Category: locommute

##[21]commute pain: %%solutions #SY.C #avoid peak

Posted on by tiger40490

I recall there are some challenges faced by everyone but one person copes very poorly and sustains a heavier “casualty” in terms of quality of life.

For one example, in the last email I wrote that my friend SK suffered heavier, deeper pains (due to boss relationship) than I had with Venkat.

For another example, some office firewalls block blogging sites. Most workers don’t suffer, but I bleed all over the place, because I rely on blogging for learning, research, planning, problem solving, brain-storming, decision making…

For yet another example, I have suffered more pain from long commutes, more than anyone. It damages my quality of life. A BBC program reported that given sufficient adjustment time, most people can adjust to smaller homes better than they can adjust to long commute, but still we must adjust. Over the years I have been working on several solutions to cope with the hazards due to long commutes.

  • solution: rent a room near office for a few months. I don’t mind the financial cost, but family life suffers.
  • solution: work from home once a while. To maintain productivity, I had to upgrade my home equipment and create a more quiet corner with a bigger table …
  • solution: if there are multiple office locations, then once a while request to work in a nearby location, in a “hotel desk”. I did that in 2 jobs. Request is subject to approval. Some managers don’t like me so much and don’t approve so easily. I accept because I am usually unable to become a more likable subordinate.
  • solution: convert part of the commute hours into work-out, such as brisk walk, slow jog, a few squats, a few bench-push-ups at waiting stations. Sometimes I can convert only 2 minutes a day on average, but it is better than zero, and it enhances my quality of life and reduces the overall cost of commute.

One of my recommended solutions is .. leave home/office either later or very early to avoid peak hours, and get a seat! A seat lets me sit down with a small laptop or a hardcopy read + pencil, and be productive.

  • On every commute I would carry hard-copy reading material (not newspapers). Before the trip, I could print out important mails so I can get these mails memorized(if tech), analyzed(if strategic), replied(draft by pencil). More likely I would do coding practice on laptop, or read technical articles to improve competitive interviews. Some people use a smartphone to process office mails.
  • I sometimes concentrate too long, and miss my stop, or my train. Fine. Risk accepted. Benefits outweigh the cost.
  • This practice requires a seat on a train. In contrast, reading on buses has proven ergonomically unsustainable.
  • This practice effectively shift one office hour into my commute, so I could do other things with that “1H saving”. I can spend 1H less in office. I can work out during office hours. I can do my personal things for 1H without guilt.

So today I used long commutes to illustrate a pattern — “Some challenges are unavoidable [1] and hits everyone, but I Suffer more than everyone, so I have to be creative, analytical, resourceful, and prepared to incur a financial cost in order to reduce that Suffering.”

[1] Unavoidable is a keyword. Is your 3-on-1 suffering avoidable if you change team or change company? To avoid long-commute, I am willing to accept a lower salary so as to live and work in the same city, such as Jersey City.

[17]long commute iWt tiny home #BBC

Posted on by tiger40490

 

On 2 Oct, 2017, a BBC Why-factor program on “How to live small” had one final expert commenting on the (long-term) benefit of bigger home vs shorter commute. If you can’t afford a big home close to your workplace, you can choose one of..

  1. move further out to a big enough home and … hope to get adjusted to the longer commute
  2. move to a smaller home close to work and … hope to get adjusted to the reduced /living space/

His research measures the short and long term effect on people’s well-being. In the long term, the long commute is far more detrimental than smaller living space.

The /uplift/ is short-lived when we moved to a bigger home, but the benefits of shorter commute last much much longer.

Hongkong and Japan residents live comfortable, satisfied lives with (way) below 100 sqm of living space for a family of 4. On the other hand, NY commuters readily cope with 1Hr+ door-to-door commutes. I think folks who grow up in NY(or Japan) learn from (majority of) other people to accept long commute (or tiny homes). Some individuals in NY(or Japan) would struggle against the commute (or home size). These voices might dominate the internet, so each person has to decide for herself “priorities” and “tolerance”.

People (as in affluent Hongkong and Japan) can get used to living in smaller space, but it’s much harder [2] adapting to long commute, according to the researcher. They said over 20Y you will still hate the long commute the same as on Day 1. I see and feel that long commute eats into family time, rest time, study time, exercise time, hobby time, outing time…

Our adaptability to smaller living space is much higher than our adaptability to longer commute.

[2] remember Rahul and see my bposts.

