What would you say a reasonable commute to work would be?

Merlin139

Murphybear wrote: »

If you sign on and get JSA I believe the rules are that you are expected to take any job that involves a commute of 90 minutes - each way :eek:

I turned down a job that would take me 85 minutes to get to in my own car and just over 2 hours by public transport because of the time of travelling and I was given a hard time by the Job Centre. As I did not get JSA only Nat Ins contributions I told them to Foxtrot Oscar!

eilidhcatriona

I’d probably think twice about a 42 mile commute, based on fuel costs, but a time of 50 minutes seems perfectly reasonable.

When living in London and having various jobs over the years, my commute averaged an hour which was fine.

Moved home to Aberdeen a few years ago, the distance of my commute is just under 10 miles, which started off as just over an hour by bus. Thanks to timetable changes, over time that increased to 1hr 45. I decided it was time to learn to drive. Now my commute is about 35 minutes (usually ends up longer in reality because I stop at the supermarket but that’s my choice), I have to go right through the city centre but I’m hoping that might reduce when our bypass finally opens.

I don’t think I would want to go back to over an hours commute...the first day I drove to and from work was a revelation, now I have an extra hour of my evening.

trailingspouse

I walk up two flights of stairs to the office in the attic...

pinknsparkly

I work in two locations. On days I'm working closer to my home, it's a 40 minute walk. On days I work at the further location, it's a 1hr drive in the morning (so long as I leave the house well before 6.30am, any later than this and it takes 1.5 - 2 hours) and about 45 minutes home (assuming I leave after 6.30pm, otherwise it takes around 1.5 hours). From speaking to my friends, commutes "down south" seem significantly in excess of those up north. I would say that my commute is nothing unusual down here, just west of London (Surrey) but my friends living up north typically have commutes of 15-20 mins.

Deep_In_Debt

I used to commute to London and when the trains ran on time, which was rare, it would take about 90 mins each way including the walk to my local station and the walk to the office. I gave that up a few years back to work locally. I'm lucky that I live in an area where there are a lot of job opportunities.

My current commute is 8 miles away but it is a bottleneck of traffic and can often take an hour or more at a snails pace. I'm being made redundant and I have been offered a job which is about 13 miles away. The distance is not a problem but again, another bottleneck of traffic. I've done my career and I'm wanting to slow down now so I'm hoping to be offered a job even closer to home - 10 mins by car and very little traffic, with the option of the bus if I feel that way inclined.

HurdyGurdy

I'd say a *reasonable* commute would be an hour's travelling time for a "normal" paying job (whatever that means to each individual person).

I have done two hours door to door each way, which was drive - train - underground - walk, but that had a good salary, so was worth it.

My current commute is five minute drive or 20 minute cycle or 45 minute walk. I would hate to go back to long distance commuting and I think now, having been in this job for seven years, I'd actually baulk at anything more than a 20 minute drive. I've become very comfortable with my current commute.

boliston

i think a lot depends not so much on the time but how stressful the journey would be - eg a 45 minute walk would be ok but 45 minutes in stop start city traffic would be very unpleasant - my current commute is normally 10 minutes each way by bike, 25 minutes each way by car (can be as much as an hour) or 45 minutes each way on foot

Kayalana99

Jlawson118 wrote: »

Fuel did cross my mind straight after the phone call. I get around 400 - 550 miles out of a tank on a good run, so I thought if I'm commuting 84 miles per day, I would be filling up just about every week. Now it would be a managerial job but looking at the average salary for that role within the company on Indeed, it averages around the same as what I'm on now, and I think putting £60 per week in my car would soon start to add up, especially when I am filling it up every 3 - 4 weeks at the moment. It wouldn't bother me too much to put that much in fortnightly, but every week on this salary would be disappointing.

On a personal note, it also depends how likely this opportunity is to come up again. When my Husband got offered a managers job which meant us selling up, pulling the kids out of school and essentially uprooting our lifes we did it (hence why the hour commute for me till I found somewhere local)

But he was 25, he'd never been a manager before and my saying which was the backbone of all of this is You can always take a step backwards, but the chance to take a step forward are far and few between. Who knows if this opportunity would come up again, and if you took this job for 6 months - how many doors could that open?

But again, it does depend on your circumstance. Perhaps you already have managers experience - perhaps the job isn't that great on paper...but sometimes you have to put yourself in hardship for greater rewards down the line.

Johnmcl7

For a while I had a commute which was 40 minutes walk and 75 minutes on the train at best (often quite a bit longer on the train) each way which very time consuming but at the time I needed more experience in the industry so it was worth the hassle.

I did eventually move then the company went bust and I was making the same commute in reverse

Kynthia

I've commuted for at least 90 mins each way most of my life. I'm very tempted to move to a local job soon but that would involve a significant drop on salary and I'm the main earner, but we can afford it. I'd hate a long commute driving though. As annoying and unreliable as trains and busses are, I love to read on my commute and hate the fact I can't do that on long car journeys.

If you have the luxury of choice then choose what works for you, but I'd say nearly half of workers do an hour or more so under an hour could be deemed "reasonable" by most. However It's a subjective term.