I Only Commute Because I Have to Get to Work

On my daily race to work, I was relieved I was making such good time! I maneuvered the car around the corner onto the next street that would take me that much closer to my destination and then…I saw it. A big yellow school bus. Every day, we commuters face these travel challenges. And, I wonder, is it totally necessary?

Oh no. The horror of it stopping and going were running in my head as it edged to the stop sign with me behind it. I have to go right, I madly thought while staring at the bus. The bus didn’t have its blinker on! Hope! It must be going straight! And then, slowly, the red blinker of the bus showed that it too would be heading to the right. Doomed.


If you don’t have a job (i.e. retired person, lottery winner), please don’t be on the roads between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. This is our time—the commuter’s time. Although it’s not really our time because we’re caught in traffic! What we’re trying to do is either get to work or get home so that we can have our time—what little will be left after the commute, that is. So, we’d appreciate it if you could just stay out of our way during those four hours.


I have commuted into Boston and Newark and taken many different routes—bus, car, train, carpool, subway. Millions of people do this everyday. That’s the amazing part because commuting is AWFUL. What were our ancestors thinking about getting away from the good old days of tending to farms and the home? You never had to leave! OK, so they didn’t have much money doing that but when you consider the cost of commuting, neither do we.