[Deamon0508]

Originally Posted by alpha1

So glad to see so many responses with commute time of less than 30 minutes!

I am curious to know about the people who have voted for more than 4 hours. Initially, when I created the thread - I kept this option mainly for people who travel cities, like many people live in Pune and have office in Mumbai! (around 4-hour one way, that makes it 7-9 hours daily!!).

Not me personally, but I have a relative who has been in Bangalore since 1995 and had purchased a house in Bannerghatta in the 2000's. He is a Senior Director with a large MNC and his office shifted locations from Koramangala to Whitefield about 10 years ago. Since his family's roots are within Bannerghatta, he takes his Fortuner automatic on a 6 hour (round trip) every single day, he uses the entire time to take updates from all his subordinates. To me it's a horribly wasteful commute in a diesel 7-seater, but then who's to judge someone else's constraints.

So yeah, people do exist with more than 4 hour of a B2B traffic, not just commute

[the_joker]

My commute is 50 km total (approx. 25 up and down).

I tend to leave at 6:30 am in the morning. It takes me about 40 min on the road (about 50 min "ready at home" to "ready to work") for both bike and car.

In the evening, I leave by 3 pm. It takes me about 55 min on the road by bike and about 1 hr 20 min by car because I can't take the very narrow roads that I can take by bike. Therefore I prefer bike unless it is raining when I leave in the morning. Evening, I have faced rain many times, and I'm ok because of the rain gear.

Originally Posted by alpha1

... more than 4 hours...

If I took office shuttle, it would take me 1 hr 15 min in the morning and I would need to leave house at the same time, and 1 hr 45 min minimum in the evening because the shuttle leaves at 4:30 pm. However, this has gone to more than 2.5 hours also when traffic is bad. So, I don't take the shuttle. Before Covid, I would travel by shuttle, and on record breaking days, I have taken more than 3 hours in the evening thereby breaking the 4 hour mark that you mentioned.

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Faced with this question a day earlier, my answer would have been 'six minutes'. A week later I would probably be answering 'seventy five minutes'.

My impending shift in work location, as mentioned above, has put me in a quandary, leaving me with two options:

1. Live in a major city, in a family-owned residence; enjoying the perks of a culturally vibrant place but requiring a daily commute of 60+60 kms using pot-holed, narrow, single lane roads. Public transport will set me back by 2+2 hrs point to point on a daily basis. Carpooling will cut the travel time by one and half hours. Money isn't a constraint in either of the modes, but bodily exhaustion certainly is.
   
   
2. Sacrifice the vibrance of a big city in favour of a quaint little town where the rented accommodation will be barely at a five minute distance from work.

Whereas the first option will need me to leave home by 8ish every morning and return by 7ish in the evenings, the second, with its relaxed schedule, will allow me to pursue my long-practiced daily regime and related activities/hobbies

Considering that this would be the situation for at least two more years, which way should the scales tilt?

[silverado]

Originally Posted by ransomware

~4 KMs I have to ride my bike to the station (Vanaz) then ride it for ~ 50 minutes to reach the destination station (Kalyani Nagar) and then a 10 minutes walk to the office.

Ideally if you are able to ride a bicycle , it will solve all your issues and save you time ( walking time to office ). Borrow a cycle from someone and give it a try. I hope you already know cycles are allowed in Pune metro.

Its painfull to see this survey, but thats the fact in our cities today.Does anyone here think Metro is going to transform commute in Mumbai and Pune once all the lines are open? Atleast i am not hopefull.

Think about those guys who travel to Mumbai daily ( from Pune ) for work and get back!

[Ashdel]

One of the key reason for an oil burner like me - moving to Petrol DCT is sheer driving discomfort (around 120 km in Delhi NCR) - i saved my knees - but made a huge dent in my pocket - however no regrets. You win some - you loose some

One thing i missed with Petrol engines is the heart beat - since i am so used to Diesel engine clutter - hence modified my exhaust and now it gives me some kind of connection to the car.

