Ha, losers. My commute is more than double that of Latvia!
Europe
News and information from Europe πͺπΊ
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
- Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.
(This list may get expanded as necessary.)
Posts that link to the following sources will be removed
- on any topic: Al Mayadeen, brusselssignal:eu, citjourno:com, europesays:com, Breitbart, Daily Caller, Fox, GB News, geo-trends:eu, news-pravda:com, OAN, RT, sociable:co, any AI slop sites (when in doubt please look for a credible imprint/about page), change:org (for privacy reasons), archive:is,ph,today (their JS DDoS websites)
- on Middle-East topics: Al Jazeera
- on Hungary: Euronews
Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media (incl. Substack). Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com
(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)
Ban lengths, etc.
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the admin that applied the rule (check modlog first to find who was it.)
spots Latvian flag oh, my country!
Yeah, the numbers sound about right, though I do travel with two public transports to get to and from work, so the walk and wait does add about 10 min on average.
Those must be metric minutes.
I'm guessing this is almost double what it was 50 years ago?
No. The human commuting time is constant, probably since thousands of years.
Read the article on Marchetti's constant:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchetti%27s_constant
.... and this, folks, is why individual cars don't save time
Thousands of years?
A "constant" budget?
Why do average commute times differ that much around the world then?
Eg USA

I would say a culture's commute times are sticky, they change little over longer periods of time.
(The linked article was in context of city planning, that's when they want to see results sooner rather than later.)
Well, US-Americans use almost exclusively cars, and we know well that cars are inefficient, especially in densely populated areas.
One aspect that also causes these distortions is that Americans cannot freely chose the most efficient means of transport for a specific journey, but are bound to using cars because of political influences. You could say that Americans are less free than other people, in this respect.
(And that's an anomaly, not the cultural norm for humans).
So not 1000s of years & USA doesn't fall within the "constant commute budget" ("is an anomaly") bcs it has 10pp more cars compared to EU?
(Also I wasn't saying USA is an outlier, I was saying even it has vastly divergent "constant commute time budgets" depending on location, so it's def not a constant. If anything an upper/max tolerance.)


(Even the top countries in this list don't have the commute times of USA average.)
I'm just saying that the "Marchetti's constant" is a figurative idea meant to not be taken as a whole, but merely a consideration for mid-term behaviour changes in context city planning/changes.
Only a fraction of the ppl would commute if not necessary (but it acts like a time budget depending on the need to work at specific places vs wanting or having to live in a certain zone).
No. The human commuting time is constant, probably since thousands of years.
This is what I'm questioning.
It's not even constant now or in any moment of humanity with commutes.
Am I missing something that you were trying to say?
Eg of how the not-constant changes:

If Turkey is a European country, then France is an island in the pacific ocean.
I have a commute of 1 hour, and I love it.
It's a bicycle route on agricultural roads through fields and meadows, along a river.
And it keeps me fit even though I'm too lazy to exercise regularly.
But yeah, commuting by car is a no-go for me.
That's always been the number one priority when looking for jobs and apartments.
That sounds wonderful. And awful. Weather pending
Weather is overrated. One just becomes used to it. In the Netherlands, civilization does not breaks down when it rains.
Clearly you're not lazy because you are exercising regularly by using the bike.
I deliberately put myself into a situation where I'm forced to.
I don't own a car, and with public transport I'd have to leave 10 minutes earlier.
So with my morning routine planned to the minute to maximize snoozing time, I only have the choice between taking the bicycle and being late for work.
Sounds like you're efficient, not lazy.
I do similar - 14 kilometers by bike, a good part along a motorway, a park, and a river. What motivates me is that I count it as daily excercise which I just need to stay healthy. And if the weather is shit, crusty ice or thunderstorms predicted, I happen to use the commuter train (which is a tad slower for the door-to-door connection).
But my "ideal" commute time is around half an hour.
Yeah, 80km a week here isn't too bad and only takes me 20-25 mins each way. The last 200m is shared with cars though which sucks as they take up all the space and slow everything down. Sometimes wonder if it would be faster to get off and walk for that last bit.
With 200 million workers in the EU, that's 200 million hours of unpaid, wasted time each work day.
Imagine how much shareholder value could be generated if we turned that into unpaid work time!
-Friedrich Merz
I think 50% of commute time should be time paid by companies. This would not only save fossil energy and worker's time for their family, but also foster work from home, reduce suburban sprawl and improve probably a lot of other undesirable trends.
Median would be much more interesting
The distribution generally looks like this - skewed left.
So, the median is smaller than the mean, many people commute below the average time, and very few much more.
The general discussion about traffic policies tends to focus on the minority of people which commute much more than the average.
The actual link the the image is: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Average_one-way_commuting_time_from_home_to_work.jpg So:

They've really got me pegged here in the UK, my commute is a two way fifteen minute walk to get to my desk at home.
How big is your house that it takes 7.5 mins to get to the desk?
For me, it's a distance of 10m but my cats make sure it takes fifteen minutes.
Maybe the previous poster is just really really slow
Does it affect Windows boot time for homeoffice?
Well, Windows 11 boot times certainly didn't get any shorter, and my work laptop's fan is making so much noise that i am thinking in sharing my asthma meds with the poor thing. Glad that my home Debian boots in five seconds or so! :-)
Anyone got any insight on what the hell Latvia is doing? Not only are they doing the worst, their two genrally-comparable neighbours are actually doing better than most
Crap road planning and deterioratng public transit and bridges - also increased car ownership makng commutes worse.
What happened to Latvia?
The question is: From the majority of people with short commutes, who needs really a car for such low distances?
I have about 60 minute commute, but a car would make it 120 minutes, so fuck that shit. I spend commute as office hours, so my time commuting without working is practically 15 minutes. So do I have a long or short commute?
So do I have a long or short commute?
I'd say you have a smart commute.
well some people will be driving for 25 minutes, that's already quite the distance. and public transport isn't an option for everyone living in rural areas