If the latter, I would like to gently urge you to consider reconsidering, or at least experimenting to see if reality aligns with your expectations. Eh. I live on the east coast, and the stories I hear about LA traffic are enough to make me want to stay on this side of the country forever. Signed, But 1.5-2 hours each way? This is interesting to hear! Thats two hours both ways! It is making me miserable, therefore I am going to (look for another job closer to home, look for a place closer to work, move back to New York, something else that addresses the problem)., (Also your boyfriend constantly insisting that something you hate is normal is a preeeetty big red flag to me. Or you could make a post on the Los Angeles subreddit; theres someone there that could build you an ebike for ~$2000. I was on the fence about a job (description of the duties seemed intentionally vague, interviewing partners seemed old-fashioned and sexist) but it was only eight miles away, so I felt like I couldnt pass it up. I would text my friend/workers a picture of myself sitting on my couch at 5:20, while they were still at the subway stop. I could leave at a certain time and usually expect that everything would work out, but sometimes the world said Nah, lets make a car careen off the road today.. Double-win! Train delays are typical. My commute is probably 45 min door to door. I do leave 30 minutes before my shift starts so I have ample time to drop my son off at school, stop for a caffeinated beverage and get to work with several minutes to spare but my actual in-the-car-driving time is 15 minutes with all of that added in there. The answer to that question is no. 2 1/2 hours each way while I was working a 9-5 job. I have a 3 mile commute to work and specifically chose to live close. I would 100% ask about flex time, and if not granted, change jobs. Also, the fact that youre stuck in traffic barely moving speaks to me too that would be a huge factor for me. The difference was really that my commute usually had just a quick moment of traffic right by my office (government office surrounded by lots of other government offices, with thousands of people all leaving at the same time), and his was about 20 miles closer, but stop and go the whole way! Ive since moved to Minneapolis to be closer to work, and now my commute is an easy 20 minutes door to door. I miss some things about city life, but I dont miss city commutes, and I will have to be living somewhere amazing to go back to that kind of lifestyle. 40 x 5 = 200, or over 3 hours. Yeah, no, I would consider 2 hours each way to be completely unsustainable. What youve described is pretty much my husbands schedule. One thing I love about my bike commute is that the timing is very dependable regardless of traffic or conditions. For me the cost of living is a trade off I am willing to take to not spend my life commuting. Either way, door to door it was a little over 2 hours each way. When I had a job in the San Fernando Valley the commute was fine because the traffic went in the opposite direction.. Patch up the seats if necessary. (None of this is easy in LA, but its the only solution for long-term happiness.) I try to keep my commutes in the 45-60 min range in general, although Ive gotten spoiled by working in the same city I live in for the past couple years and having only a 15-20 min commute. 4! And because public transit is sparse, the region broad, and the population dense, you have more cars on the road than the infrastructure can really handle. I know someone who used to bike from Venice to Union Station, then take light rail up to South Pasadena. I went from a job where I worked from home 100% of the time to one where I commuted 90 minutes (if I was lucky) by train and subway. My husband works in construction so he has to go wherever the job site is, that varies from 10 minutes to 90 minutes, sometimes via the freeway and sometimes not. I did try another of her series by audiobook though and really enjoyed it Indexing. how much social media use at work is too much? I loved riding the bus to work in Manhattan. I wouldnt take a 2+ hours commute either and have actually rejected or self selected out of jobs that would put me in that range (and I dont drive but exclusively use public transportation). It is pitch black outside. Of course that means you have to pay Dublin rent prices. I left LA in 1998, and when I visited a few years later, was horrified to discover that rush hour traffic was still going strong at 10pm. Mine is a 15 minute walk, but I live in a city. You would think they would make a more robust commuter system there, but then again, I am not totally sold on how well we can manage train systems in this country either . My commute averages 30 minutes to 45 minutes each way on average, although