Now i am a PetrolHead and never going back to D (thanks to BS6 and NCR Ban)

[Jekyl87]

I live in Delhi and commute to Gurgaon. About 40km one side, 80 both ways. Takes between 3-4 hours total most days. I usually leave for work late morning (around 10.30 am) and leave for home late night (around 10 pm), which helps reduce the traffic a bit. I hate this commute right now, but it's usually about once a week only, as other days are currently wfh. I dread the day when my company starts increasing this frequency.

I usually listen to podcasts or audiobooks during the drive.

[GnrlSbtsntl93]

Hello Everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster!

Since I cannot vote, dropping this comment as my contribution:

To & Fro from Kothrud to Akurdi, 6 days a week. 50 kms daily.

By Car: Avg : 40 mins - 1 Hr
Morning : Start at 7:40 | Reach office by 8:20
Evening : Start at 6:00 | Reach home by 7:00 (on good days 6:45)

By Company Bus: Avg : 55 Mins - 1.5 Hrs
Morning : Start at 7:25 | Reach office by 8:20
Evening : Start at 6:15 | Reach home by 7:45 (on good days 7:30)

All the while accompanied by a set of Podcasts and a daily commute playlist!

Cheers!

[Mike_Schumacher]

In my current role, I almost always work from home, so zero commute time. In the rare case I do have to go to office, it's a 30-40 min drive for 7 km, in Whitefield bangalore.

In my previous stint, I used to travel approx 25 kms (one way) from Whitefield to Manyata , and it used to take me anywhere between 1-1.5 hrs and sometime, 2 hrs!

[Meph1st0]

My office is ~8km away.

Morning commute time:
~12 min by bike and ~15 min by car if I start at 7:30
~16 min by bike and ~20 min by car if I start at 8:00
~20 min by bike and ~25 min by car if I start at 8:30

Evening commute time:
~20 min by bike and ~25 min by car
I have not seen much difference if I start at 3 or 5.

[Jaguar]

On the topic of commutes, this guy takes the cake https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y3e0ljnllo

[ransomware]

Originally Posted by silverado

Ideally if you are able to ride a bicycle , it will solve all your issues and save you time ( walking time to office ). Borrow a cycle from someone and give it a try. I hope you already know cycles are allowed in Pune metro.

Yes. This thought crossed my mind multiple times but never got converted into reality Also my office doesn't have shower facility so thats one more hurdle.

Think about those guys who travel to Mumbai daily ( from Pune ) for work and get back!

I did reverse of that in 2022 for almost a month, had my fair share of experiences

[revvinhard]

I stay in Mathikere and my office is in Jayanagar 3rd Block (quaint place to have your office in).

Thankfully, my office timings are 12 pm to 9 pm on most weekdays and on weekends (yes I work on weekends, considering I work for a test prep company and we have classes on weekends.)

My Hero Maestro 125 FI (BS4) is the most convenient and equally fun way of commuting; and this is for both routes I take - through the city and via the outer ring road through Nayandahalli and then through South Bangalore areas to Jayanagar.

In the morning, I leave at 11 am and it takes me at least 40 minutes to reach office. What's concerning is that this time has slowly started increasing over the last 1 year or so (points towards slowly increasing number of vehicles in Bangalore and hence the increasing number of half baked drivers/riders on the road who just cannot freaking do what they are supposed to do). When i commute through the city, this can even go up to 1 hour. But via the outer ring road, it gives me the chance to keep my Maestro purring at 70 to 80 kmph and to have some fun.

On my return journey, I tend to leave at 9 pm and it takes me 35 to 40 mins to reach Mathikere, through the city (i dont take the ORR on my return journey).

I have been forced to drive my Punto MJD to office on many days in the last 2 months due to rain and it is just cringeworthy. I just cringe thinking of having to drive 1 hour to work. On my way back, it takes me around 45 mins to 1 hour to get back home (clearly and obviously the slowest mode of office commute).

