apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

If I lived further, I could have a bigger place, that's more how space affects my commute or vice versa. But, I agree--no amount of space to me is worth sitting in traffic or spending the majority of my time traveling.

I made that choice - very small place but convenient location, cozy, paid for and easy to keep clean.

I just moved about 15 miles outside of Manhattan (translates into about 1 - 1.5 hr commute each way) to a Jersey 'burb. Partly to afford a two bedroom, but my wife also works about 5 minutes from our new condo. It has been tough as I expected, but not without reason.

It's not the commute so much as the quality of life - conveniences, culture, and mostly the people!

But we do have a 2,000 condo, @ 1/5th price it would have cost in the city! It seems like too much space to me, but when the kids come, I'm sure I'll appreciate more.

I think you are neglecting to account for the many of us (myself included) who have reverse commutes, i.e., from the city to the suburbs. I choose to live small, but by doing so, I have a commute.

I chose to live small and reverse commute to CT. I could move into a bigger place in CT, but there really is no place like home. Plus my current commute time is about the same as it used to take me crossing town to my last job. I'm lucky in that my choice hasn't affected my quality of life. If anything, it has improved greatly. I'm a part of two communities now, I participate in more outdoor and physical activities than ever and commute time is me time (i.e. I get current on the news, get organized for the day, socialize with a friend, etc.). It's all good :)

Within a ten minute drive from my apartment in San Francisco I can hike on a wild mountain with endangered species, or visit a world class art museum. I can even go do both in one day, shop at a store that sells only organic produce, and come home and cook a meal for my friends who live a minute away. Would I rather have a larger house with a big ol' lawn to mow on the weekends instead? No.

Wow, I've had three reverse-type commuting situations thus far:

Oakland -> Sausalito
Cambridge -> Beverly
downtown Cincinnati -> Kenwood [outskirts]

The first two were more like double commutes, I suppose. I've hated the time each one took from my day, but living closer to work would not have been where I wanted to live, which made each situation tolerable.

Well, I guess you guys are fortunate enough to live small in the city. What about all the minimum wage people who live small and still have to commute?

I'm a native New York and the poster is happily deluding themselves.
There is always a commute in Manhattan unless you can walk to work.
Have you taken a cross-town bus during rush hour recently or a subway downtown? That is a commute as stressful, crowded and annoying as any slow moving traffic from Westchester, LI or Jersey.
The commute into Manhattan from Brooklyn, well that is the worst of all especially if you have to walk a mile or take a bus before you get to the subway. That’s why I live on the Upper West Side for 25 years.
Other wise I’d be in some burb so I would never have to go back to Brooklyn!

I gave up a job where I was commuting 45 minutes to an hour and 15 each way, depending on traffic. I was able to find a job two blocks from my home, making nearly the same amount. Now I am dreaming of moving up to the mountains -- and my commute would be an hour-plus each way. I remember how I felt that my commute was stealing my life -- but the idea of being able to live in a beautiful place is so seductive.... I always want what I can't have, i guess.

I commute from a medium-sized city to a tiny little town of 4500 people. I drive 40 minutes each way because I couldn't stand living in a small town.

That's an hour and 20 minutes of "me" time. I can listen to music or chat with friends. It also gives me time to wake up in the morning and wind down in the evening. A problem at work has to be huge to survive a 40 minute commute.

Still - I would love to work closer to home so I could walk or ride my bike.

Ironically I live in the city and commute out to the suburbs myself, in this case, another city but really it's the 'burbs.

In this case, I live in Seattle and commute out to Bellevue, out beyond Lake Washington east of Seattle. During the mornings the commute into work isn't too bad, usually no more than 25-30 minutes max most days but the commute home is often brutal and can take up to an hour to get back across the lake.

When I first moved to Seattle in 2004, I chose the city for that's where I prefered to live but was working in Bellevue and when that job ended and I began temping, I ended up commuting out this way again on a couple of assignments and now my current job has me back in Bellevue.

To be honest, I've never been much of a 'burb type of guy even though I grew up in the burbs.

@dewi - What you're saying would be great if everyone could afford to live on the Upper West side!! Must be nice. I pay around 1/3 of the rent you pay and looove my apartment in Brooklyn. It is a five minute (2 blocks) walk to my subway stop and I get on an express train. I am at 49nd street in 25 minutes. From there its about a 8 min (2 avenues) to my building. I love living in brooklyn and being close to prospect park. I also love being able to afford to pay my rent and eat.

While there are areas of Brooklyn not convenient to a subway (and areas of Queens, the Bronx and even Manhattan!) that definitely isn't the case for ALL of it. This is why rents in Park Slope and Carroll Garden are almost the same as the West Village. Please don't lump our entire (lovely) borough into one stereotype just because you had a bad experience.

