Tell me about your commute.

[Rain Man]

Not just the length. What do you do? Where is your mind? Do you listen to the radio? Do you make a stop along the way? Do you carpool, take kids to school, drop off a spouse? Do you pick up hitchhikers? Or hitchhike? Do you walk? Bus? Drive? Take a ferry? Are you thinking about work or football? Do you curse at other commuters? How's the traffic? What landmarks do you see? Do you eat or drink along the way?

I walk to work 95 percent of the time. Occasionally I'll take a bus or drive if I have something going on at work. It's 1.85 miles each way and I walk slow, so it's about 35 minutes. Occasionally I'll listen to my iPod, and sometimes I use the time to call my parents or my sister.

On the way in, I'm thinking a lot about work and how I'll organize my day, and on the way home I'm usually thinking about random things. I walk a generally different route each day because the streets are a grid, so I randomly walk up streets depending on how I hit the stop lights. It's a relatively busy urban area, so I have to keep an eye out for traffic a lot.

I have three phases of my walk. First, there's a residential neighborhood (8 to 15 blocks, depending on route) that tends to be young and safe. It's mostly old circa-1900 houses that have been converted to apartments or 30-unit brick apartments that went up in the 60s or later. It's the most densely populated neighborhood in Colorado. Second, there's a commercial/park area (4 to 15 blocks, depending on route) where you have some low-rent people wandering around looking suspicious, but who are generally harmless unless their drug deal goes bad. Third, there's the downtown area (maybe a dozen blocks) which is a lot of tourists and office workers and is reasonably upscale. The downtown area is pedestrian only on the main drag and has lots of walkers, though cars cross it at each intersection.

I walk by the state capitol every day, often cutting across the parking lot, and I see the big scrolling LED light of the newspaper building that tells me today's news headlines. There's a really big fountain and some really small fountains that I walk by in the summer, all in the downtown part, and the pedestrian area is lined with trees that get lots of Christmas lights this time of year. I also walk by the tallest building in Colorado, which apparently has 56 floors, and sometimes by the main cathedral of Colorado. The cathedral has two spires, one of which got hit by lightning a few years back and fell onto the busy street, miraculously not killing anyone, but if you look close you can now see where one of the spires is a slightly different color of stone.

In good weather there's a beggar guy who hangs out outside the door to my office building and he rattles his cup of change at me. We think he likes our office building because it gets a lot of traffic from the five story health club at the top. I also have to dodge people selling the "homeless newspaper" on at least two corners that I pass, and the occasional mobile panhandler. My office is in the convention part of downtown with the convention center and several massive hotels, so I also see lots of convention-goers with their little name tag necklace thingies.

In the morning, the restaurants are all closed, but in the evening they're open. In good weather several of them have outside seating so I get to see what they're all ordering. I also walk by the Hard Rock Cafe, which pipes classic rock out onto the pedestrian mall.

I never eat or drink on my commute. Maybe once every couple of months I'll buy a bagel on my way in (cranberry, no cream cheese, not sliced, not toasted, just give it to me out of the basket, please) at a bagel shop a couple of blocks from my house.

That's my commute. Tell me about yours.

My commute is out the back door to my shop and then to my client's house. This year all my clients have been within 5-10 minutes of my shop. It has been amazing.

[2bikemike]

On a beautiful clear day like the last few we've had I leave the house and head down the hill I get to gaze out at the ocean in the distance. If I am working nights there is usually a pretty good sunset. The ride home on clear days during the winter I view snow covered mountain peaks.

I am currently 10 miles from work. It used to be 40 miles. I usually stop for coffee before going in. Drive past the Auto Park and look at all the new cars. As I get close to work I begin smelling the Brewing Process at the local Brewery.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by trndobrd

Why even go to work the other 95% of the time?

To annoy people.

[stevieray]

speeders, tailgaters, lack of turn signals and self-absorbed, self-appointed fast lane road sheriffs..

[Buehler445]

Procedure
8 blocks to the highway.
4 miles on highway.
2.5 miles on county roads.

