Your Commute Is Killing You

[Direckshun]

Long commutes suck balls, but this is particularly fascinating.

http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0...167-5/abstract

Your Commute Is Killing You
Long commutes cause obesity, neck pain, loneliness, divorce, stress, and insomnia.
By Annie Lowrey
Posted Thursday, May 26, 2011, at 5:57 PM ET

This week, researchers at Umea University in Sweden released a startling finding: Couples in which one partner commutes for longer than 45 minutes are 40 percent likelier to divorce. The Swedes could not say why. Perhaps long-distance commuters tend to be poorer or less educated, both conditions that make divorce more common. Perhaps long transit times exacerbate corrosive marital inequalities, with one partner overburdened by child care and the other overburdened by work. But perhaps the Swedes are just telling us something we all already know, which is that commuting is bad for you. Awful, in fact.

Commuting is a migraine-inducing life-suck—a mundane task about as pleasurable as assembling flat-pack furniture or getting your license renewed, and you have to do it every day. If you are commuting, you are not spending quality time with your loved ones. You are not exercising, doing challenging work, having sex, petting your dog, or playing with your kids (or your Wii). You are not doing any of the things that make human beings happy. Instead, you are getting nauseous on a bus, jostled on a train, or cut off in traffic.

In the past decade or so, researchers have produced a significant body of research measuring the dreadfulness of a long commute. People with long transit times suffer from disproportionate pain, stress, obesity, and dissatisfaction. The joy of living in a big, exurban house, or that extra income left over from your cheap rent? It is almost certainly not worth it.

First, the research proves the most obvious point: We dislike commuting itself, finding it unpleasant and stressful. In 2006, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and Princeton economist Alan Krueger surveyed 900 Texan women, asking them how much they enjoyed a number of common activities. Having sex came in first. Socializing after work came second. Commuting came in dead last. "Commuting in the morning appears particularly unpleasant," the researchers noted.

That unpleasantness seems to have a spillover effect: making us less happy in general. A survey conducted last year for the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, for instance,found that 40 percent of employees who spend more than 90 minutes getting home from work "experienced worry for much of the previous day." That number falls to 28 percent for those with "negligible" commutes of 10 minutes or less. Workers with very long commutes feel less rested and experience less "enjoyment," as well.

Long commutes also make us feel lonely. Robert Putnam, the famed Harvard political scientist and author of Bowling Alone, names long commuting times as one of the most robust predictors of social isolation. He posits that every 10 minutes spent commuting results in 10 percent fewer "social connections." Those social connections tend to make us feel happy and fulfilled.

Those stressful hours spent listening to drive-time radio do not merely make us less happy. They also make us less healthy. The Gallup survey, for instance, found that one in three workers with a 90-minute daily commute has recurrent neck or back problems. Our behaviors change as well, conspiring to make us less fit: When we spend more time commuting, we spend less time exercising and fixing ourselves meals at home.

According to research from Thomas James Christian of Brown University, each minute you commute is associated with "a 0.0257 minute exercise time reduction, a 0.0387 minute food preparation time reduction, and a 0.2205 minute sleep time reduction." It does not sound like much, but it adds up. Long commutes also tend to increase the chance that a worker will make "non-grocery food purchases"—buying things like fast food—and will shift into "lower-intensity" exercise.

It is commuting, not the total length of the workday, that matters, he found. Take a worker with a negligible commute and a 12-hour workday and a worker with an hourlong commute and a 10-hour workday. The former will have healthier habits than the latter, even though total time spent on the relatively stressful, unpleasant tasks is equal.

Plus, overall, people with long commutes are fatter, and national increases in commuting time are posited as one contributor to the obesity epidemic. Researchers at the University of California–Los Angeles, and Cal State–Long Beach, for instance, looked at the relationship between obesity and a number of lifestyle factors, such as physical activity. Vehicle-miles traveled had a stronger correlation with obesity than any other factor.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

I have SOOO many stories about public transportation....NO THANK YOU

The thing to remember, though, is that the West Coast sucks at mass transit. You go back east, it is much nicer (and safer). Every West Coast city that I've been in seems to be a big game of "you can't get there from here".