I work in Chelsea, but love coming home to Brooklyn. When we were co-op shopping, we looked on the Upper East Side, but the schlep to the Lexington Ave line was more than either of us wanted to do. We live across from the Brooklyn Museum and the subway is right there. I sit and read during my 35 minute ride. It's a great way to ease into the day. And I come home to a much larger space than if we had bought in Manhattan.

And last November, I sold my car, so I'm a card carrying Zipster now!

Lori - we just joined zipcar too! its so wonderful :)

I live and work in Manhattan and my commute is about an hour to go from downtown to the UES. 15 minutes of that is a walk over to York Avenue to reach my workplace--nice in the summer, not so much fun in the winter and in rain.

Getting proximity to your work by living small is such a "single in the big city!" thing. The husband and I have jobs that are ~15 miles apart, which is actually a very modest commute in this region, but it means there's no apartment size that eliminates commuting.

I work in a marina on the Westside, only commute 15 minutes each way, and that's the most I will allow at this point. It's hard enough for me to have a 9-to-5... if I was spending more time in traffic in LA I would go nuts!

I live in a ~250 square foot apartment in Manhattan with my boyfriend and both of our "commutes" are within walking distance! However...we're beginning to think a 20-minute trip would be worth having an actual bedroom and we might be moving to Brooklyn next summer.

For 11 years I traveled 72 miles/1hour and 30-45 min. each way in a two city commute between Jersey City and Trenton, NJ. When I first began what I thought would be a temporary commute, I used to call it the daily miracle. However, the better job closer to home never panned out and I soon discovered that the Trenton area was not a place I desired to live in or around therefore, I continued living in Jersey City and enjoying the benefits of living next door to Manhattan when I could.

Before I had that commute I used to think that people who commuted long distances were either rich, wanted a rural life while keeping the city job, or were well off enough to have rural second residences. However, I soon discovered that the train, then vanpool, then carpool were simply populated with people whose career and life circumstances necessitated the travel. Like myself, no, they were not trying to live in an exurban McMansion, nor in high powered jobs whose experience would leave them set for life. Instead, out of employment, residential, child educational necessity, or other factors, they traveled enormous distances to work.

Today I still work for the same employer and I am privileged to walk to work in 10 minutes or take a 2.5 minute bus ride to the front door of my office building. I am incredibly fortunate to live in the biggest apartment ever since leaving the parental nest. But were my life circumstances different, a child in a good school district, a spouse working close to home, the financial inability to afford housing in a more convenient community. I could still be roaring away from the house at 6:45AM to board the commuter van in the 100 minute commute.

I realize New York is different, but when you take into consideration that you can actually afford a lot more expensive home if you're not commuting an hour or two round-trip. The time savings, wear & tear on your car, and gas all add up to what could have been a more expensive home within walking distance to work.

This Colorado real estate company makes a good example with their commuting calculator. (Bottom of their homepage)

In 1997, when I was 21 years old, I was living at home in Halifax, Nova Scotia and unexpectedly landed a job at Mount Sinai Hospital. The job started in five days which left me exactly one day to find an apartment in New York. I decided to move into a tiny studio on the Upper East Side because I didn't know the city very well and wanted to be able to walk to work. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

I've moved back to Halifax but I haven't had a commute since. My ten minute walk to work along the waterfront is one of the most pleasant parts of my day. I can't imagine ever joining the car culture again. Being just steps away from the best shops, museums, galleries, and theatres is worth a lot of square footage to me.

Still, most of my friends can't imagine giving up their 3000sq.ft. homes in the burbs and driving weekly to the local big box stores. To each his own, I guess.

I live in Chicago and work in a suburb. The drive can be 35 minutes with no traffic, or 2 hours on a Friday afternoon. I totally related to the New Yorker article - a commuter's idiosyncracies, coping strategies, and ultimately excuses for not making a change.

It's hard to feel like that choice is within your control. Living in the suburbs feels out of the question, and I don't feel like I could find a comparable job in the city. But the commute is totally isolating, as well as physically painful (my back aches after about 20 minutes). So I feel stuck, and resign myself to tolerating it as best I can, until some later date (vague alert!) when I feel ready, qualified and confident enough to look for a job closer to home.

It's the perpetual catch 22: Job helps me afford house, but job keeps me away from house.

I couldn't take my eyes off the microcar in the middle of the photo. Just spent way to long looking for what it is: it's a Romi-Isetta (Brazil) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isetta.

Oh -- my commute? NYC: about 2 feet, the bed to the computer. I have to be careful not to get Apartment Fever!