“The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting.” Although most of us don’t ever drive more than 10 minutes everyday to campus, almost all of us probably have had the pleasure of commuting much longer distances to work over the summers. The article Commuting from Science Blogs takes a look at how much unhappiness driving causes.
More than 3.5 million Americans drive over 3 hours everyday to work!! The daily commute is greatly underestimated when people are choosing a location to live. Many will choose a larger suburban house with an hour drive vs. a smaller house with a 10-minute drive. Is that extra 1.5 hours in the car everyday really worth the extra square footage? This is definitely something to think about for all of us who will be house hunting within the next few months to a year.
Another similar article was written in 2008 for the LA Times. Psychologists are hearing more and more complaints about traffic. We live in an age of instant text messages and 4G phones, but we have to wait for hours in traffic. This is not what we are used to dealing with.
This article suggests that the best way to limit the psychic toll that road rage takes is to think about sitting in traffic differently. Listen to an audio book or just put on some music that helps you relax. This is the buffer time between work and home. Both can be crazy in their own respects so an hour to relax and listen to your favorite talk show could be just what you need.
Very true, I unfortunately live more than the ten minutes away from school and traffic can be infuriating sometimes, but sometimes when I am more relaxed I just let my mind wander and it is actually quite refreshing.
ReplyDeleteThink, instead, if people chose to live closer to their jobs and biked to work. Their commuting would improve their health and reduce their stress.
ReplyDeleteLuckily for me, I am going into the manufacturing environment which usually puts me into the more rural areas to commute to which is the opposite direction of traffic to work. But, this does tend to mean I have to drive a few extra miles at slower speeds. I try to use the time to enjoy the scenery and listen to music. With the speed technology is moving at, we will hopefully be able to do work in our cars while we wait in traffic and be able to cut a couple hours out of our time at the office each day.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do have to drive to campus I'm often able to walk down to work from there which I actually find quite relaxing, much more so than driving. I guess sometimes driving is peaceful and relaxing when the scenery is nice, but more often than not I seem to agree with the article and find that driving tends to make me tense and frustrated more often than not.
ReplyDeleteI think a big issue to people being angry in traffic is actually them worried of being late because they did not leave early enough, which in my opinion is their own fault.
ReplyDeleteRoad rage is an issue that most people do not realize is a very real and dangerous thing. When I was a child my father was stabbed and nearly murdered in front of my eyes over a road rage incident. It is kind of strange to see how angry usually "normal" people can get when they are simply cut off. Thanks for the informative article.
ReplyDeleteI hate driving. I purposely plan my travels and work hours around rush hour because I would probably shoot somebody if I had to drive a long distance everyday.
ReplyDeleteA great post--your best yet. I like that you start with the quotation (tho it would be good if you said where it was from). And commuting is something everyone can relate to. This is also clearly linked to the topic of your blog. Nice work.
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