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Well it wasn't open last Saturday morning, and the queues round Dunmow were quite spectacular!
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4 mile blast to station, Mainline train for 80 odd miles, then 3 stops on the Victoria.
Up at 6:20, leave house 7:10, at desk 8:50. Leave desk 5:10, home 6:30.
Train journey spent staring at the rush hour traffic jams being glad I'm not in them, but wishing I still worked from home.
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50 mile round trip from Watford to Slough.
45 minutes if i leave at 7am
Up to 1hr 20mins if i leave at 8am
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3 miles from M11 jct 12 to Cambridge station. I used to do this by bicycle, but if one were to drive: leave 07.30 - 12 minutes, get the 7.45. Leave 07.40, get the 08.45 if you were lucky.
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Rule of thumb when I used to commute halfway round the M25 was that the journey would take 90 minutes if I left at 6:50am.
Every minute late leaving = 3 minutes later arriving
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I'd have thought there would be some sort of a square rule coming in there, rather than a linear relationship.
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Nah. Roads are long lengths of tarmac extending in a line. Hence a linear relationship.
Stands to reason, guv'nor.
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Nah - The M25 is round.
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well sadly I believe I hold the record
wakefield to northampton 5 days a week
total 235 miles a day
up @ 5.30 off for 6am there for 9 ish
leave their 4.30 to 5 ish back for 7 to 8
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I'm probably a close second then.....for most of the last 18 months, 190 mile round trip, 5 days a week.
AND I live and work in the same county!!!
Currently a mere 90 mile round trip each day.
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sirion - 30 hours/week of masochism, >50K/year - there has to be a better alternative somewhere? Don't tell me you drive between 9 and 5 too?
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sirion - 30 hours/week of masochism, >50K/year - there has to be a better alternative somewhere?
You said it yourself; masochism. Sirion is clearly doing it for the sheer enjoyment of not enjoying it. Don't you think if there was a better alternative he (sorry, I'm assuming) would have taken it?
Mind you, we may have this wrong. Perhaps his boss is a relative of the Marquis de Sade?
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well yes I do not far less than 50 miles per day as for the sirion japanesse what can I say no problems at all just pasted 91000 today and i am told by my friendly local diahatsu dealer that someone else near huddersfield does more mileage than me but has a 1.3 4 trak so more power and air con.
off to bed now long day
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Nah - The M25 is round.
An unverifiable theory, surely? If it was round, that could be demonstrasted by driving around it. But since it's so clogged up, nobody has yet lived long enough to conplete the circumnavigation ...
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IIRC in the glory days before safeety cameras, after it was first completed, the young bloods of Surrey used to see who could drive round the M25 the fastest on a Sunday morning.
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IIRC in the glory days before safeety cameras, after it was first completed, the young bloods of Surrey used to see who could drive round the M25 the fastest on a Sunday morning.
Done the magic hour as a passenger, 1988
young blood of surrey
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About 118 miles.
M25 may be round, btw, but lines can go in circles*. Ask any mathematician.
*as can arguments
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Wheeeeww! Does that still go on?
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No. On Sunday morning there are still people in the roadworks on the western stretch trying to get home after Friday night.
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Thanks to all who contributed - clearly a subject close to people's hearts!
As the initiator of the thread, I felt the least I could do was to analyse the responses. Sirion wins the wooden petrol can with 235 miles, and the average commute, based upon the 31 contributors who mentioned a current commuting distance, is 72 miles.
And my point is? Er........
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Wheeeeww! Does that still go on?
what (1) circular arguments or (2)the M25 race?
for 1 yes all the time
for 2 dunno, I assume so, Before the m25 race it used to be the m4 dash, heston services to the severn bridge.
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My god, the amount of cash wasted on this insane notion that it's normal to commute hundreds of miles. Rough calculation - 100 miles per day at variable (petrol, tyres, etc) cost of 15p per mile = £75 per week. That's about £3,750 per year out of net earnings - gross that up and you could afford to take a £5,000 pay cut if you lived next door to work!
One guy said he couldn't afford to live in London. Well based on the above, he could actually afford to spend an extra £300 per month on the mortgage if he lost the commute.
Apart from the monetary expense, think of the quality of life - 1.5 to 2 hours each way means up to 4 hours travelling. When you think you spend 8 or 9 hours at work and another 8 in bed (if you're lucky!), that means about half of your free/leisure time is wasted on the road. Half your life is being wasted!!!
--
Mattster
Boycott shoddy build and reliability.
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> M25 may be round, btw, but lines can go in circles*. Ask any mathematician.
> *as can arguments
There's a lovely proof which starts ... Assuming that a straight line is in fact a circle of infinite radius...
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Getting back to the point, I was recently offered an excellent job in Hatfield. No problem, except that I live near Farnborough (Hants), so the commute is round the M25 on the section being upgraded.
I wanted to take the job. But the cost of the stamp duty meant that I couldn't afford to, and the company weren't willing to stump up that much in removal costs. So I either added to the conjestion or didn't take the job. Given the work:life balance a motorway commute would lead to, I turned it down. I'm sure others are doing the same.
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Which is why the thing that will stuff the country & push us into recession is stamp duty as the workforce becomes less & less mobile.
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And those that do move are forced to withdraw lumps of cash from the local economy. See my post above.
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& insert it into the London economy (by employing another pointless civil servant, who would otherwise be jobseeking in Newcastle/Liverpool/Llandrindod Wells/Wherever) thereby fueling the London house price boom. Which is further fuelled by the chap who now works in Newbury but has to reverse commute from London because he cannot afford the stamp duty to move, so the pointless civil servant cannot afford to buy a house because the house prices are so high, but the moment he does he pays for a new civil servant who.....
Well done, Gordon.
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"My god, the amount of cash wasted on this insane notion that it's normal to commute hundreds of miles. Rough calculation - 100 miles per day at variable (petrol, tyres, etc) cost of 15p per mile = £75 per week. That's about £3,750 per year out of net earnings - gross that up and you could afford to take a £5,000 pay cut if you lived next door to work!
One guy said he couldn't afford to live in London. Well based on the above, he could actually afford to spend an extra £300 per month on the mortgage if he lost the commute.
Apart from the monetary expense, think of the quality of life - 1.5 to 2 hours each way means up to 4 hours travelling. When you think you spend 8 or 9 hours at work and another 8 in bed (if you're lucky!), that means about half of your free/leisure time is wasted on the road. Half your life is being wasted!!!"
Mattster, each point well made and sums up my situation exactly -£70+ per week, 4 hrs a day in car, 3 kids at home = poor quality of life.
However, as I E Tower pointed out, those of us who work in manufacturing industries face periodic redundancy as a fact of life, and we need to go where the jobs are. We should finally move by the end of July (house-hunting since January) The total cost of commuting and relocating will exceed £10000 over the last 8-9 months - my company will give me a whole £1000 distubance allowance. I could have got a job closer to home but for considerably less money and probably to the detriment of my career. I felt that, in the long term, sacrificing normality for a few months of insane commuting was my only option to provide the best for my family.
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Apart from the monetary expense, think of the quality of life - 1.5 to 2 hours each way means up to 4 hours travelling. When you think you spend 8 or 9 hours at work and another 8 in bed (if you're lucky!), that means about half of your free/leisure time is wasted on the road. Half your life is being wasted!!!"
Which is exactly the conclusion I have recently come to and I'm doing something about it....
IMHO it's worth taking a hit on salary if your QOL improves, not that I intend to take that much of a hit on salary :D
JaB
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