Study/article: the "super-commuter" trend

[txstateends]

http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/2012/05/texas-is-tops-in-nation-for-super-commuters-with-dallas-to-houston-leading-the-way.html/
http://wagner.nyu.edu/rudincenter/publications/supercommuter_report.pdf

I had no idea people would go to the lengths this study talks about just to go back/forth to work.  Dallas=>Houston and Houston=>Dallas are 2 of the busiest super-commutes in the US, according to the study.

I do good to get to/from work and I'm 12-13 miles from my job 

[huskeroadgeek]

That's quite a commute for a daily commute. I read an article recently about supercommuting that was a little different-people who basically work in one city during the week and return to another city on the weekend. They mentioned somebody who lives in Boston but works in Philadelphia during the week. This person flew from Boston to Philadelphia on Monday morning, lived with a family member in the area during the week, and then returned to Boston on Friday evening. They mentioned some people who go halfway across the country to do the same thing.

[DeaconG]

The Orlando Sentinel had an article about two years ago that concerned the rising costs of speeding tickets in Florida, and one group of people who were impacted were folks who commuted from Orlando to Tampa to work every day due to not being able to find work in Orlando.

More folks in Florida are doing this than you think.

[brad2971]

http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/2012/05/texas-is-tops-in-nation-for-super-commuters-with-dallas-to-houston-leading-the-way.html/
http://wagner.nyu.edu/rudincenter/publications/supercommuter_report.pdf

I had no idea people would go to the lengths this study talks about just to go back/forth to work.  Dallas=>Houston and Houston=>Dallas are 2 of the busiest super-commutes in the US, according to the study.

I do good to get to/from work and I'm 12-13 miles from my job  

I'm sure that's nothing compare to the folks who commute 3 weeks on/2 off from Texas to the Bakken oil field in North Dakota. And that's going to continue for a few years, since it'll take that long to even build adequate housing in Williston and Dickinson.

[realjd]

The Orlando Sentinel had an article about two years ago that concerned the rising costs of speeding tickets in Florida, and one group of people who were impacted were folks who commuted from Orlando to Tampa to work every day due to not being able to find work in Orlando.

More folks in Florida are doing this than you think.

I see a number of Seminole County plates in the parking lot of my office in Palm Bay. That's easily a 90 minute drive if they're in the far side of Seminole. It's not Houston to Dallas far, but I couldn't do it every day.

[kphoger]

I once met a guy who lived in the Kansas City suburbs, but spent four days of the week working in either New Jersey or Seattle....and every so often in Israel.  I stayed with his family once in high school before a music trip.

[agentsteel53]

one of my coworkers lives in Santa Barbara and has an apartment down here in San Diego which he stays at Monday to Friday.  it's about a 200 mile drive each way.  he's definitely keeping the arrangement until his youngest graduates high school (another year away) and maybe after that depending on his wife's work situation.

when I learned that about him, I finally realized why he is so exuberantly excited every Friday morning when he gets in to work.

[pianocello]

My cello teacher got a job in New York starting next year, but will still live in Iowa City. The only reason this is possible is because it's around 6 weeks on, 6 weeks off.

[Takumi]

In high school a friend's father got a job in Chesapeake, about 75 miles away. Instead of moving they decided he would just have to commute.

[JREwing78]

I'm nowhere near "super-commuter status", but I live in Madison, WI and commute to Janesville, WI, a commute of 45 miles one-way.. At least, I used to. I'm now cutting that commute to 2 miles.

All the years of dating my girlfriend (now wife) long-distance didn't help the odometer reading on my car either. I regularly commuted from Lansing to Kalamazoo on weekends - about 90 miles one-way. Then she moved to Cleveland. Every 2-3 weeks, I'd rack up another 550-600 miles on the car to go visit.

I have an uncle who lived in Gaylord, MI, and commuted to Lansing, MI for a number of years, about 185 miles one-way. He kept an apartment in Lansing and drove home on the weekends. This was back in the 55mph era, so that drive home took 3 1/2 hours (assuming good weather).

I also had a client who commuted daily from Harrison, MI to Lansing, MI, a distance of 105 miles. He's far from alone; I made an early morning drive to the UP from Lansing and was shocked at the amount of traffic headed southbound to Lansing at 5am from Mount Pleasant, Clare, Harrison, and so on.

