I have an easy commute to work, 30 or 35 minutes, none of it on a interstate or giant loop, and since I work nights less traffic flow. Since I live in rural area, the first part of my trip is past horses and greenery, the second part of my trip takes me through an economically challenged area. Although it is in a reputed bad part of town, I stop frequently for gas or to pick up last minute stuff for potlucks and have had few problems.
The MSM has given this play in the last few years, so it isn't a shiny new issue, but an emerging trend. I am always leery about the coverage of emerging social trends because some of it falls into the "make shit up catagory", remember "security moms" who voted Republican? I guarentee they either don't exist, never did, or quickly fucking changed their minds. Some of the coverage of emerging social trends has a malvolent edge, my least favourite being the ubiquitous Mommy Wars in which women with children are encouraged to vocally assault one another for the choices they make, and time and attention with serious experts utilized to analyse the deep consequences of ever single little thing women with children do. In short, the Mommy Wars is just about making women feel like shit.
For many American commuting itself is becoming a "lifestyle", one that defies logic for me but has mutated into something that appears perfectly rational for adherents of the extreme commute.
The exteme commute is generally defined as one that takes 90 or more minutes.
Why do people do it? None of the reasons are very shocking: affordable housing in communities that provide decent schooling, bigger salaries, and lifestyle choices. We don't need crack, we have cars. We can drive, so America has become a suburb. One of the reasons the chronic city problems never get systematically addressed: failing public schools, infrastructure,and urban poverty is because by and large the middle class doesn't care. They don't live in the city. Poor folks and the super rich live there. Poor people are too busy trying to survive and rich people can insulate themselves.
One thing we do particularly well as Americans is to spin excuses that help us maintain the illusion that the American dream is still possible and probable. We resort to draconian measures, rather than ask why affordable housing is slipping through our fingers. In states like California commuters engage in the the drive till you qualify tactic. Your commute is determined by where you can afford to live.
One person in this particular article claims that while his wife hates his commute, it is his zen time. Apparently , I am missing the true path to enlightenment by hanging with the dogs, getting regular exercise to stave off the effects of a job that is high stress. In this New Yorker article the author found another guy who has a wife that hates his commute. The New yorker article is intriguing because the author frode with some commuters to get a taste of this new life style. One of the common themes is that their lives have a certain singularity. They don't have lives. One fellow amits he doesn't have a social life and simply gave up exercise to accomodate the demands of his commute. This woman who has a three hour total commute greeted the author by saying I am not insane. She might not be but it sound like a good recipie for stress induced mental illness. That same guy whose wife hates his commute also spends about five minutes a day with his kids while working, the author noted that when he arrived home they barely noticed. Sure, this is all antedotcal evidence and most Americans are not extreme commuters but it reveals itself as a trend that might have expansive potential. Housing prices aren't going to become magically reasonble for example. Good jobs won't likely be suddenly materializing sprawling suburbs. In essence, extreme commuters are doing so to have a better life that includes kids they never see, non-existent social lives, and spouses who just might get tired of it one day.
What are some of the other costs associated with this choice? There is an increase in stress, higher blood pressure and an assortment of soft tissue and orthopedic ailments. There is also a relationship between increased commute time and vague and all encompassing pyschosomatic disorders. This article ends with the reminder that Robert Putnam who studies the way American society is eroding because of desintegrating social connections, notes he suggests that for every 10 minutes of commuting time Americans have a 10% reduction in social connections.
Increasingly, the lives we are leading: long commutes, working second jobs and overtime just to get by, missing vacation or having no paid vacation at all are preventing us from transforming our lives and our political system. We are too tired, too distracted, barely able to connect with familiy members never mind our broader communities and our country. We often ask here in Kossackland why Americans aren't more angry, why they aren't out on the streets, why aren't they demandeing change right now, and for many Americans dog paddling desparately to avoid sinking the answer is not that they are stupid. We are trapped by consumer capitalism, hobbled by the belief we can do better than our parents, brainwashed by visions of the perfect HGTV home, deluded that we are doing all this for our families, and if one is an extreme commuter, still driving home or stuck in traffic.