Blog > iCommute - A Call for Spring
I live in Brockville, but I work in downtown Toronto, so the distance I travel one way is 341 kilometers from door to door. I only have to make this journey twice a week, since I'm lucky enough to only work three days a week in the office and the remaining two from home. The drive can take anywhere from three hours to almost seven depending on traffic, accidents, power surges, or weather. This commute puts me in a growing category of workers called Super-commuters.
In 1990, only 24% of all North American workers were a part of this Super-Commuter group, which has grown to well considerably leading up to today when well over 50% of all new workers are now considered super-commuters. The largest part of this newly developing demographic is traveling the great distances in the search for ever more affordable housing, which is true in my case as my wife and I are restoring an 1880‚ Upper Canada home that we just love. Others choose to live closer to children or ex-spouses. Regardless of the reasons, Super-Commuting is here to stay.
I've been doing the drive for exactly four weeks now, and I calculated my time being in car for the month at just under 40 hours - your average worker's full work week. In that time, I have travelled over 3200 kilometers. The biggest reason for my long drawn out periods of time in my car is that the weather in Ontario for this past February has truly sucked. Two massive blizzards plus a typical eastern ice storm. I imagine once the weather improves I will be down to a much more deal-able 20 hours of monthly commuting, which at the moment sounds really fantastic to me.
So I call on you, God of Spring, who was so well represented by Michelle Pfeiffer in the talent contest of Grease II, to relieve me of my frozen feet, my underlying emotional panics of seeing semi-trailer trucks in ditches or drivers without the sense to purchase proper snow tires. I call on you, for open window road travel, and the ability to actually enjoy the b-side of whichever Meatloaf album the classic rock stations along my Thousand Islands Ontario commute decides to play.
I call for Spring.
In 1990, only 24% of all North American workers were a part of this Super-Commuter group, which has grown to well considerably leading up to today when well over 50% of all new workers are now considered super-commuters. The largest part of this newly developing demographic is traveling the great distances in the search for ever more affordable housing, which is true in my case as my wife and I are restoring an 1880‚ Upper Canada home that we just love. Others choose to live closer to children or ex-spouses. Regardless of the reasons, Super-Commuting is here to stay.
I've been doing the drive for exactly four weeks now, and I calculated my time being in car for the month at just under 40 hours - your average worker's full work week. In that time, I have travelled over 3200 kilometers. The biggest reason for my long drawn out periods of time in my car is that the weather in Ontario for this past February has truly sucked. Two massive blizzards plus a typical eastern ice storm. I imagine once the weather improves I will be down to a much more deal-able 20 hours of monthly commuting, which at the moment sounds really fantastic to me.
So I call on you, God of Spring, who was so well represented by Michelle Pfeiffer in the talent contest of Grease II, to relieve me of my frozen feet, my underlying emotional panics of seeing semi-trailer trucks in ditches or drivers without the sense to purchase proper snow tires. I call on you, for open window road travel, and the ability to actually enjoy the b-side of whichever Meatloaf album the classic rock stations along my Thousand Islands Ontario commute decides to play.
I call for Spring.
Posted by Alistair Morton on Sunday, March 18, 2007 at 10:00 AM in Taking Care of Business with tags travel, super-commuting, workplace • Permalink • 1 comment
Comments
Jay Goldman
says:
I call for Spring too, since we love Alistair and hope that his drive gets easier soon!
Posted by Jay Goldman on Sunday March 18, 2007 at 2:04 PM
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