[kphoger]

All the years of dating my girlfriend (now wife) long-distance didn't help the odometer reading on my car either.

I met my wife online.  She lived in Branson (MO), and I lived in Wheaton (IL).  I didn't have a car.  Oh, how I love overnight Greyhound.  Not.

[3467]

http://www.rrstar.com/news/x1783283198/13-700-of-us-commute-from-Rockford-to-Chicago-every-day

Midwest supercommuting

[kphoger]

There are people who commute by Amtrak from the Princeton/Mendota area.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

There are people who commute by Amtrak from the Princeton/Mendota area.

Folks were traveling from the Poconos to NYC as far back as 1999.

[kphoger]

There are people who commute by Amtrak from the Princeton/Mendota area.

Folks were traveling from the Poconos to NYC as far back as 1999.

I just realized I left out the "to Chicago" part.....

[citrus]

I realize lots of people do this these days, and it's all within the Bay Area, but I'm going to be commuting from San Francisco to Mountain View 5 days a week starting in a few months. I've done this for a couple summers in the past. (Luckily, I will not be driving my own vehicle for this).

A couple years back, I spent a summer working in New Providence, NJ. My girlfriend worked in New Lisbon, NJ. We lived in Princeton and commuted. I'm not sure I could have taken that commute much longer.

[txstateends]

Latest article on the trend... cover story from USA Today, late last week::::

http://travel.usatoday.com/news/story/2012-08-16/Sour-economy-gives-rise-to-extreme-commuters/57099694/1?csp=tf

[Special K]

This economy works in strange ways.  I went from a 70 mile round trip to a 4 mile round trip when I got laid off from my old job and got my present one.

[Brandon]

This economy works in strange ways.  I went from a 70 mile round trip to a 4 mile round trip when I got laid off from my old job and got my present one.

Tell me about it.  From 25 miles one-way at 30 minutes to 33 miles one-way at 60 minutes, now to 20 miles one-way at 30 minutes.

[kkt]

My uncle commuted from San Diego to El Centro, 2 hours each way.  But he did share an apartment where he stayed 2-3 nights a week, and he was a community college teacher so he could usually get his teaching schedule into 4 days a week.

[Scott5114]

Some of the people at my workplace used to work at the largest casino in our chain, which is on the Texas/Oklahoma border. Lack of attractive housing options in the general area down there lead a lot of people to try to commute 100 miles each way from the Oklahoma City or Dallas areas. Many of these people have later transferred to the casino I work at; while it's usually a rather large pay cut (smaller casino equals fewer customers), usually when they work out the math they realize that the extra money gets spent in gas anyway.

[vtk]

I thought the term "super-commuter"  generally referred to daily two-way air travel between home and work.  That's definitely a one-percenter habit.

Several years ago I would have been willing to work anywhere in Franklin County or one of the six adjacent counties.  When I finally got a job, I wound up with an 8-mile, 15-minute commute.  In the last few months, I've only had to make that commute each way once a week, as I leave my personal car there and then keep a company van at home until my next day off.  I only have to gas up my car once every couple of weeks, and I could go longer between fillups if I didn't drive so much for social activities on my days off...

[agentsteel53]

you still physically have to do the drive, right?  or do you just go home once a week?

[vtk]

you still physically have to do the drive, right?  or do you just go home once a week?

Let's see if I can explain it simply without getting into specifics about my employer*:

At the start of my workweek (usually Thursday mornings but it varies for a few reasons) I drive my personal car 8 miles to where the company vans are parked, and leave my car there.  If I have a trip right away, I start my trip from there in a company van; otherwise, I take a van home.  Throughout the week I take work trips from home.  On Wednesday morning I take the van back to where my car is parked (either from home, or directly there if I'm finishing a trip) and then drive my car back home for my day off.

So if you define my commute as driving I have to do for work that they don't actually pay me for (because my job basically is driving) then I guess I drive a total of 16 to 32 miles commuting per week, though only 16 of that is in my own car.

*The vagueness isn't legally required, but it seems like a good idea in general when making public posts on the Internet.

[kphoger]

Let's see if I can explain it simply without getting into specifics about my employer*:

*The vagueness isn't legally required, but it seems like a good idea in general when making public posts on the Internet.

It's OK.  I already know what company you work for, remember?