But the ride that keeps me sane is when i take the Apache 180 RTR (BS3), lent to me by my good friend (he shifted abroad and didn't want to sell the bike and didn't wanna keep it idle, so i got lucky), that’s one machine I say. And i always take the ORR, for a good reason. 45 mins tops on my way to office and 35 to 40 mins on my way back. That bike is what makes office commute fun.

On the other hand, I cringe to take my Dominar 400 to office. Being a bigger bike, it actually takes more time to get to office than my Maestro or Apache. The only saving grace is the fun that i get to have on the ORR.

So yeah, get an Apache RTR if you want to still have an enjoyable ride to office.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Whereas the first option will need me to leave home by 8ish every morning and return by 7ish in the evenings, the second, with its relaxed schedule, will allow me to pursue my long-practiced daily regime and related activities/hobbies

Considering that this would be the situation for at least two more years, which way should the scales tilt?

IMHO, go with option 2.

I've experienced both, had a bad commute for years then switched to no/minimal commute. I'd take the latter any day, even for lesser money. I've rejuvenated physically, mentally and my life is much more balanced now.

A long commute, especially an exhausting one will leave you with no energy for anything else over time. Since you are traveling for long during the week, you won't feel like leaving the house on weekends, so it's no point how vibrant the city is.

Choose your hobbies, choose time for physical health, choose a balanced life and peace of mind. Life is way too short to spend 2 hours a day in traffic, especially if you have the option to avoid that.

[Auto_guy_101]

I have multiple commute time. I'm one of those who started to work when the world went remote, continue to work from home and I occasionally travel to office because I'd like to experience in person work occasionally. Here are my travel times:

3 weeks a month: 0 (work from home)
For the 4th week: either a 30-60 min drive in Bangalore to cover 5 km one way (which includes a railway crossing, some narrow roads, a signal and about 3 dozen unscientific speed breakers) or a 40-75 min drive to cover 15 km. Manyata park and hebbal flyovers should be renamed time machines (for they eat time).

Over this I make a Kochi Bangalore drive to be in office. This journey takes me a good 11 hrs to cover 500 odd km (up from 9 hrs I've made this journey in a few years ago). So far, the thrill of the long distance drive still encourages me to drive down. However, after experiencing Blusmarts relatively fuss free service in Bangalore compared to other means (public transport doesn't cover my route and Uber and Ola prefer cancelling rides rather than accepting), I'm inclined to not drive down to Bangalore or drive in Bangalore as often.

I also have an uncle in a small town just outside of Kochi who drives 12 km to work in 45 min. So while I wish the smaller city lesser travel logic were true, it seems smaller cities are developing a little too fast.

[Schnellby]

My work commute has a good and a bad side to it.

I work at an automotive company, here in Bangalore, that manufactures automotive window motors.

While the office is in Dodaballapur, I stay way down south near Konanakunte Cross, Kanakapura Road. Distance through the main route Google Maps shows is almost 55 km one way.

The bad side? peak Bangalore traffic while commuting using the office bus. While I am thankful for the office bus as an option, I still need to go to central Bangalore to catch it. After a 5-minute walk to the station, I first catch the metro train at 7:08 am to National College Station. the bus shows up a minute or two after getting off. Then, it is just a boring bus ride to the office, where the bus reaches around 8:45 am. The whole journey takes around 2 hours at max.

Coming back is the worst and have faced a maximum travel time of 3 hours! Traffic through Jakkur signal, Hebbal, Mekhri Circle, Windsor Manor and Lalbagh is annoying, to say the least. For one, you are just sitting idle for more than 2 hours. Hebbal traffic just gets worse by the day with the influx of so many vehicles squeezing through the two lanes on and off the flyover. With the ongoing metro construction, the bus ride is painful through the bad patches on the service road.

But here's the occasional fun part. There are days when I have the liberty to take the car to work (usually on Fridays and Saturdays) and the routes to Dodaballapur are great. I take the NICE road to Nelamangala expressway and then an inner road from there takes me through Hesaraghatta Forest where the views are just amazing for an enthusiast. The road I am talking about is through a Nandini-owned dairy site I believe.

This route takes me 1.5 hours (same for the return trip). Here's how the view looks like :