when SoCal was on fire it took me nearly 3 hours. I want my time back! Its actually longer for the next 6 months while they do construction on the gate closest to me. Thats just how I-270 is in the morning and rush hour starts around 4am because people are coming from way out I-70. I was going to suggest to the OP to bike, but 30 miles would take just as long unless youre a super competitive cyclist (in which case youre going to show up to work all sweaty). The city of LA is a sprawling behemoth. Have you considered buying a motorcycle, moped or bicycle? Prosecutors say Fratta organized the murder-for . I lived in hollywood, worked in Brentwood. Right now, I work from home, but the longest commute I can reasonably handle is 30 minutes. Now doing Reading-North Oxford and its 1.5-2 hours each way door to door. I would need to work out some telework days, move closer or find a new job! Today, its more like 2.5. most people I know in the Us walk or bike to work. Oh yeah. Obviously youll have outliers, including the OP at the moment. In 2010, the Bay Area ranked 2 nd for fastest commutes, but since then the region has seen the largest increase in commute time among major metros. Yeah, that's nothing on the grand scale of things. : $15.00 - $22.00 Per Hour. Yeah, in California it is becoming moreso. I would die with a commute that long! They also refuse to go to restaurants on like, Saturday nights, because they expect to wait hours for a table. We live 35 miles south of he district. I spent as much time changing trains as travelling. I think youd be shocked. My schedule was 10-7; stopping at the store or if there was an accident? I moved to the city, and it went down to 15 minutes. Yeah, when we lived in LA our home was very strategically placed with regard to work and other places we went. And your commute is *two hours*. Im in D.C. and two hours is long, but definitely not weird here. In most metro areas, thatll mean much, much higher housing costs. We live between OC and LA, but he commutes into OC (17 miles). Later in the day, though, its another stories. I used to live in a shabby little cinder block house in the desert that a friend of mine dubbed the Serial Killer Shack, but it was cheap AF, 5-6 minutes from a job I loved, and I had no visible neighbors. The Bay Area is another place, like LA, where you really have to limit your geographical options when looking for jobs. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/10/06/the-true-cost-of-commuting/, https://www.askamanager.org/2016/03/open-thread-march-18-19-2016.html, http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-echo-park-traffic-20180404-story.html, https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/working-papers/2013/demo/SEHSD-WP2013-03.pdf, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/us/california-today-super-commutes-stockon.html, my employee asked a colleague to help her fake a deal, Im constantly interrupted when I need to focus, and more. I used to commute for 2 hours each way each day, 5 days a week. Which is also within 30 miles of Bushwick. I live about 12-13 miles from where I work. Eventually, jobs like that started drying up and people have been moving out of IL since. Now we live in a different state where distance is measured in minutes, and all our colleagues are amazed we would agree to a 45 minute commute. Im glad youre making a change! Agreed. I know! 4) See if you boss will allow a much later arrival when it rains. Its normal if you live in the Valley and work in West LA. My husband is currently in a similar boat (Long Beach to Burbank), so his commute takes 1.5-2 hours each way. When I lived in Chicago, I commuted reverse from just south of downtown to a suburb out by the airport, and it was routinely 2 1/2 hours one way. I got a new job and now my commute is 15 minutes. Its not just the drive time, its the stress. I would live here over LA any day of the week. If I shifted my schedule later, it could easily stretch to an hour and a half (yay traffic!). I ultimately made the decision, about a day after I sent the letter and sat in traffic for 2+ hours, to quit next week as my 3-month probation period is almost over, I have a scheduled review and I dont want to lead the company on. I live in North Hollywood and I have had jobs in both Brentwood and Venice, which was a 2 hour commute each way, and decided oh, NOT WORTH IT! That said, when I relocated to the Northwest, I was adamant that I needed a much shorter commute. Many people commute 2hrs+ every day. Now my commute is 25 minutes on one bus. for about a year i commuted an hour to work and i did get used to it but i wouldnt choose to go back to doing that. Its true, if you leave after 3pm, its a parking lot. Not really anything to add, but the only time I have