[onlooker]

http://grist.org/living/americans-spend ... ign=buffer
Americans spend 30 billion hours a year commuting. And it’s killing them
Bad for the planet and bad for your health. It as always struck me as a bit insane this moving about and depleting our finite main energy source.

[Newfie]

Well then that's your answer...humans, in aggregate, are a bit insane.

For real.

[ROCKMAN]

Different dynamics for different cities: in Houston the non-commuting drive hours greatly exceed those racked up driving to/from work. IOW this ain't NYC. LOL.

[vtsnowedin]

Different dynamics for different cities: in Houston the non-commuting drive hours greatly exceed those racked up driving to/from work. IOW this ain't NYC. LOL.

My father told me he found a car in New York city was just an expensive nuisance. That was in 1932. Not much has changed.

[onlooker]

I can tell you I grew up around the city of New York and was raised there and they're is absolutely no need for a car. NY has the most extensive train system in all the world. Notice I did not say the cleanest or safest. So, much of the traffic is suburbanites coming into and out of the city.

[Newfie]

Out I can understand.

[KaiserJeep]

We discussed commuting and commute alternatives a couple of years back. I spent three decades commuting in a car, followed by one decade where I rode the train and shuttle while working, and later tele-commuted.

Tele-commuting is the only thing that makes life in the mountain-to-mountain city that is Silly Valley (aka the Santa Clara Valley) bearable. But we are still attracting immigrants seeking blue collar jobs, unemployed white collar workers, and the homeless. The service industries are all feeding off the high tech center of the valley. They are commuting because they have no choice.

I SO want to move away and live in Wisconsin. But I am being the dutiful spouse, keeping house and home together while the wife commutes and complains. I will be 12 months retired in May, and I'm going quietly nuts, studying the online traffic monitors and planning my minimal travel in off-traffic times. It has several times happened that I make less than one trip per week away from home. I am thus further minimizing gasoline consumption - although I think of it as minimizing my personal stress level.

Sometimes I fantasize about putting a monster motor and really big tires on the Jeep - the better to deal with traffic:

[Newfie]

I know the feeling. Thing is, the less you drive the worse it wears on you.