Traffic
Virtually none. Unless there are deer. Deer suck shit.

What I'm thinking about
Depends on the day. In the summer, it is usually balls ass early and I'm thinking about what needs done. This time of year, it is not so early. And I'm usually thinking about how MFing cold it is. I usually try to do some drive-by agrinomics, which basically is only seeing major issues.

When I head home it is usually what the wife has going for me for the evening. Or if I've been really busy, it is just kind of sleeping with my eyes open.

If you have any specific questions, you could ask DaFace. He made it one time.

[ExtremeChief]

Leave at 615am, 32 miles, about 40 minutes on rural highways. Listen to radio and smoke. Usually stop and get beer on the way home. Massive amounts of deer and I'm always wondering how many I didn't see.

[Braincase]

Usually out of the house by 6:55 AM. 45-60 minute commute depending on traffic. I'll usually stop at Dunkin' Donuts and get an onion bagel with chive cream cheese. I'll already have a cup of coffee, generally a medium roast Sumatran or Tanzanian peaberry. I usually listen to audiobooks (sci-fi/fantasy, or non-fiction motivational) or podcasts (motivational or technical) on the way to work.

[crazycoffey]

probably under 5 miles, 5-8 minute drive, no highway, 4 turns
I barely have time to listen to a full song. I'm usually thinking "crap I'm going to be late, I should have left 30 seconds earlier."

[phisherman]

like the person above, about 4 turns. 5-6 minutes probably. very little traffic. just enough time to listen to fescoe sound like a complete moron.

[The Iron Chief]

If I hit all green lights it takes me approx 6 minutes to get to work.
My kids are already on the bus wifes already at work.
I usually have mike & mike on in the radio because most of the time the ESPN guys are horrendous to listen to. Yes this is the only two sport channels that are on here and they have their own channel slot for whatever reason.aside from mike & mike that channel goes to the fox sports guys after.

On Fridays my mind drifts to the fact that I have two 14 hour shifts back to back.
And I dream for 7:00 sat eve to arrive.

[Otter]

My most interesting commutes are when I have to drop my truck off for maintenance overnight and take the bus.

The morning starts off an hour and a half earlier than normal at which time I throw my usual business casual into a backpack and strap on sneakers and a running suit and begin the 2.5 mile trek to the closest bus stop in the city. I can't ride my bike because there's no where to safe to store it for the day and it's a fairly high end mountain bike that I really don't want to get stolen. I have to cross rail road tracks where surprisingly often my schedule and trains collide. It was blocking my pathway at a standstill one day for so long I climbed up in the car and jumped down on the other side so I wouldn't be late. The reactions among the drivers waiting varied from envy to outrage.

Then I cross a really, really long bridge which luckily there's a very safe & secure walkway from traffic integrated the design where I listed to music and enjoy the view of the river and occasionally look down to see if I get lucky and see any fish. Once on the other side I hit the city where I'll stop for a cup of coffee and wait for the bus. The array of people a bus stop attracts is quiet amazing; from the homeless, to hipsters, college kids and regular boring business people like me. It's actually really fun to observe.

Bus comes, takes me to work while I listen to music, maybe chat it up and continue to people watch. The ride is quiet relaxing actually.

At the end of the work day when you just want to go home is when public transportation truly begins to suck. "Just Get Me Home!!!". But the fun part is that you get dropped off downtown and get to peek inside the pubs where I almost always see a friend, consultant I worked with in the past or former associate in some manner and stop in to have a beer at which point my chances of working out for the day are shot. Usually stay way too long catching up and playing 'remember when' and wind up taking a taxi across the very long bridge to my front door. I actually met the small business owner I do wireless networking on the side for using this pit stop.

The 99.9% of the time I do have my vehicle it's an uneventful 12 minute drive over a bypass and down a highway to an industrial park. Despite my best efforts I can't find a way to make it there with my bike without a very good chance of becoming crow chum via a tractor trailer.