Quote:
Originally posted by juju
Man, traveling in the big city sounds like a huge pain in the ass. Perhaps I won't like it after all? I quite enjoy being able to get to work within ten minutes of leaving my house.
|
Two things here, juju:
--This is
me we're talking about here. This was just some stupid shit that I did this past week. I wound up making it difficult on my own, with no help from anyone else whatsoever.
--Now, let's talk about commuting...
In a big city, it can be a fact of life...especially in the northeastern US. For example, let's look at NYC. You have workers that not only live in NYC, but people come from the outer reaches of Long Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, even eastern PA. (IIRC, Yardley, which is a suburb about 10-15 minutes or so from my place, lost 5 or 6 people in the WTC attacks. They worked up there.) Some people commute to NYC from places like Allentown, PA every day. Yardley and Allentown are about 70 miles from NYC...Allentown may be even further.
It happens here too. People commute from places in Delaware, South Jersey, and further out in PA. One of my former co-workers at The Signal commuted from Reading every day--about 60 miles. When I lived in DC, one of my co-workers lived in Harpers Ferry, WV...55 miles from our office.
Hearing stuff like this boggled my mind at first. One of my old bosses in St. Louis used to commute from Ste. Genevieve, MO every day--about 60 miles. I thought she was nuts. Now I hear about stuff like that so frequently out here that it's no big deal. Even I have considered working up in Manhattan.
Now, you could get incredibly lucky. Rho used to work less than 10 minutes from our apartment. My first ever temp assignment was about 15 minutes from here. It's still very possible to live close to where you work.
So, there are three primary factors in the mix here: Where do you want to live, what can you afford, and where are the jobs? These are the issues Rho and I will be debating now, as we intend to make this the last year here at our current place. When we first moved here, living in the far NE was perfect for us. Now, it's far from it in terms of question #3. Now, whether we're staying in Philadelphia or not, that's another story. If we stay, we'll almost certainly move out to the suburbs.
Of course, if we had a better car, or 2 cars, commuting wouldn't be such an issue, but dem's the breaks for now.
Once you figure out a routine, be it by car or public transit, it's not so bad. You learn shortcuts, alternative routes, best and worst times to travel. Traffic reports become your best friend. You get used to it.