Even though I’ve said it on here before, I have to repeat the fact that I absolutely hate my commute to work each morning. Driving from one side of New Jersey to the other is not appealing at all. Granted, the commute itself is relatively easy since I just jump on 195 and go all the way from Tinton Falls into Trenton. However, I hate my daily commute with a passion.
I work in community development and one of the big discussions when considering how to best develop a community always revolves around the idea of smart growth. In other words, how do you arrange a community such that the people who live there also work there or very nearby. As a related side note – everyone who works in Trenton for the state has a similar discussion, yet most state workers live far outside of Trenton. Weird. Anyway, nothing would make me happier than going to work within a 5 – 10 minute commute of where I live.
For starters, I don’t like this part of the state. I’m not sure what it is about Trenton or this part of Mercer County, but I’m not a big fan of the area. I couldn’t see myself ever living over here. I could live in Morris County because I have family up there and I could live in Monmouth County because it’s where I’ve been for ten years and I like it down there. But Mercer County? No thanks. So moving closer to my office isn’t an option to eliminate the commute.
Also, there is a strong possibility that my office is going to move to New Brunswick in the next few months. I couldn’t live in New Brunswick, either. It’s too congested and the places where a guy like me could afford to live aren’t nearly as safe and secure as where I live now. At almost 30 years old and having rented in a variety of arrangements over the past 10 years, I can’t see myself downgrading my living quarters just to be closer to my 9-to-5. That would be completely ridiculous and a sure way to increase the misery level.
I like my job. My only issue with my job is that they unknowingly hold down young talent so I (nor anyone else my age or younger) have not been able to advance professionally at this place. However, the pay is good and the benefits aren’t bad. Plus, the flexibility at this place is phenomenal. It’s just the miserable commute that gets me – and it’s “getting” me in an increasing frequency it seems.
I’ll figure something out. I’m not sure what I’m going to do at this point, but with less than 6 months left to my 30th birthday and having just “celebrated” 4 years working for this company, I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to keep this silly commute up each day…
You’re so lucky that you have a job you like! Most people hate their jobs, or have no job at all. If you quit your job because of the commute you may end up with a job you hate. That’s much worse than a bad commute.
If your job does relocate to New Brunswick, perhaps you could find a place near N.B. that you like (I know that neighter Trenton nor New Brunswick are the safest places in the state). What do you do on your commute every day? Listen to music? Listen to the news? One trick I found was to put a really good audio books in my CD player. I get so engrossed that I forget how long I’ve been driving. Besides, I get to “read” some very interesting books this way!
Hey NJM,
I’m definitely thankful that I have a good paying job that I enjoy, but I hate the commute. I’m also not sure if I’d relocate to the New Brunswick area – I really do enjoy the Tinton Falls/Monmouth location. On the commute I usually listen to Howard Stern and if he’s on vacation (which is quite often), then I’ll listen to a few albums off of my BlackBerry. On occasion I listen to audiobooks.
Thanks for the comment!
All commuters hate commuting, it’s an odd fact of life. Come to commutehell.com and vent and rage and keep your sanity basking in the glow of the failures of others. We need content, so come on down!