I work from home and travel Windsor to Worcester six, seven or eight times a month (245 mile round trip.) Usually M4/M40/M42/M5 or M4/A417/M5. Usually 2.25 hours there and 2.75 back, seldom less and sometimes a bit more but usually easy going, few delays and is an opportunity to catch up with my podcasts.
I think I'll always choose the car over the train network for my jourrney for the ease of door to door travel. If HMRC change the business mileage rates or diesel gets more/very expensive then I'll rethink and move or relocate across the Channel and reduce the frequency of office visits (DOH, what the pink fluffy dice has happened to the exchange rate?)
Edited by Webmaster on 11/12/2008 at 00:37
|
Northampton dormitory village to Chancery Lane, London WC2.
Drive to station, 12 mins before 7am, perhaps 20mins by 8. Train to Euston, between 48 and 60 minutes. Folding bike Euston to office 12-15mins depending on trafic, lightsd etc. Rain drives me off the bike 3 or 4 mornings a year, but almost never in the evening as I don't care how wet I am arriving at Euston!!.
Colleagues think I have a nightmare commute but I save my admiration for those who brave the crush, smell and sheer unpredictabilty of a "short" tube journey. The only painful bit is signing the cheques for the annual season and car park tickets!!!
Edited by Bromptonaut on 10/12/2008 at 23:33
|
Live in Durham, work in Portsmouth - round trip around 650miles. Down on a Sunday night, 4.5 hours, back on Thursday night 5 hours. 55mpg in new Megan Estate, with Radio 2/radio 4/CD's of Beatles/Sting etc. However usually do this journey by train, which with the right connections can take 4.5 hours and costs £140 return. Recent breakdowns/signal problems have resulted in frequent 6+hour trips.
Wifi on East Coast main line helps with work, but getting a seat can be tricky - and I don't always know when I'm going to be able to get away, so its no good pre-booking.
Has anyone used the lift sharing websites? I tried, but the two people I contacted never got back to me - maybe the tatoos put them off? or radio 4?
|
However usually do this journey by train which with the right connections can take 4.5 hours and costs £140 return.
Have you looked at advance tickets? Prices appear to start at £38 each way - see www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/ (who unlike thetrainline don't charge for using a credit card or for posting the tickets to you).
Couldn't see any journey options that took less that 5 hours though, so if you did buy the cheaper tickets you'd have to check that they allowed you to take your optimal route.
F
|
>> However usually do this journey by train which with >> the right connections can take 4.5 hours and costs £140 return. Have you looked at advance tickets?
Sorry- just seen the 'it's no good pre-booking' sentence. Shouldn't post so early in the morning.
|
|
|
|
You are probably thinking of me Alanovich - I'm church organist of Sonning but live in Woodley 2 miles away. Even 2 up 2 down in Sonning is about £500k.
Indeed I was, thank you for reminding me. Not sure that 500k holds true any more though...I've often wondered why Sonning is so highly prized when there's such a traffic problem through the village. Yes, it's pretty, but by 'eck you'd have to pay me to live there. Until the Third Thames Crossing comes that is, flown in and dropped magically in to place by 400 flying pigs.
|
|
When I was young I got a job working The City for double my salary. I realised in a very few hours what a terible mistake I'd made as I lived in the Scottish Borders at the time. I travelled down on a sunday night, 350 miles, and back on a Friday evening. Even in those days the London traffic was horrendous but the lack of a speed limit on what little of the M1 motorway was then built helped. I tried for 8 months to get a job nearer home but failed. One day someone said to me that I was crackers to do this as I was married and had 2 kids. This was a 'Saul on the road to Damascus' revelation to me and I resigned, no job to go back to, and drove happily home. I would therefore most strenuously plead with anyone who is in this position, away all week and seeing the family only at weekends, to seriously give some thought to packing it in, nobody starves in the UK. What happened to me was I stopped on my final trip home at a newsagents near home and saw an advert for a job I could do. I immediately rang the firm and was offered the job there and then, while I was in the phone box! Looking back now I'd rather 'sweep the streets' than repeat that bit of my life. Fortune favours the brave.
|
All very true, OC - although I think employers have to take some of the blame for long commutes. Twenty years ago, a biggish company would have had a Regional Office or similar in most big cities; even branches in major towns. Now everything's been 'centralized' or 'rationalized' in the name of 'efficiency', and they have a single big office somewhere between London and Swindon. For those who aren't in the Southeast and don't want to be, there simply aren't the jobs close to home that there once were.
Having said that - and being myself employed in the Southeast and resident further north, I choose to drive 90 minutes each way rather than, as my father did in the 80s, stay away from the family during the week. I can usually keep it to three days a week, and when the traffic goes horribly wrong - as it did on the M40 this morning - there's usually the option to bail out and work at home instead.
