International Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Working ladies, what's your commute?
Or your H's, I'm interested to know what it's like around the world.
What mode(s) of transport do you use? How much does it cost you?
TIA!
Re: Working ladies, what's your commute?
I will answer in many ways
When I was living in Northern Virginia ('burbs of DC), here was our commutes:
-We lived in Arlington, I worked at Union Station in Washington, DC. It was about 8 miles and took me 45 minutes to drive. I'm not sure if the Metro would have been faster because I would have had to walk 15 minutes to a train, wait for a train, switch trains, walk to work, blah blah blah. Plus parking was free and gas was part of my salary so I drove.
-We moved from Arlington to a place called Woodbridge, VA. I got a job in Arlington, VA. It took me 1.5-2.5 hours to drive 20 miles. There was a bus (I tried that once and it took just as long and smelled bad) or commuter parking lots (we called them slugs growing up - you would pick up random people from a parking lot who worked in the same area as you) available but the High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes go into the city and I worked a different direction so it really didn't help me. Same company - gas was paid for.
-In Amsterdam, I rode my bike to the train (3 Minutes), took a 7 minute train ride to Schiphol Airport and walked for 10 minutes inside airport to my office. Awesome commute. At night though I would have panic attacks because I was in charge of pick up (husband did drop off) of son. his daycare closed at 7PM and some nights it would take him from 6PM - 7PM to go get him. I would do the same route but when I got back on my bike and left the train station, i had to go about 5 kilometers, pick him up and bike 5 kilometers back. My company paid for the commute.
-Now, my husband's commute is 30 minutes because it is 30 minutes away (we live in the 'burbs). He fills up his gas tank once a week for $35.
My commute is to my couch some days and to different employers other days. No day is the same but I drive and there is limited traffic. Yea for the 'burbs but I miss my bike a lot. So does my waistline. I drive a lot. I fill up my gas tank at least once every 5 days. My gas runs approximately $3.20 a gallon.
We both have small economical cars. I have a friend who has a mammoth massive SUV and she spends $100 a week on gas. She has four kids and needs more space but hates her SUV and they are looking for some smaller. What do families in Europe with a bunch of kids do? We could only fit on more kid in each of our cars because both cars only have 4 seats.
My MIL bought recreational bikes for us for Christmas but we're not going to be able to use them for a while because the accessories are out of our price range right now
My commute, by car, is around 15 minutes. There is a bus and it takes 40sh minutes. We fill up the gas once a week or every other week, I think for around 60-65 chf or $70sh. One way on the bus is 2.20 chf with a reduction card I have, normally it is 3.50 chf.
DH walks to work, it takes him 5 minutes to walk.
We live in a sort of suburb of Naples, so, unfortunately public transportation is not a viable option. I drive or, when possible, carpool.
Getting in takes abt 25mins, but requires me to leave at 630. You leave at 700 and it becomes 1hr, easy. Returning, it's nearly impossible to avoid rush hour (I've left at 4, I've left at 11pm).... so it takes about 45+ minimum.
Cost/--gas, 1 toll ea way (?.90), incalculable stress
When I was in London I did a 1 1/2 hour commute (each way), via public transport, every day for 4 years. It cost me?? I think around 8-10 pounds a day??
For the past few years here (Sydney) it's been 1 hour in the morning, and 30 minutes home (although it's only 8km, you have sydney traffic to deal with, thus the huge difference in the morning *sigh*). I drove - so I guess the cost was car & petrol - about $60 every 10 days or so (in our old car).
Now that we have moved my commute is 25 min in the morning, 15 min in the afternoon, and I drive. I pay about $100 for petrol every 2 weeks for my SUV. My dh takes the bus to work (mostly because he doesn't have city parking!!) it costs him $8 a day return. Another reason he doesn't drive though is the tolls - to get to and back from where we live would be around $25 a day - ouch! (I work out west - so don't pay any tolls)
DH and I work at the same place, but often we go in at different times. By car, it's a 10-15 minute drive. We live downtown, so we're always going against traffic.
