Originally Posted by
B. Carfree
Granted an hour and a half each way is longer than the typical commute, but not by so much as to be considered unthinkable. And, last I checked, children don't need to be chauffeured to and from school. That leaves me wondering why you say you couldn't live without a car.
Is there something significantly different about SoCal relative to NorCal, where I lived for four decades, that precludes living without a car that goes unspoken? Several of my NorCal friends have longer commutes than your wife and manage to do them on bikes. Actually, a few have commutes over double that length and they comfortably do them multi-modal.
I can't speak for this poster, but people generally prefer not to sacrifice family time unless they have a very good reason. E.g. people would commute 1.5 hours each way by car for a very good job, or they would bike 1.5 hours each way if the congestion was so bad driving would take just as long, but if they can save a half-hour or an hour commuting by car instead of bike, many will do it because, they reason, that's an extra hour or two they can spend with their families.
Nowadays my commute is pretty short but once upon a time I biked 10 miles to work and back when I could have driven and saved 15 minutes or 1/2 hour each way, depending on the time of day. I did this because I felt cultural pressure to drive and I knew it would be a slippery slope if I started giving in at certain times of day or just for work-commuting, so I exercised the will to bike and sacrificed an extra 1/2-1 hour per workday I could have spent with family.
I'm not saying it isn't good to sacrifice more than this, because ultimately modeling a righteous life for your children is one of the greatest things you can give to them. Yes, spending time is important but if they grow up believing more is possible than they might otherwise have, that is a big achievement.
Anyway, I understand why someone would drive if their commute is 30 miles each way, but what I question is why the economy is structured in such a way that it is necessary to commute this far for a job. Surely in this modern day and age with so much technological power, we could empower people more to reduce their commuting distances.