On a good day - and there are more of those in the summer than at this miserable time of year - I even quite enjoy it. With a bit of ingenuity, I've found a way to listen to a lot of the good BBC Radio output that I'd normally miss, or wouldn't have time to hear at home, so at least I don't have to make do with the Eddie Mair Self-Appreciation Programme.
|
5 miles or so - in the car when it is dark and/or wet (which means most of the winter) or on the bike when it's fine. Takes about 10-15 minutes by car, 20-25 by bike.
When the new guided busway opens next year, I expect to use the bike more, as it will provide a nice traffic free route more or less door to door, and should be more direct. Current bike route is along country lane which is loveley in the summer, but decidely unsafe in the dark.
|
|
Guided busway - does that mean that cyclists are allowed to use this 'busway' thing but not cars etc? An intriguing plan sir. Do you know whether there are handles on the rear of these buses? I suggest keeping this under your hat lest you become a "and finally" feature on London Tonight.
|
Guided busway - does that mean that cyclists are allowed to use this 'busway' thing but not cars etc?
I'd be surprised if they could... its more like a railway line for buses so I doubt if any other transport would be allowed... though I might be wrong?!
|
|
|
Guided busway - does that mean that cyclists are allowed to use this 'busway' thing but not cars etc? An intriguing plan sir. Do you know whether there are handles on the rear of these buses? I suggest keeping this under your hat lest you become a "and finally" feature on London Tonight.
There will be a 3 metre wide tarmaced cycle track running alongside the guided busway tracks.
It is also a maintenance track for removing the inevtiable burnt out cars from the busway, since it seems to me that racing stolen cars along the tracks is likely to be a fun weekend occupation for some of the local youth.
|
>> Guided busway - There will be a 3 metre wide tarmaced cycle track running alongside the guided busway tracks.
Thanks, P, sounds like a good idea!
|
Guided busway >>
Think there's a stretch of something similar on one of the main A-roads north out of Leeds.
The buses have a coulple of jockey wheels low down on each front corner which run along two rails.
Effect is like running between kerbs that are only a few inches wider than the bus.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stats: 8 miles to work, A25, 18 minutes. Quite danergous cross junctions all the way. But I deliberately didn't want to work more than 10 miles away as a priority.
Really enjoyed reading through this thread, some fascinating stories.
A very warming story from Old Codger :)
|
|
Ditto A25. Sevenoaks- just outside Maidstone which is about 15 miles and 35 minutes, and a really nice drive- rarely any traffic problems. That is most days, although I also travel on occasions for work related stuff to anywhere in the South East.
|
Why do people commute long distances? Obviously because the job came after the house, but why don't you move house to be nearer to the job?
I assume that the answer is (amongst other things) Stamp Duty, which is a large tax on moving house. Would I be correct in saying that if Stamp Duty was reduced significantly, those people who commute long distances by road, would move closer to work and would that reduce congestion?
I realise there are many other factors, but I just wonder if one simple tax reduction would do more for reducing traffic growth than all the congestion charges in the world?
|
|
A lot of it is quality of life. Many people want to live near friends and family, schooling is another contributory, spouse's job may be near where they live, infinite reasons.
|
I regard my 13-odd mile commute as plenty and had thought about moving nearer work.
The sale and buy process is just too complicated and lengthy to undertake lightly.
So I think if it were simpler for homeowners to move, more of us would live nearer work.
|
|
|
|
Why do people commute long distances? Obviously because the job came after the house but why don't you move house to be nearer to the job?
In my case I lived 25 miles from my job (in Morley, Leeds) because that was as near as I was prepared to be!
|
|
|
I realise there are many other factors but I just wonder if one simple tax reduction would do more for reducing traffic growth than all the congestion charges in the world?
No nothing ot do with stamp duty. People dont move to places where work is because they dont want to live there. Its that simple
Motorways and cars have made that lifestyle choice possible,
|
"People dont move to places where work is because they dont want to live there. Its that simple"
Also there are usually two breadwinners in the house so chances are that close to work for one is far away for the other.
|
|
|
No nothing ot do with stamp duty. People dont move to places where work is because they dont want to live there. Its that simple
We would happily swap Reading for Bath, but have to consider:
- son's secondary school, which is a good one
- son's friends
- wife's job
- wife's friends
- the local groups (mainly bands) of which we are members
So as the commute is ok, we're staying where we are for the moment.
F
|
|
|
People dont move to places where work is because they dont want to live there. Its that simple
Which is why building more roads doesn't ease congestion. Any extra speed or road capacity gained is used up by people who choose to make longer journeys, until the new roads a degree of congestion enough to discourage people from increasing the journeys.
Motorways and cars have made that lifestyle choice possible
Railways offer that choice too. London only functions at all because so many people travel by rail.
|
>> Motorways and cars have made that lifestyle choice possible Railways offer that choice too. London only functions at all because so many people travel by rail.
In fact it was railways that started off the whole commuting malarky.... Metroland anyone?!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
