What are the disadvantages of commuting long distance to work?

Answer 1

You have to get up earlier, thus losing on sleep. And whether you use private or public transportation, you will get stuck in traffic during rush hour, thus losing even more of your precious time.

Answer 2

It's harder on your car, it'll require more maintenance, giving it a shorter life and costing you more.

Traffic is always a pain, and that's amplified when you're going long distances.

Your personal time is greatly reduced, making the working days seem longer, and making it easier to wear yourself out. I had a job for a while that was an hour and a half away, and it became pretty depressing to work 8 or 10 hours a day plus having to trudge through 3 hours on the road.

It requires more gas, thus it'll take more money just to get to and from work.

In the event of emergencies, you're quite a way from home, so it takes longer to get back home, or to your kid's school, or to the hospital, or wherever you need to go to deal with the situation.

You just have to weigh the pros and cons. If the job is paying significantly more than what you'd be making by working nearby, and you don't mind long drives and paying more to travel, then it might be wise to take a long distance job. I personally don't like taking positions far from home, for all of the reasons above. But that's a personal preference.

Answer 3

For one job, I commuted 1.5 hours, each way. For thers, I commuted an hour.

The disadvantage is that your commute kills 2 hours out of 24 - 10% of your day is commuting.

Some of the drive is fast, other parts is s-lo-w.
I really felt myself aging during the slow parts.
And, at times, I know I was falling asleep at the wheel during the fast parts.

Either way - you're a machine behind the wheel.
People die like that - either by a car accident or by a heart attack caused by stress years later.

Life is too short - do what you have to do to keep your coummte under 30 minutes.

Answer 4

All of the above, plus your health tends to go downhill when you use up a large fraction of your free time in commuting. You
a) have a long stressful drive instead of unwind time
b) are breathing nasty exhaust fumes several hours a day
c) have less time to prepare healthy food, eating on-the-go
d) have less time to exercise and be active
e) lose the daylight for healthy outdoor activities.

There's also the environmental costs, you're burning a lot of fuel, adding to pollution.

If you MUST long-haul commute, set up your home/work so you can do it on commuter transit, trains, vanpools etc. so you can "get the time back" and use it to read books, watch iPod movies, use the Net (many trains and buses have WiFi now).

Answer 5

theres the long lonely drive, the wear and tear of the car, road rage, traffic, road conditions (this applies to short drives too)

Answer 6

-->you have a better chance of getting into an accident

-->bad weather could affect your route

-->it is harder on your car when it has a lot more miles

-->TRAFFIC JAMS

Answer 7

traffic, butt hurts.