— [[Thinking, fast and slow]] says something similar. Before a big purchase (a car or house) we hit the Focusing Illusion and exaggerate the lifetime boost to our experienced well-being (xpSelf). However, a few years after the purchase, we seldom think of it. Our U-index ( or hedonimeter ) would show that long-term “boost” is rare.

In contrast, a shorter commute would improve our U-index for decades, because the commute continues to be a “focus” every morning and every evening. It draws attention everyday.

— eg: Shuisheng’s mansion .. (Serangoon Garden) requires a car (or more) as commute pain relief, but how about parking, ERP? If he has to park at office then that’s another huge $cost.

His 8 family members would all need a car to go anywhere, since there’s no amenities within walking distance.

Therefore, I think the best commute in Singapore is “living close to public transit”.

[19] Health-is-wealth: wrong priorities #leisure w1r4

Posted on by tiger40490

Fuller^exclub discussed two definitions of wealth. Now, Based on “Health-is-wealth”, I would regard wellness as a 3rd but qualitative indication of community wealth, at the community level or perhaps national level.

Some neglected elements of wellness:

  • Psychological well-being,
  • longer sleep
  • dental health, straight teeth
  • skin health, scalp health… not vanity !
  • posture esp. after middle-age
  • clear skin
  • endurance,
  • decline in flexibility, range of motion
  • decline in eyesight and hearing
  • decline in muscle strength
  • decline in speed of movement

— wealthy nation as measured by health-is-wealth
Remember the Khmer villagers? I think they may have good enough diet and a level of physical activity that’s better than the richer peoples, but presumably insufficient healthcare including prevention, detection, early intervention, long-term management of many health conditions.

I think there are countries with

  • better diet habits than average,
  • more active lifestyle than average,
  • more leisure time spent on workout, not wasted,
  • decent healthcare at affordable costs

These would be “wealthy nations” measured by health-is-wealth. (Some of these countries may be industrialized or underdeveloped. I won’t attempt to pick an example.)

I feel most communities are kinda lazy. If people don’t have to put up with lots of physical labor and simple unprocessed foods, then they would not. So it might be hard to find a culture, a society that meets my checklist above. Such a community would have to be intelligent, sophisticated to prioritize health over pleasure, comfort, luxury.

( There are plenty of individuals with the right priorities like that. I’m becoming one of them. See the other section.)

I feel Australia has a reputation for more leisure time and more active lifestyle.

Shorter work hours (France?) creates more job positions, reduces work stress (more slack resources), leaves more leisureTime which is a necessary-insufficient condition for healthier lifestyle.

— At the individual level:
Being closer to the Fuller wealth concept, this “definition” is not serious. You can’t measure and rank cities in terms of “amount of health”. You can’t accumulate health and pass it on to next generation or donate it. For self-use, health can’t be preserved or invested for growth. Nevertheless “health is wealth” is valuable reminder.

This pseudo “definition” (more than “ignores”) actively rejects FOMO, peer comparisons, ExClubs.

This definition singles out one neglected yardstick of “wealth” and places it on top of other yardsticks.

— parenting — As discussed with Damian B, parenting probably has a net negative effect on life expectancy at least for fathers, due to the impact on leisure time, stress…
However, the longest-living individuals tend to be grandmothers. I think child-bearing has health benefits.

live close to work #MMM

Posted on by tiger40490

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/  is an excellent blogpost that resonated with me right away. It reinforced my plan to rent a home in Jersey City and work in JC or NY midtown or downtown. Despite the rising home price of JC, I can still rent.

— They brushed off the potential commute, saying “Oh, 40 minutes, that’s not too bad.”

Most people, even smart middle-class young professionals like the featured couple, actually think this way.

Yes, actually it IS too bad! — Pete lamented

— $0.17/mile minimum

MMM biked to work while keeping a car for occasional use. Why minimize usage? He wrote

If you buy the right car for $5,000, you might be able to squeeze 100,000 miles out of it with no major repairs. In this case the car depreciation is 5 cents per mile.

  • Gas, at $3.50 per 35 miles (assuming 35MPG), is 10 cents/mile
  • Tires, at $300 per 50,000 miles are 0.6 cents
  • Oil, at $25 per 5,000 miles is 0.5 cents
  • Miscellaneous things like wipers and occasional maintenance visits: $200 per 20,000 miles = 1 cent

So the ultimate cheap driving in a paid-off economy car still costs at least 17 cents per mile. In contrast, IRS estimate of total driving cost is $0.51 per mile.

43R: location is key #decent tenants

Posted on by tiger40490

I feel location is the real deciding factor of rental demand. I think I really need to stay close to the rail stations. Deepak CM said the same. Location could mean 10% vs 50% vacancy rate.

