Why Would Anyone Choose to Drive to Work?

The general impression I get when reading comments on the web is that most people think that the automobile is a scourge on humanity, and that the only reasons a person would drive to work rather than take public transportation is if they have no choice, or they're Neanderthals. Since I haven't seen any Neanderthals lately, except in Geico commercials, we'll have to assume that people have no choice.

Well, that's mostly true in the U.S. But given the choice, what would it be? According to a 2005 ABC poll, 60% of drivers like their commute. Why would we choose this way of getting to work above other choices, like living close enough to walk, or living near enough to use public transportation? The online "screaming" about it seems to be coming from a very, very vocal minority of social engineers and common people who think they know better than the majority, the masses being sheep that have been led astray by a General Motors Corporation who forces their products on the public rather than letting us choose.

According to the Wikipedia article on 'Commuting', and quoted elsewhere on the web (but unsubstantiated, as far as I can tell), "Before the 19th century most workers lived less than an hour's walk from their work." This idea seems to be quoted in some places with the idea in mind that it's only proper that we live no more than a couple of miles from our place of business, but it strikes me that "one hour" seems to, historically, be about the maximum an average person would want to spend getting to and from work. Longer than an hour, it becomes tedious.


According to The Encyclopedia of Chicago, it was the availability of public transportation that allowed people to live further from their places of business or labor. It was Henry Ford, who drastically cut the cost of manufacturing automobiles, and who subsequently raised employee pay to $5 per day (thus enabling his assembly line workers to afford to buy the very automobiles they were making), who changed commuting forever. But still, don't most of us live less than an hour from our workplace, measured by our chosen mode of transportation?


Houston has a relatively new light rail system. This system has not increased commuting options, but, rather, replaced some bus routes. I've said before that if the trains would run along the freeways, out to where the car drivers live, and stop at the freeway exits, where people could catch a bus to their workplaces, you might get a few people out of their cars. But they don't work that way. The trains compete with car traffic downtown. (Back in the 1980s, Mayor Whitmire proposed a monorail system that would have placed the trains above ground, where they would not hit or be hit by automobiles, as happens now.) If I want to use public transportation on my daily commute, I must first drive 7 miles to the park-and-ride location, then take a bus downtown, walk a couple of blocks, and catch another bus that takes me close to the office. Total time from the first pickup to the last drop off is 91 minutes, plus 8 more minutes for the initial drive, and 5 for the final walk. That's 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to work.... far beyond what people have historically considered to be acceptable. Additionally, the bus fares would run $11.50 per day, versus the $6.37 I'm spending on gasoline right now. While we really should add in the other costs of operating the car, most of those are fixed, whether the car is driven to the park-and-ride or driven all the way to work.


Does this mean I have no other options? Well, at this point in my life, I could move closer to work, though when the kids were at home, the Houston Independent School District would not have been an option. A smaller, older home for the price of our larger, newer home doesn't seem like a reasonable trade, but you do pay a price for living nearer the city center. And I'd still be driving.


Would we actually choose to do this? There are other reasons for our choices. Moving closer to work means moving further from our parents, and we expect to be spending more and more time with them over the next few years. That may be the deal-breaker, because it would mean that my wife has to drive 2 hours to get to her parent's home, rather than just over an hour, and that will soon be a weekly (or more often) trip.


Remember that statistic I quoted at the beginning: Most people actually enjoy their commutes. When construction in multiple places isn't throwing a monkey wrench into the works, I enjoy mine. It's 1-1/2 hours I have each day to listen to music on the radio. When else can I listen to music? And it's virtually the only time I've ever alone. Do I really want to give that up? Commuting by car is my hobby.


Besides, if I wouldn't have had my 36 mile drive today, I'd have missed this 1955 Oldsmobile 88 that some lucky guy was hauling home to restore.

Face it... we also commute by car because we're car crazy.