The commute to work is something many of us still do, despite the various technical and social changes that render such daily endeavors largely redundant, the office is still the hub of working life.

A recent study suggests that many employees, particularly younger ones, would forgo several hundred dollars from their salary in return for a shorter commute.  Such thinking was no doubt behind the strategy of Californian company Imo to pay staff to live nearer to their office a few years ago.

A recent Australian study, called Commuting Life, found however that the commute isn’t all bad, with a mixture of positive and negative aspects revealed to the authors.

The pros and cons of commuting

The study, which was chronicled in a dedicated website for the project, found that commuting can provide people with a degree of personal time, whether it’s to relax or dream, away from the responsibilities of working life.  Of course, that isn’t to say that it’s all positive.

“For a lot of people, commuting is really constraining their freedoms to do things,” the authors say.

The study, which interviewed and observed Sydney based commuters, found that our daily travels to and from work change how we behave towards one another, and indeed things such as our level of tolerance, what we want from work and even our longer-term plans.

“A stressful commute can change how we treat work colleagues. But it can also have negative impacts on family life, with commuters finding it difficult to relax when they return home,” the authors say.

Rather depressingly, the average worker commuted for more than an hour each way, even if they lived with 10km of their office, with the record being a four hour commute from one woman in the study.

Despite the apparent drudgery however, some respondents revealed that they enjoyed their commute because it afforded them some time and space to themselves, free from the stresses of both home and work.

Key points

1. Our commutes change who we are – specifically in how we behave towards others
2. Our commutes change our relationship with cities – specifically how we access services and undertake regular activities such as shopping
3. Our commutes are ingrained in the rest of our lives – commuting is not a freestanding activity, but is something that reflects and reverberates onto nearly every other aspect of our life in some way
4. Commuting stress is caused by various factors – it isn’t just the time/distance that stresses us about.  For instance it might be when the commute is delayed or we don’t get a seat.  It is also something that both new and old commuters experience.
5. There are various strategies to alleviate stress – these include policy based strategies such as building new roads or better trains, but also individual strategies, more flexible working options and so on.

The authors hope that their study will prod employers and policy makers into looking at the commute and taking it more seriously than is currently the case.

“Yes some of these commuting problems fall on state governments. But at the same time there are many other sites of responsibility – our employers and companies for example – who could offer their staff the chance to work from home,” they conclude.