If we go in separately, then I walk 10 minutes and take the free university shuttle from town. Comes every 20 minutes. Easy peasy.
ETA: We fill up about every 2 weeks. Usually with about 300ZAR (30euros).
I work from home and/or travel for work, so no daily commute.
DH takes the tube and it's 40 minutes door-to-door (including walking times on both ends) from Zone 1-4. Since he works outside Central London, he goes against rush hour both ways. So he can sit and read the paper. He's happy with it.
ETA: I think a Zone 1-4 weekly pass is 60-65USD and includes buses.
When we lived in Mexico, his commute was barely five minutes (door-to-door) driving.
DH commutes downtown to the loop on the EL. Takes him about 45 minutes. The station is near our house. The EL stop is a 15 minute walk to his work but there is a shuttle provided by the building that he takes most of the time. It costs $80 a month for a unlimited CTA pass.
I drive myself to school and it's about 7 minutes. I try to run all my errands on my way home. I fill up my van about every 2.5-3.5 weeks. Which isn't too bad at $100ish for a full tank (25 gallons). I also have to pay parking for $100 each school year. I could park on the street but it's hard to find parking. The security is better on the lots too as my school is in a partially sketchy area.
I have the option to ride the bus but it takes 30 minutes and it is not that cost effective. I would probably use even less gas if I wasn't making trips North to see my family or driving to Milwaukee for baseball games.
I want a bike so I can get to the main drag in our neighborhood faster for short errands. But it's not too far to walk either 8 minutes at the most. Love it! Lots of restaurants and bars. Cute shops too even have a German style apothecary!
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Zurich: DH commuted about 12 minutes on the tram. It wasn't ever crowded.
I went to various babysitting jobs via bus, tram, and train. Sometimes it was 30 minutes other times it was 1 hour and 15 minutes when I would go to the villages further down the lake. There was one time I would have to walk from the train station to our apartment because the tram didn't run by us after 12am. I also had to walk pretty far down hill to the train station at one of the villages.
I didn't mind being so far from the Zurich center for babysitting jobs that late because I felt pretty safe walking and riding the trains/trams for the most part. But I wouldn't think of riding the EL after 10pm by myself now. I will no't be as adventurous with nanny jobs as I was in Zurich. heh
2012 Reading Challenge
Now Nesting from Chicago, IL My nail blog:
I'll answer for H because the last work commute I had involved walking out my front door and to the building across the street.
KL- He drives. It's a half hour if there's not traffic or up to two hours if there is. It doesn't cost him anything because the company provides the car, gas, insurance, and tolls. Public transport is not an option.
Geneva- Depending on the weather he'd either ride his bike or take a bus. It was 10/15 minutes either way, and you could walk there in 25. The yearly public transport pass was 670 CHF, but again, the company picked that up so it was free to him.
Prague- He took the tram. It was four stops and just under 10 minutes. The company didn't pay for his metro pass but IIRC the annual pass was something like $200
When I was in the US, it took me about 45 minutes, by car, everyday...sometimes more, but never less. :-s
Here in Bahrain, it has taken me anywhere from 15-40 minutes, depending on where we have lived on the island and where my job is (this is my 3rd job since living here...i like to switch it up, hah and 3rd house, believe it or not). It used to take me 30-40 minutes to get to my current job, by car, but they recently opened up a new part of the highway and it has literally cut down my commute to 20 minutes. (However yesterday the light by our house was not working properly and it took me about 40, 10 of those minutes were stuck at a light) It takes me 20 to get home too. I fill up my car about once a week, and it costs me about $8.
For DH, when he works in Saudi, it takes him about 45 mins - 1 hour, depending on the traffic on the bridge. Same with the way back, he will only take longer if there are school holidays or it's the beginning of Saudi weekend, but usually he's working in Bahrain during that time and it takes him 15-20 minutes to get to his office here. He will fill up about once a week as well, in Saudi usually b/c gas is 50% cheaper than here.
