LA/OC/Valley/IE or Bay Area WOHMs-- How long is your commute?

[essnce629]

I don't think a 1.5 hour commute each way is sustainable long term without making you hate life!!! We're in the valley and DH has worked in Century City, Santa Monica, Gardena, and now Woodland Hills. He's loving life now with his shortest commute ever of about 20 minutes each way! He doesn't have to leave early for work now which means he can now run or take a Crossfit class every morning AND take one of the boys to school!!! He leaves for work at 8:30am. His Santa Monica and Century City commutes were about an hour each way. He could get his evening commute down to about 30 minutes if he didn't leave the office till 9pm at night (which was basically daily and the kids only saw him on the weekends since he'd be gone when they woke up and gone when they went to bed). He had headaches every day for years, lived on Excedrin Tension Headache, never exercised, and had multiple back issues from being so sedentary (even though he was only in his late 20s, early 30s). His Gardena commute was the worst at 1-2 hours each way depending on what time he left. He ended up buying an electric car just so he could use the carpool lane and shave off time. That definitely helped. I'd definitely think long and hard about how taking this job would affect your quality of life. I know DH would not go back to those soul crushing commutes.

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[AnnieW625]

Both DH and I work 22 miles from work. I work SE of where we live and he works due north.

I live 12 miles or so west from the OP and I work near downtown Santa Ana so smack dab in the middle of the OC. When I drive by myself I have to leave by 6:15 to get to work by 7 and some days it is closer to 7:15. Years ago I could leave at 6:30 and get to work right at 7, but when that started getting hard I did a 6:30 to 4 9/80 schedule and I would have to leave no later than 5:50 to get to work by 6:30. Now due to my van pool I work a 7-4:30 9/80 I leave at 6:15 to get to the van pool spot at 6:30 (near the 91 and 605 freeways) and then vanpool to work and we are there by 7. We leave at 4:30 and are back at the van pool spot by 5:05 at the latest. When I drive home alone it takes about 45 minutes all of the time so it is better than in the AM.

Next year we are moving to the IE (DH’s job is moving to UC Riverside) and if I continue to work in Santa Ana (there is a chance I can transfer to the Riverside office) I will be taking the train because I refuse to drive on the 91 everyday (I honestly think driving to DTLA from our area would be easier than driving on the 91 west to go to work and the 91 east to go home....other than the 405 south through the Sepulveda Pass and down to Carson I think this is the worst SoCal commute) so I will have to be at the train station by 5 am to start work at 6:30 (I could actually be at work by 6, but work hours don’t start until 6:30 and then I will be done with work no later than 4:30 or 5 (if I decide to work 4/10s so I would have one day off each week) so I can be home by 5:30 or 6 at the latest. I am not looking forward to the early mornings, but it will mean I am still home at a reasonable hour. Plus I might be able to work in the Riverside office a few days a week, and my union just negotiated a $250 pay differential for working in Orange County starting next July so that will cover the Metrolink costs. If I can transfer to the Riverside office then I am hoping for a less than 20 minute commute all by using the streets; dh is hoping for the same.

Dh works in El Monte and it takes him 30-45 minutes to get to work and 45-60 minutes to get home. He drops off the girls at school and works 9-6 most days. He wants at least a 9/80 schedule once we move.


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[jbbhb]

I work 15 miles from our house, the first 5 miles is surface streets to get to the 22 freeway.

In the am it takes me about 45 minutes because I leave at peak traffic time after dropping kids at school at 8. Coming home it ranges from 25-45, depending on what time I leave.

My DH’s commute is two minutes.

ETA- I live in coastal Orange County and work in central Orange County. I really don’t think i couldn’t handle a longer commute.


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[smiles33]

This is my second post because I'm so surprised that I'm the only 60+ min commute survey respondent on this thread and no one clicked on 45-60 minute commute. It's VERY common among all my colleagues to commute 45+ minutes and several are 60+ minutes, too. Is this a NorCal v. SoCal thing?

The only 2 people I know who live within 10 minutes' drive of our office have high-earning DHs (one is a "post-IPO" DH who opened his own VC fund and the other is a big law firm lawyer) so they have deep pockets to buy so close by. My boss and 3 colleagues commute about 4 hours round-trip (even leaving at off-peak hours like 6 am and leaving the office at 3:30). Everyone else I know who didn't buy homes 25+ years ago usually commutes about 2-3 hours round-trip. A few older colleagues who bought 25+ years ago still have 30 minute commutes even though they drive in from 5 miles away.