ever had to pull over and cry because of driving, was on an LA freeway. Thats a really rough schedule (50 hours a week is no joke), and it doesnt sound ridiculous at all! Typical and normal are two different things. So I worked from home on Wednesdays and that meant that I got a break from the 4 hours in the car mid-week. Walking (due to rain or bike injury) takes me about 20-25 minutes. I worked from home full time for 10 years in LA.you can live anywhere and choose any job and be 5 min or 2 hours from your job. It sounds like L.A. commutes are hellish by definition, but it seems like it shouldnt be impossible to find something where at least your hours are a little more flexible. I even live in a suburb and commute to downtown and its only 15-20 minutes depending on what time it is. I was new to the area and was blinded bc it was a Cool Company and I thought I liked driving after not having a car for 5+ years and was excited about it. Unfortunately my job is not close to train station so Im stuck behind the wheel, and flex time is not an option. This was a guaranteed 2 hours each way (45 mins on the train +11 miles of biking) but at least I got to tune out for the train ride for a bit. . Door to door its 1.5 hours each way, but as other said, at least I can read and listen to music on the train. I think thats on the long side even for LA. Id take a pay cut to work closer to LB over living in the valley for ANY amount of money. Not to sound melodramatic, but Once you find something closer to home, you will gain so many hours back youll wonder what to do with yourself. Part of the reason for this is that DC obviously has a lot of federal employees, but rent in the district (and even just outside of it!) This information was found in a TUC study on commuting times in 2019. Two hours was totally normal for the area I grew up in, if you commuted into the city from the suburbs. My brother deals with a long commute by keeping a small rental room by his job so he can spend a couple nights each week staying near work rather than driving home every day. Yeah easily if only once a week. Walking to work is the best. If you are going to stay in this job consider moving much closer to your workplace. The traffic problems are also LA County and Orange County problems, not just the city. That was unsustainable, and eventually higher management began to push back against the practice too (the travel money was expense-able, and it was eating into our profits like woah). A common saying here is to live where you work and thats exactly what I did. Im basically paying extra rent so I can park my car closer to work (in my driveway). That would make OPs 2-hour car ride the equivalent of a 4+ hour bus ride. If you feel like youre competing with all the other cars on the road, youre going to be in a stressed mindset thats not contributing to safe driving or a happy day. OP, your commute is 100% driven by where you live and LA traffic patterns. My current commute is about an hour but most of it is by train. Infrequent trains that are rarely on schedule, over-populated stops that take 2-3x as long waiting for people who dont fit to step off. And its not unusual for our area, but I understand why some folks would try desperately to avoid it. I agree with most people that having 1 hour of it be by train made it OK for the year I was doing it. After some time living in this city, youll get more familiar with neighborhoods and traffic patterns, and youll be able to strategize how to cut that commute down either moving to a closer area to your work, taking a new job closer to your home, or adjusting your commute times to non-rush hours. My commute is about 30 to 35 mins, most of that being on the bus. Sure, traffic lights are a bore, but sometimes its a little easier. So its totally reasonable for you to find a new job. My commute is 8 miles. Yikes. Wicked smart, and saved a small fortune on rent! Using surface streets cut the it down to about 35-40 minutes. One single experience is not typical. As a Californian2 hours each way is normal for LA. Try it a few times (in summer, when the days are marginally longer, and you have more daylight). And on the way back, oh boy, it was at least an hour and 15 mins. I remember how I felt about it two years after and can promise that compared to then I feel a lot more confident and comforable now (~5 years out). But youll figure it out. I recently moved to Magnolia, about 6 miles to my office. Now it take 15-25 minutes depending on how long the lines are at the main gate. I dont love it, but I like where I live, I like that my method of commuting is relatively cheap (I could choose another method, but Id pay significantly more to do so), and I like that taking public transit allows me to do other things with my commute time.