Travel Blog
Little Miss Lulu playing on the beach
In both Paris and NYC, DH bikes to work. In Paris, his ride is about 15-20 minutes (including time dealing with the local "Velo" stations because he uses the municipal bikeshare program). In NY, his ride is about 25 minutes and then he brings his bike up to his office with him.
On rainy/snowy days, he takes the subway.
I work at home. My bedroom is about the same distance from my home office in both places.
I'll throw in DD for fun. In NY, her school is only 2 blocks away, but here it's about a 20-minute walk (kid-paced, alone I can do the walk in about ten minutes).
DH and I both drive to work. It takes him about 10 minutes both ways. It takes me about 25-30 minutes in the morning and usually about the same in the afternoon unless I take the m4 and it takes about 20 mins.
I don't even know how much we pay in petrol. We both drive a lot. I usually fill up my car every week even if it doesn't need it about $50-60 but I dont know how often DH fills his up.
I take a bus (or two) into work every day. It takes me about 25-40 minutes in the morning (depending on traffic & roadworks) and it takes about 30-60 minutes to get home (more traffic in the afternoon/early evening). If the traffic is horrible or I know that the roads are horrific or I'm in a rush, I can take one bus to a tube and get into work that way (which takes about 20-25 minutes).
I have a one year travel pass which cost me about ?850.
This is really interesting!
I'm surprised by the amount of driving many people do. I just assumed because I live a car-free expat lifestyle (much to the chagrin of DBF) everybody did. Looks like there's a lot of car owners here, though!
It seemed like everyone had a car in Geneva, which I would not have guessed. We only used it to drive up to the mountains or go grocery shopping on the weekends, but still, we had one. It was H's Swiss coworkers who convinced him that he needed one, which I never would have guessed because Switzerland is so environmentally friendly and cars tend to not be.
I'm surprised too.
My parent's gave me their 10 year old van to use. Otherwise we wouldn't have a car and the only reason as to why I keep it is because it gives me the accessibility to "get out of Dodge". There is no way I can get to my family 2.5 hours away without it. The closest transport option is taking the Amtrak and that still puts me an hour away from my destination.
If we stay where to stay here I don't see us getting a car again. Unless it's small and not brand new. Cars take a beating here being parked on the street and we can truly get around to where we need to go. It's just not faster.
2012 Reading Challenge
Now Nesting from Chicago, IL My nail blog:
I noticed that too. And if you are up in the secluded mountain villages they drive junkers. Which I found amusing... We had a car for a few months in Zurich. DH bought it when he was working in the mountains which helped with dealing with "cabin fever". We didn't use it much just to visit FIL and a few day trips. Then we sold it to some East Europeans for 200 CHF who loaded it up on a flat bed truck. It's probably being cruised around Bulgaria now.
If we move back. I wouldn't be opposed to a car again. I definitely missed having it for the rest of our time there. It was nice for the same things you used it for. Getting groceries in Germany, visiting family, and day trips. And if we moved to the mountains again it would be my top request to DH to get me to go with. Sometimes you just need to get the hell off the top of a mountain!
2012 Reading Challenge
Now Nesting from Chicago, IL My nail blog:
My first grown-up job I rode my bike to my office, it took about 10 minutes depending on the ferry I needed to take (ferry took about 30-45 seconds, but went every 6 minutes, so if it'd just left, it might be 12 minutes, if I'd arrive and it'd leave immediately it'd be 6-8 minutes.
Next job I still lived in the north of Amsterdam and worked in Utrecht. I first took bike-train-bus, which took anywhere from 45 minutes to almost 2 hours. Our office was the last stop before the University, which meant that on the way back the busses were always extremely full and often wouldn't stop at our stop anymore. After the time 7 busses didn't stop and I had to wait 1.5 hours at that stop, I decided being stuck in traffic for 1.5 hours would at least have me closer to home so I started driving there. The drive really depended on time of day, and whether it was vacation or not. Min 30 minutes, max 2 hours, but most of the time it was about an hour.
