[ElFlaco]

I read somewhere that 20 minutes is the ideal commute in terms of being statistically associated with satisfaction in life. Not sure if they controlled for city/suburban/rural living. In any event, 20 minutes sounds about right to me. Much longer than that and it takes a lot of compensating factors to make up for it. Where I live now, some people commute up to two or even three hours one way, just so they can have a house of their own. Insane.



Counterintuitively, zero commute is not ideal. Most people benefit from having some separation between home and work; that time can be used to get yourself into work mode or decompress afterwards. My best commute ever was 20 minutes by bike, in downtown traffic for the last few minutes. A quick shower / spongebath and I was jazzed up to jump into problems at work. Stinky bike commuter.