro.  Mile wise it's longer than I have now, but time wise, its probably about the same or less.
 
 

[DSJ™]

Just imagine a sweater...scary thought

That hair cut looks familiar!  

[Mikey D]

Just needs a sweater

Missed Scott's post

[JediMAC]

Sheesh.  Not you too now, Mikey!    

Yeah, that's actually not too far from being accurate at this point, except that I don't go into too many Korean stores really.  Wait, actually now that I think of it, the shop downstairs in our office building here is run by Koreans, and I actually gave the owner a good piece of my mind when he charged me almost a buck for a small 5-stick pack of gum last year.  I even threw in some Korean too, which surprised the hell out of him that I spoke the language.  Boy, I am headed down the wrong path.  Maybe I should go watch that movie again, and look for some tell tale signs of things I should be avoiding...    Anyone know a good shrink in the L.A. area?

Also, I FINALLY saw "Office Space" the other night, and I gotta tell you - I was crying from laughter during the introductory scene where the dude's commuting 1 mile per hour and getting passed by the old man with the walker, and getting all crazy road rage goin' on.  That is SO me!  I had even called Patty several times on my way home from work earlier that night, screaming and yelling about "just sitting there" in traffic and not moving for 10 minutes at a time.  When I finally got home, I ranted for another 15 minutes 'cause I was still so pissed that it took 93 minutes to drive 20 miles.  And then we turned on Office Space...  Too damned funny!