My current job from our old apartment was a 15-20 minute commute (2 minute walk, 10 minute tram, 2 minute walk - tram came every 5 to 6 minutes) from our current home it's about 10 minutes longer (same tram line, just at the final stop - 10 minutes further.)
DH's work is 4 tram stops (about 3 minutes) closer to home than mine.
We still have both our cars, but are looking to get rid of one of them. Do want to keep one for groceries and trips/visiting DH's parents and stuff.
My food blog
What I'm looking forward to in 2012:
Eating our way through (northern) Italy on vacation
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DCecilia arrived 12 October 2012
Here: H works from home. I work short contracts once in awhile and it is about 5 minutes by foot from home.
In Saigon: We rode to work by motorbike, it was between 15-20 minutes.
Once I got pregnant I took a speedboat (30 minutes) to downtown and then a taxi (5 minutes) to my office. The taxi was less than 1 dollar, the speedboat was pretty much free, it was a service to residents and gym members of a compound near our house, I joined the gym.
US:
DH and I worked at the same office, so we'd carpool in together. The drive took about 10 minutes, maximum, and we filled up the tank every few weeks. I can't remember how much gas would cost at that point.
NL:
When DH was working at the customer site, he would bike in everyday. I worked from home, so no commute for me. Now that we have an offsite office for our company located nearby, we drive in to work together, which takes about 25 minutes. I'm not sure about gas because our company provides us a fuel card and takes care of our car lease.
I loved it, it was such a beautiful way to start and end the day. Riding on the Saigon river seeing all kinds of birds, fishermen, and general Vietnamese "river life".
We're super spoiled. DH and I work at the same place, and we live in housing provided by our employer, so we're about a 5 minute commute from work. We love it!
We used to live in the city, and it was about a 30 minute commute, but we moved two years ago and never looked back!
We have two cars which is helpful since DH and I have different schedules, and it costs about 10 bucks to fill up the gas tank, which I probably do once a week or so.
Dave & Jennifer 10.18.08
My Doha Adventures
We don't have a car!
DH walks to work - about 30 minutes. He loves it. I used to walk to work but my office moved to the suburbs so now I take a bus. Takes about 30 minutes door-to-door but the bus is just once and hour so I have to be organised!
My monthly bus pass is ?48
Growing up in NY (on Long Island), people had the most insane commutes. My dad drove 2.5 hours EACH WAY every day and that wasn't even the worst. I ran away from there as soon as I could. I really hate spending time commuting, we have always picked our apartments based on easy commutes to work.
BFP Apr 2012, EDD Dec 19 2012 * twin h/b at 6wk, 9wk scan * Baby A lost at 12wks, Baby B was my rainbow born at 36wks
Anna, no car for us either
As of a week ago we WALK to work and it's an amazing feeling! It's no more than 8 minutes from our place. From Brooklyn it used to take us 30-40 minutes on the train. I used to get an unlimited ride MetroCard for $104, now I'm walking pretty much everywhere and charge a single ride if I need the subway.
edited for typos
If the train runs on time 15 minutes door to door: under 5 minutes walk to the station, 7 minutes train and another couple of minutes walk.
If DH drops me off it takes about 25 minutes drive.
Forgot to say the train pass is paid by work but would cost 130? a year.
We both cycle to work mostly.
I'm slower and take around 16-20 mins (depending on traffic lights that I miss) on the way to work and just under 25 on the way home (up hill and nearly always into the wind!). Once a fortnight I get the bus in and bring in shirts for the next 2 weeks all ironed so I don't have to worry about them on the bike. Bus takes around half hour in (at 6.30/6.40am) and a bit longer on the way home.
DH brings N to the childminder on his way to work on the back of his bike and then takes around the same time as me though he has slightly longer to go. He gets his shirts laundered in work so doesn't take the bus unless there is something on in the evening that he doesn't want to cycle home from (he won't leave his bike in work!!)