Fosters

I'm considering moving, but I'm wondering what an 80 mile each way trip is like (I can get in for 7 and leave at 3, so that'd be quicker at least)

Any views/considerations?

ps it'd be in a diesel, not a scoob

Little Miss WRX

I used to travel a 70 mile trip each way - with the scoob . Expensive, but I was not that bothered.....

Needless to say I did move back to the depot I was originally at.

I am single and I found the time I was wasting travelling very frustrating, if I had a family then I would not have considered the transfer to start with.

Does that help?

Fosters

Uhmm, it does help. keep 'em coming please.

Doesn't do much for any car's value I suppose.

Little Miss WRX

Will you be motorwaying it? Consider extra time for traffic queues etc.

Yeah, the extra mileage will bring the car value down. Hasn't affected mine much as I tended to get lifts and my car's original mileage was so low to start with......

Paul78

I do 50 miles each way per day whch isn't a lot, but it isn't the distance that gets you down...

I drive from Oxford to just outside Rugby, so two junctions on the M40 ( wave at Prodrive ) and then a good cross country route into work, all in all about 45 min to a hour which is great !

Depending on what roads you will be on and the STRESS levels involved - this is what will make the biggest difference.

To give you an example prior to this job, I worked in SW19 and drove in from Epsom ( about 10 - 12 miles ), this took 45 min - 1hr and I was not a happy chap every morning, the stress and traffic was awful..

So my advise go for it, get a good cd collection and try different routes !

Richard Askew

140 miles round trip in a Lotus Elise
Much more involving than the scoob and it does 45mpg at 85mph

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Currently on the 130 round trip route myself

That's what the Vectra Diesel is for

I think it depends on how you treat it & the actual journey you take. Personally its its something that I need to do every dday, so it just becomes part of the day. Having a comfortable car with your favourite radio stations definately helps. Also select a "reasonable" crusining speed and stick to it - haring along gets you agitated everytime you have to slow. If you get stuck in a jam, just relax & think of lines of code or something else relaxing

As for the route? Well for me its 7 miles cross-country B roads, then Dual Carriageway/M'way all the way into town, into the Docks and then into Wapping. It does not require thinking about, is rarely stop/start and on the way home is a giggle (or can be ) for the last few miles. I think if it was single carriageway, through back-streets etc etc then that is more tiring

In your case, I would only recommend it if you were moving WEST!!! I suppose SW M3 might be OK. That part of the world is a traffic nightmare, much more busy than mine, & anything other than following a m'way would surely wind you up

Fosters

It'd be gillingham (dorset) to Bracknell (A303, M3 for all but 5 miles), so barring queues, not too stressful.

Alpine

I've done the odd commute and it is the type of journey rather than the length in miles.. If you can get a good run at it and don't have to sit in traffic it isn't too bad.. I also tried to make use of the time I was in the car to do something I liked then it felt less like work..

Listen to a play on Radio 4, get an audio book from the library.. that sort of thing.. makes your time pass quickly.. On the way home I'd catch up with correspondence using a tape recorder and use speech recognition software at home to sort it out...

Seamus300

I currently do a 120mile round trip and from June and a new office this will be 160miles. I will be buying a Diesel to do it and to be honest I'm not at all happy about it, but has to be done. Generally my drive in (5:45 start) is OK, I find the drives out (5ish) very stressful, especially on the motorways with lane hoggers etc.

MrDBM

i did 140 mile round trip for nearly 10 months before moving - in the summer it's okay, especially as I had 30 odd miles of A road to contend with... but winter is the true bummer, heading out in the dark and wet weather AND returning it it... never again, give me 9 miles any day!

Fosters

Anyone travel the 303 london bound in the morning and the opposite at night?

burnside

That's about 3,400 miles ish per month, 41,000 per year!!
Are you nuts?
41,000 miles a year just to get to and from work! imagine the cost of fuel (assuming you have a 21mpg Scoob)
Best thing to do is when you next have a week day off get up early and drive down to the area where you'll be starting your journey and see what you think.
Either that or buy a very economical diesel that can do at least 50mpg and have a CD player.

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Burnsy

Mine is about 35000 miles per year & costs £10 a day in fuel (diesel). I believe that is more economical than the train option + a lot more convenient & quicker

(On top of that, I probably do another 5K in various company cars and 10K in PTMW! )

Robyn

Used to do A303 and M3 and Bracknell.

A303 and M3 run OK expect the M3 to clog sometimes from fleet onwards. just happens sometimes. A303 is usually fine.

Bracknell on the other hand!!! well choose your moments! I used to get in before 8 and and leave at 4:30 else it can become a nightmare.

If you where going the opposite direction I would say easy work this way around? well its not all going to smell of roses!

Chris L

A303 - nice road

As you know Fosters I trawl around the M25 most days (I've seen your car on quite a few occassions ).

I now live in Hertfordshire and I commute to Slough (mostly not on the M25 now, but I could do if I chose (not..) ). It is roughly 55 miles each way and takes me about 70 mins (that's leaving at 6:30 - double that if you left at anything after 7:30). Personally I think this is far enough. I'm lucky that I now work from home a fair bit, so I only do this 2 or 3 times a week. Aside from the cost of doing the trip in the Scoob it can be stressful and I've no wish to spend 3 hours a day sitting in traffic jams.

Having done this trip for just over a year, I would seriously consider taking a job locally if I could find one.

If you've got a good route, which isn't too heavy on the traffic then you might find it OK. I would think hard about anything more than 100 mile roundtrip.

Chris

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

S0d that. I work 1 min away from home (on a good day)

Used to commute to London every day, about 45 miles,up to 3 hours travelling time tho Hated it. Stockwell isn't the nicest place to arrive at. Smaller salary, but you only live once and I intend to enjoy it as much as possible.