[tooge]

15 minutes of no traffic driving. I enjoy it. Time to drink coffee, listed to morning radio.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

To each their own i guess. I'd MUCH rather drive then deal with stinky, uncomfortable public vehicles that are often tagged on. Late/early Bus drivers, broken down buses, waiting the extra 5 minutes so the old dude in the wheelchair can board and get strapped in, then another 5 minutes for him to get off, which then causes you to miss your next bus/trolley

Or the downed power lines that kill the Trolleys. Or when a freaking tree falls over during a storm, blocks the tracks and delays your commute for 2+ hours (been there, done that)

And the people?!?! OH EM GEE

How about the smelly alcoholics? ****ed up drug abusers, annoying loud mouth teens, stank ass homeless people trying to bum change off ya? Even the gang activity. I once had a group of black people try to jack me as i was getting off the trolley. Some bitch reached into my pockets as i was walking down the isle, i told the bitch, "WTF, you doing??" Next thing you know ima bout to get jumped.

I had a friend get robbed for his shoes on the trolley.

Yeah.....

**** public transportation.

I'd much rather drive in my car than to deal with all that shit again.

This crap happens, certainly, especially in bad areas. But not so much during rush hour. Sure, you get stuck sitting next to the occasional garlic reeking foreigner, but normally it's just a regular person on their way home same as you.

I lived in Chicago for nearly 10 years, sometimes in some pretty ****ed up neighborhoods, and I never had a problem on the L. And taking the Metra (suburban commuter train) is much better than Chicago public transportation.

Didn't realize San Diego was so ghetto.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by frazod

Didn't realize San Diego was so ghetto.

haha, the route i had to take to get back and forth from work ran through:

Poor Mexican community-----> Poor black Community -------> White trash and the elderly community

[rad]

I just took a job that's 63 miles away. Takes about 70 minutes. Before this, I drove about 26 miles/35-40 minutes for 15 years.

I'm screwed.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by Pittsie

But it's totally worth it to get a bigger house in the suburbs/exurbs, guys!!

If you have a family yes. I drive 70 miles a day round trip, but I'd rather do than live in the city so that so my kids can live in a nice neighborhood with nice schools.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by mr. tegu

In really big cities yeah, but a city like KC it is not bad. On either side of the city, whether Kansas or Missouri you just drive about 10 minutes to be in the suburbs and another 10-15 to be in the newer ones.

Yea, KC even in rush hour traffic isn't really that bad compared to a lot of cities.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by rad

I just took a job that's 63 miles away. Takes about 70 minutes. Before this, I drove about 26 miles/35-40 minutes for 15 years.

I'm screwed.

Find a way to car pool.

[unlurking]

For the last decade I averaged a bit over an hour each way. Just moved to 15 minutes each way plus 2 telework days. The amount of free time is amazing. I keep thinking "OK, now what?"

[pr_capone]

It takes me 12 minutes to get to work. If I am in the car then it is nice quiet time to focus on what I have to get done that day. If I'm on the bike it becomes more about the exhilaration of the ride and I'm pumped when I get to work. This is the one thing I really like about this shitty town.

[HonestChieffan]

People who live in gulags have no commute and live forever

[Dave Lane]

All 36 feet of it?

[Fairplay]

So how far is your commute Direckshun?

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Satanic Goat

Walking to work FTW

I walk fairly often, or ride my bicycle when I know I am not going to have to leave the office on business that day. The 7/10 mile distance is a real killer.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by DaFace

It'd be interesting to know how the issues impact people like me who are mentally engaged while commuting. It's odd, but I almost miss my daily reading time on the bus when I work from home.

My neighbor lady, commuted to downtown Chicago on the train, like Frazod, for over 35 years.

It was about an hour each way, every day, and it was almost a little community/routine on the train.

It became a very important part of her life, and she really missed it when she retired.

I had tried to hire her about ten years ago, and she would have no part of it, that commute was important.