Dropping your asking price may not work. Bargain hunter tenants might be fine people, but there’s a higher probability of problem people.

The low-rent tenants often don’t have a car. I guess 10 minutes walk is the max. Most won’t use a bike.

Streets need to be relatively clean and safe.

Close to park? not important to most tenants.

time saved{commute as felt@early rise

Posted on by tiger40490

Conclusion — commute tcost limits my quality of life, more than it affects my peers.

When I get up early and get productive, I often feel my spare time is really eroded by commute. I end up spending my precious morning hours on

  • 🙂 more dental care,
  • 🙂 deep, productive reflections via voice recorder + blog review + email draft chip-away
  • 🙂 more mini workout
  • 🙂 more short calls to Singapore/Beijing
  • 🙂 more English blog refresh

In fact, reading would become LG2 i.e. secondary priority !

 

## limitations@tristate rail commute sys

Posted on by tiger40490
  1. –Ranked from the most severe
  2. light rail stations become cold and a health hazard esp. during the long wait off peak hours. While waiting in the cold, I once felt impoverished living in Bayonne instead of JC. See separate post tips: light rail ] winter
  3. NJ trains can hit frequent delays — unpredictable!
    • Nirav said he only count delays exceeding 20 minutes. About 25% – 30% of trips hit such delays. Often due to hot weather!
    • On a Friday before a long weekend, there are often train cancellations.
    • Rahul said NJ trains are worse than NYC subway, in terms of punctuality.
  4. train frequency drops badly after peak hours.
  5. When PATH is delayed, it can become too tough to squeeze in at Newport station.
  6. Once a while I have seen trains departing too early, so I must reach platform a minute in advance.
  7. no seat on
    • light rail
    • PATH
    • some peak hour commute trains

This post is mostly about weekday commutes. More than 50% of the weekends, there will be some train services severely limited.

[18]work from home everyday$150k #JackHe

Posted on by tiger40490

I may feel left behind in the slow track..

—- Jack said a tech startup company actually prefers remote work, to save on cost. Everyone works remotely.

—- Some teams have satellite offices, so they don’t mind some team members working from home every day.

  • Verizon team has multiple remote locations, so manager in Boston seldom see the team in Memphis.
  • PWM tech has a few team members in NC. So manager (like Yang) is OK with someone working from home regularly.

Working from home greatly reduces the commute pain and can let my family live in a much better location.

This is one of the advantages of U.S. job market.

I need to give it some serious thoughts.

 

time saved{commute ^ SDXQ: unconvincing ROI

Posted on by tiger40490

Shaving 10 min off my morning commute means a lot to me than to my colleagues.

All my colleagues hate long commute but for majority (80%) of them their personal commute is tolerable in the grand scheme of things. That’s why they choose to make concession/sacrifice on this dimension, to trade for something personally more important, such as School District. When I question them on the tangible value of SD, I feel their answer is unconvincing, even though my view puts me in the minority.

I was also questioned “what do you accomplish with those 10 minutes saved from commute?” I list many items but none accumulates to a tangible and otherwise-impossible achievement, something I can point at and say “that’s what I accomplished using those 10 minutes” —

  • MSFM degree
  • progress on specific investment research.
    • without this 10min/day I am unlikely to get the required concentration. All the following items are personal hobbies on the margin.. relatively low priority. Marginal value of 10 minutes.
  • yoga classes
  • specific coding questions
  • specific blog posts

See also time saved{commute as felt@early mornings

These answers are debatable and subject to interpretation, … Ultimately, the value of 10 min saved is personal — 99% positive feeling + 1% some measurable ROI. Personally, I feel my lifestyle is significantly enhanced by those 10 minutes saved. Likewise, I presume the value of a slightly better SD (rating 8 vs 7) is often nothing but positive feeling.

Except gym classes, there are rather few things you can do now that’s Certain to produce tangible ROI. The uncertainty is such a universal and fundamental factor that most of those perceived and proclaimed benefits sound subjective, unconvincing wishful thinking.

In fact, SD and commute benefits are still more measurable than things like

  • value of living close to a beach like east coast park
  • value of living at shopping district compared to the quiet Juliette St

time saved{commute ⇏ more exercise

Posted on by tiger40490

An hour a day (two-way) free time saved … doesn’t really get me even 3 minutes more exercise [1].

However with that much more time taken up by commute I feel severely constrained in terms of exercise time. I feel impoverished!

When I’m in the mood to exercise, if the time is available I would exercise.

[1] It’s reality of human limitation