Your Commute, Your Health and Your Wallet

By: Arun Sundaresan

I usually leave the house each morning at 6:50. By the time I’ve driven to the train station, ridden the train, and walked to work, it’s about 8:30. My total commute time? Three hours and twenty minutes.

According to the United States Census Bureau, I’m an “extreme commuter.” About 3.5 million Americans are also extreme commuters, averaging more than ninety minutes each way. For the average American, that number is about twenty-four minutes.

For most people, commuting is the worst part of their day. Research shows that a long commute has negative effects on an individual’s physical health, mental health, and social life. Considering these adverse effects, is your commute worth it?

Physical Health Concerns

Generally speaking, the more time we spend commuting, the less time we spend exercising or fixing our own meals, leading to a higher chance of obesity. Thomas J. Christian of Georgia State University found that we are more likely to grab fast-food, opt for lower-intensity exercise and sleep less than their lightly-traveled peers. (See: What Is A Healthy Body Weight For Males And Females?)

A survey issued by the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index found that one in three extreme commuters are more likely to experience recurrent neck and back problems. UCLA and Cal State-Long Beach found vehicles miles to be the highest-correlated variable with obesity.

Long commutes make us more likely to spend more money eating out, forego exercise, sleep less, experience body aches, and gain weight. And that’s just the physical effects.

Mental Health Problems

Long commute times also lead to increased mental stress and diminished workplace productivity. The Gallup survey found that 40% of workers who commute more than ninety minutes each way experienced worry for much of the previous day.

Bruno Frey and Alois Stutzer, two economists at the University of Zurich, found that for an extra hour of commuting time, a worker would need a 40% salary increase to justify the time they spend commuting. Analyzing this from a manager’s point-of-view, not only are commuting workers more sleep-deprived and stressed, they are also more expensive due to the massive increase needed to make their commute worthwhile.

Uh-oh. It’s not looking good for me.

Social Life Disappearing

Between the time you spend commuting to work, the time you spend at work, and the time you spend commuting from work, the majority of the day is gone. It’s not hard for me to imagine what I could do with an extra three hours and twenty minutes during the day.

Robert Putnam, a Harvard University professor and author of Bowling Alone, identifies long commuting times as one of the foremost indicators of social isolation. And perhaps more troubling, according to researchers at Umea University in Sweden, marriages in which one partner commutes at least forty-five minutes are 40% more likely to end in divorce. So not only does longer commute times drive you towards social suicide, it also places significant strain on marriages.

Weighing the Costs and Benefits

Let’s take a quick look at the most popular reason people choose to live far from where they work: buying a home.

The buying versus rentingdecision is clearly multi-dimensional. Besides the math of renting versus owning (mortgage, maintenance, taxes, capital appreciation), there are major personal and family well-beingcomponents. Buying a house can mean big backyard their kids play in, or the extra bedroom for their parents, or the nursery for their newborn.

But transportation needs to be considered too. First, commuting is expensive – driving, for instance, comes along with gas, car insurance, vehicle maintenance and parking. And perhaps more importantly, there’s the time lost: is it worth not spending that extra hour exercising, sleeping, socializing or spending time with your kids?

Ultimately, the question of whether it’s better to live closer to work or farther to work comes down to the intangible benefits of each. By living closer to work, you know that your physical health, mental health, and social life will have a better chance of thriving. Living further away from work could let you buy your dream house or find a great school district for your kids. It’s up to you to decide which provides you more happiness.

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