Seems like a long journey and it will take its toll on you and your family

Shark

I have a few corners on the way to work

David

carl

130 mile round trip a day. In the Scoob

It's half single-carriageway A-roads and the rest dual carriageway, so takes 1.5 hrs (morning) down to 1hr10 (evening -- if you leave at the right time).

Actually, I got the Scoob to make the journey more interesting. Probably would have given up by now without it.

Tim Bomford

Currently doing a 190 mile round trip. Fareham to Amersham (but I do that in a diesel golf!). Can be ok but hate traffic now and it kills the enjoyment of driving completely. Used to go for pointless drives in the Scoob......just for the fun/hell of it type stuff. Now am so sick of the drive, I don't bother. If you can avoid it, do so.

Tim

Steve Perriam

i work at a different office to my main one about 3 days a week atm and its a 202 mile round trip !

gets you down after a while.....its basically all motoroway which gets boring and the roadworks

summers coming so its gonna get even busier down here with all the grockles to

drove it for 6 months or so.....no i actually stay up in a hotel which has its pros and cons to !

certainly looks like the fuel cost is gonna be high m8 !! mine is all paid for so thats not a problem for me.....and the time you'll add onto the working day with travelling !

think carefully about how long you could put up with doing that sort of travelling 5 days a week......

Dream Weaver

Dont do it F!!! I used to do a 170 mile RT for 12 months and it nearly killed me. A wagon overturned once near Manchester and it took me 5 hours to get to work. All done in a 205 GTi with 4" exhaust!!!

Currently it takes me 20 seconds - office is next door

DW

kryten

Just started doing a 110 mile round trip after spending the last year and a half working from home 4 days a week.

Depends on which roads you're doing: mine is M4 from J15 to J11. On a good run, I can make it in just under an hour. On a bad run, it can take 2 hours (unless I'm on the bike, in which case there's no such thing as a bad run and I get 50mpg!!).

Its something you get used to, if you have to. Just take plenty of stuff to listen to. I always find comedy Tapes/CDs (Billy Connolly, Yes Minister....) help as its impossible to get p1ssed off with the traffic when you're laughing

camk

Did 80 mile round trip for 5 years. Now I'm 30 round trip. As has been said Summer is OK and Winter is dreadful, bad traffic or major long lasting roadworks can litterally ruin your life. My wife and I used to travel together so not so bad but 80 each way to me sounds really bad. There is no doubt you'll be able to do it but you'll look back and think it was terrible, my advice would be don't. All the best
Cammy

paulr

Bloody hell........i thought my journey was bad, 18 miles each way..and sometimes resented the fact that i wasted nearly one hour of each day travelling to work.
Maybe i'll look at it differently now.
btw......i spend most of that time on the phone,doesn't feel such a waste

Nikko2

My Dad has a 1400 mile round trip to work. He only has to do it once a week though. Planes help too.

RichB

My girlfriend does a 140 mile round trip from Bournemouth to Farnborough each day in her sh99ed out VW Polo. She has to do core hours of 10-4 so she leaves at 6am, starts work around 7.30 and leaves at 4pm, gets home around 5.30pm just in time to make my tea
She says the mileage doesn't bother her and they pay extra for it but she is always tired (well thats what she says ...)

I on the other hand get up around 8.30, walk to work after eating my weetabix or Shreddies and am at my desk for 9 (well most days...) The 400 yard walk is a killer some mornings, I mostly cycle now...

Jolly Green Monster 2

Looking for another thread and saw this one.

I move job location frequently and have commuted between 40 and 100miles each way and currently living away from home in the week as it is 200miles each way.

Last job was about 100miles and was by motorcycle as it involved the M25 and into London.. after 6months of that I was almost relieved to have to find somewhere else.
40 to 70miles I didn't find too bad.. but then I am used to doing a lot of driving or riding.

I'd try and avoid it if you can but it is do able..

What decision have you come to?

JGM

MarkO

I used to live in Farnham (Surrey) and worked in Southampton; it's about a 40-50 mile trip (each way). Not long after I started doing the journey, I got my first Impreza - a Prodive 96. Driving that, flat out, down the A31 (a superb road) was great fun, and made for a pleasant journey. On some summer days I'd be itching to get out of the office at 5:30 - just for the drive home!!!

However, after 2 years it got a bit tedious. The traffic gets you down, and the petrol costs are horrendous. But the worst thing for me is the huge waste of time. Driving's all well and good, but spending the best part of 12 hours a week behind the wheel is a huge chunk of your free time gone.

Nowadays I have a commute which is over an hour but (and it's a big but) because it's on the train I can read, work, mess around on the laptop (play Unreal ) or even sleep. Meaning that whilst it's still not the best thing in the world, it's not totally wasted time.

I may be going back to a 40-minute drive/commute when I move to Scotland - it depends on how things pan out. I'm not really looking forward to it, but it's not the end of the world. However, you're talking about a 2-hour commute each way at best. Factor in roadworks etc every now and again, and you're talking 5 hours of wasted time a day.

If it's short-term (a few months) and the money's excessive, it might be worth it. But I doubt it....

Addendum: I've just re-read the initial post, and saw the bit about it being a diesel and not a scoob. Considering how good the A303 is in a scoob, I'd say NOOOOOOOO!!!! Don't do it! It'll be like torture in a deisel.

[Edited by MarkO - 5/29/2002 9:00:18 AM]

TaviaRS

Over 220 round trip every day. Sometimes more. As someone said, Bracknell can be a pig. I live just south of the M3, j3 and heading up to Bracknell after 8 is a nightmare, but the times you are travelling you should be fine.