Hacker News Reader

I have a 15 minute commute, but I'm atypical. One of the patterns that grew in (as I understand it) the 1940s and 1950s was the tendency to work in the city, but have a home farther out in the suburbs.

Apparently, the average commute time is 25.4 minutes, according to the US Census Bureau (although it gets much higher in some places): https://project.wnyc.org/commute-times-us/embed.html#5.00/42...

It takes me 40 minutes one way to get to/from work, more if the traffic sucks. The US is spread out, not having a car is not an option for a majority of our society (outside of high population density cities).

It is pretty normal in some parts. Not everywhere. But in the Midwest it’s very common for people to live out in the suburbs and have a long freeway drive in to work. I went 45 minutes each way for years.