Does driving and the suburban life style destroy ourphysical and mental health?

Question

I just moved to the DC area. I never drove to work before. I began driving 2 1/2 hours a day in the horrible Beltway traffic. Within six months, my back started hurting, my wrists started hurting, my feet started getting numb, my body's getting mini-traumas in the stop and go traffic. I stopped working out because I was too stressed out to do anything but watch Law & Order reruns. After the six months, I had enough and moved 10 minutes from my job--two stops on the Metro. Are people who think they're living 'the good life' in the suburbs deluding themselves, considering they probably spend about 12 quality hours a week at home--the rest of the time driving, working, being delayed, trying to destress, etc?

I should clarify something about the drive time. When I said 2 1/2 hours per day, I meant TOTAL driving, in other words 1 hr. 15 minutes average each way.

Answer 1

Driving a car is the single most dangerous thing that the average American can do on a day to day basis. 118 people die in car wrecks in America every day. Even if that's not a big concern, think about the stress of driving and the amount of negativity it releases in a person. One doesn't look at the Lexus in front of them and think anything except "I wish this &$#@ Lexus would cease to exist."

I think riding a train to work is the best possible experience. Even if you don't talk to anyone else, at least you're surrounded by other people and not machines. I notice that even in a crowded train that I can't sit down in, I'm happier than sitting in the comfort of my own car with my stereo blasting.

The suburbs do offer something that one can't get in the city: Space and quiet. Some people like having a pool, yard and garden. It's how I live, but I want a place in the city.

You need to keep working out! Put Law and Order on your ipod and watch it on the treadmill. You're already stressing out, so stopping the workouts is just gonna add to your unhealthiness.

Answer 2

You could not take the mass transit available in Washington DC?
I lived there for awhile and would always take the Bus or subway system...why bother to drive? I think you brought this lifestyle on yourself. At least you could have shared the ride or drove to a half way point and parked you car? well, I guess you had your reasons...I have been living in many cities..Chicago is no picnic driving either or La and Detroit is the pits. I would always got the path of least resistance but that was just be but don't ever move to Tokyo, Japan and want to drive..lol...or Boston sucks the worst for the U.S. and Manila is a nightmare as the police are non existent..dare I say Baghdad? WE all make choices and I think most of our lives we live in quiet desperation and our own worse enemies. Even in the worst of traffic conditions//I always enjoyed the drive...books on tape? listening to some good radio cometary? Even in the worst case scenario like driving from Makati to the pier in the Philippines I really enjoyed watching the street scene..but I would always either go on motorcycle or have my driver...its one man's hell is another man/women/ Paradise?

Answer 3

Your experience with the suburbs would have been more typical if you had had a 45-minute commute rather than that ridiculous 2 1/2 hour one. Your experience wasn't typical.

People in the suburbs, like people anywhere else, have the life they build and manage for themselves. For some, it isn't great. For others who set things up in a way that works for them and even leaves them time for intellectual pursuits and physical exercise, the suburbs really can be "the good life".

Answer 4

suburban via fact i spend a million/2 my time bagging my acquaintances who flow to the outer suburb campus of my college and calling them farmers...even nonetheless they are not lol i've got lived rural earlier and that became certainly fairly severe-high quality it became certainly like the ideal element ever. My college has an 8 week college camp in a small usa city and prefer 80 youngsters from the three different campuses of my college come at the same time and we live in homes of 8, no adults interior the abode. it became spectacular. And for those 8 weeks we had no college, we in simple terms lived the easy usa existence. And experienced a small city community.

Answer 5

thats a long way to drive