I also know that many of the folks who ride the commuter bus I used to take when we lived near the park-and-ride lot had a 2 hour train ride BEFORE they even got on my 1+ hour bus to the office. These are custodians, facilities staff, nurses, valet parking guys, and others who work at the major teaching/research hospital near my office. They're living 100+ miles from work because anyone making under $100K has trouble living close by and there aren't as many good jobs in Central CA. One told me that if he missed the 4 pm bus back to the East Bay, he's miss his normal train and then not get home until nearly 9 pm. Then he's up at 3 am to catch the train back to the commuter bus that took us both to the office.

[AnnieW625]

This is my second post because I'm so surprised that I'm the only 60+ min commute survey respondent on this thread and no one clicked on 45-60 minute commute. It's VERY common among all my colleagues to commute 45+ minutes and several are 60+ minutes, too. Is this a NorCal v. SoCal thing?

The only 2 people I know who live within 10 minutes' drive of our office have high-earning DHs (one is a "post-IPO" DH who opened his own VC fund and the other is a big law firm lawyer) so they have deep pockets to buy so close by. My boss and 3 colleagues commute about 4 hours round-trip (even leaving at off-peak hours like 6 am and leaving the office at 3:30). Everyone else I know who didn't buy homes 25+ years ago usually commutes about 2-3 hours round-trip. A few older colleagues who bought 25+ years ago still have 30 minute commutes even though they drive in from 5 miles away.

I also know that many of the folks who ride the commuter bus I used to take when we lived near the park-and-ride lot had a 2 hour train ride BEFORE they even got on my 1+ hour bus to the office. These are custodians, facilities staff, nurses, valet parking guys, and others who work at the major teaching/research hospital near my office. They're living 100+ miles from work because anyone making under $100K has trouble living close by and there aren't as many good jobs in Central CA. One told me that if he missed the 4 pm bus back to the East Bay, he's miss his normal train and then not get home until nearly 9 pm. Then he's up at 3 am to catch the train back to the commuter bus that took us both to the office.

I didn’t realize there was poll, but yes I voted for 45-60 because in all reality that is my commute, but thankfully my vanpool makes things pretty stress free.

When we move and if I am commuting to Santa Ana from Riverside my commute each way will be about 1 hour 15 minutes maybe an hour if we live closer than 15 minutes to the train station, but I won’t be physically driving so that will be nice and like I said above I can’t see myself driving alone for that time and sitting in traffic. My co workers do it and I think they are crazy.

From 2000-2002 my Dh worked in Santa Clara and lived in Livermore because even then the housing prices were crazy and he started taking the train after about 2 months of daily commuting and he never looked back. We were ready to move to the San Jose proper area in 2003 before dh got laid off in 11/2002 and I think we were looking at $2k a month for a one bedroom place in Campbell because my office would’ve been across the street from Santana Row and Valley Fair and that was considered reasonable, but he was already looking at transfers to more reasonable col areas around the US. We had no kids at the time, but I wasn’t in a high paying tech job and dh was still entry level so our combined income of about $95k at that time wouldn’t have gotten us a whole lot. If we had decided to stay in area had he not gotten laid off we probably would’ve ended up buying a $450k-$500k 2 bedroom condo out in the Pleasanton or Livermore area and made it work on one income (because my job then didn’t have an office in the East Bay) when we had probably just a single kid. If we wanted more Tracy would’ve been our only other option.

[westwoodmom04]

I had a 1.5 hour commute for a little more than two years in the dc area. Length of trip didn’t really vary, I could drive the whole way or drive to train, take commuter rail, take metro and it was still 1.5 hours. I could get work done or read on the commuter train but it felt just as hectic as driving because of all the changes in form of transport (rushing to get to stations as quickly as possible, etc). At least once a week, usually more, there would be really bad traffic (to station) or transit delay (any regular rider of metro can relate). My kids were young at the time but I had a great nanny.

Don’t underestimate spending three to four hours a day commuting will have on your well being. It is incredibly soul crushing to add so much time additional sedentary time to your work day. I actually really liked this particular job but had to leave because of the commute (even after I was able to switch to only 3 days a week in office).

[ha98ed14]

Thank you all for the thoughtful responses. I have the interview on Thursday. I likely won't know for a while because it's a public agency, and hiring takes forever, but there are other jobs in DTLA, so this is good for me to be thinking about. Most jobs are within a 2-3 block radius of 7th Metro Center, which only requires getting on the subway at Union Station. The reason this one in particular sucks is because you have to go catch a bus going to the north of downtown, which adds 10-15 mins depending on how long you have to wait for it. A 40 minute commuter train ride is normal for here, then catch the subway 2-3 stops. I am lucky that I live within a mile of the suburban train station. Thank you all for the input!