Someone was asking on Ask An American how long their commutes are and some of the answers are insane (think 1.5 hours each way by car). So, that got me thinking about Europe. My impression is that commutes are usually shorter and very often done using public transport, bikes or sometimes people just walk, but I could be mistaken.
In my case, I live in a small town in the north of Spain and my commute, on foot, is 15-20 minutes, which I do every day and love. I used to live in Madrid and I had an hour-long commute each way on the subway or a combination of subway, tram and bus). Truth be told, I used that time to read, which is not bad at all, but I'd much rather just take a walk if I can.
How about you? Where do you live / work? How long does it take you to get to work? What means of transport do you use?
35 comments
Living in Barcelona I’ve gone from 40 min in public transport, to 15 min by foot, to working from home.
Depends on how I go:
bike : 20min
public transport (metro + tramway): 25min
car (rarely) : from 25 to 35min depending on traffic
Since Covid/Remote work, my commute is around 1 hour-90 minutes each (public transport, different city), but only once a week. Before that, when I had to commute 5 times a week, my work was much closer and it was like 30 minutes or so with public transport.
About 3-4 minutes by car, depending on traffic. Could walk it in around 15 minutes.
Am in the Faroe Islands. Longest possible commute is 3.5 hours and that includes Car, Ferry for 2 hours and then Car again from one end of the Country to the other.
25 min cycle (Netherlands).
It’s amazing – light exercise (2x 25 min every day), no dependencies on traffic/rush hour, super flexible.
Motorbike: 30min
Car: 45min
Public transport: 2h40min…
And then ask why public transport isn’t popular and everyone keeps driving their car…
Around 60 per cent of German employees commute to another city or municipality for work. The average distance is around 17 kilometres.
It has to be said that the number of commuters and the distance travelled is increasing. Commuting distances for lower and middle income groups have increased the most. For many, rents in large cities have become almost unaffordable in recent years, but this is where the most attractive jobs are to be found.
We are the ‘extreme example’ here in Frankfurt for D. We have around 775k inhabitants, the net balance of commuters to Frankfurt is almost 300k people, so 406k come to Frankfurt, 111k Frankfurters leave the city for work.
10 minutes walk to train station, 1h15mins train, 10 minutes tram.
But I only do it once per week or two weeks. The rest of the time, 10 metres walk from bed to my office.
I live in Stockholm, my commute is about 20 minutes door to door going by tram. During the summer half of the year I try to walk home maybe once a week, which usually takes around 45 minutes to an hour.
I go to uni, when I took the train it was like 2 hours to go and 2 hours to come back (from the door of my house to the class), so 4 hours in total.
Now I use the car and it’s like 35 mins without traffic. I hate driving, I would love to take the train and not worrying about traffic and parking but the train takes just too long and it’s not worth it.
I study in a different city though, if I studied in my city I would have used public transport 100%
20 minutes by public transport or 40 minutes walking. It would be faster rolling down the hill, but I haven’t tried it yet.
On the way to the office I have to conveniently change tram next to a French patisserie, and I absolutely don’t buy my breakfast there while waiting for the connection.
10-15 minutes by bike, about 3k. Except for one 250 m stretch, entirely straight line separated cycle path. Have to climb one medium viaduct so get some exercise in too.
16-20 minutes by car, I can also take a bus to the station and catch a local train but that takes 30-40 minutes. I work from home most days.
It’s 30 minutes by bike, 40 minutes by public transport. By taxi it’s between 20 and 40 minutes depending on the traffic situation on the given time.
Distances in Berlin are rather long.
I’ll cheat cause I’m a service tech for industrial machines, but it depends.
From my home to my company,20 minutes. From my company to customers? Anything between 1 hour and 8 hours by car.
If the customer isn’t abroad, then it’s whatever amount of time the budget airline of choice chooses to make me wait.
Currently about 10 minutes each way by bicycle, but the longest commute I’ve had was about 1h 45 minutes each way by bus (I worked there for about 3 years).
Door to door 25 min using public transport, in Tallinn. That’s the max I’d be willing to put up with, tbh.
About a minute to get up the stairs to my office (teletravaille/remote worker). Locally most folks seems to work within 15 to 20 minutes drive from home.
Poland, one of the bigger Polish cities, exactly 1h since locking doors to stepping into office, by public transport.
The key factor is that the office is on the opposite side of the city but with a direct connection.
In the past, I had jobs ranging from a 15 minutes very easy commute by public transport to over an hour (either a nightmare by public transport having to change 3 times with the alternative of driving and constantly being in a traffic jam).
My favourite time were 3 years of having a direct tram connection door to door (the stop was directly in front of the entrance of my workplace), 20 minutes and part of it along the river and the zoo and through a beautiful park.
Currently I still have 10 minutes of the beautiful part (and I love it every single day 🥰) but I have to go up and down rather steep hills by foot every morning and evening for 18 minutes each combined. So hill descent and hill climb twice a day, a total of 35-40 minutes). It seriously sucks if it rains or is slippery in winter.
Bike 35 to 40 minutes one way. Bus and train about the same. Car 20 minutes. But I don’t own a car.
I usually bike just ice and snow make me take the train.
Rural Saxony. I live in a small town and work in a smaller town.
65 mins. Up from 55 mins because of a 5 month metro renovation.
I work with older people so they tend to live in the less busy parts of the city. I like my job but it’s not the most convenient lol
I used to work in a company, 10 km from my home, with poor public transport, so it was between 20 and 30 minutes by bike. But the company went belly up as a result of 2008 crisis, so I found a job in Warsaw.
From small town near Warsaw (Poland) to the city centre:
* 9 minutes walk from home to railways station, then two versions:
version 1:
* 25 minutes by train.
* 5 minutes walk to subway station
* 10 minutes by subway
* 2 minutes walk to work.
version 2
* 30 minutes by train
* 2-3 minutes walk to subway station
* 6-7 minutes by subway
* 6-8 minutes walk to work.
Trains ride 3-4 times an hour in rush hours, and 2 times an hour otherwise.
Subway every 2-3 minutes in rush hours, every 5-6 minutes otherwise.
I mostly work from home and need to travel to the office 1-2 times a month, 1-1.5h one way. But it’s fine because it’s not every day.
Germany. Mostly 1 minute to my office, but I’m walking 10 minutes in the morning around my village to come back to home office. Every 2 weeks I’m going into the office real for 2-3 days. Than I’m using public transport I need 1:10 hours. By car 1 hour. But often staying at my friends house.
A car drive of 30 mins now but when I was in London, would be 45 mins to an 1 hr using public transport. Sometimes I’d walk home 1hr 30 mins on nice days
30 minutes by foot or 15 minutes by e-scooter. I only have 1 mandatory office day per week, and my lifestyle is pretty sedentary these days so I usually walk to get a little more exercise.
I’m in the process of changing workplace.
Previous workplace: 5 minutes of walk to the train station in my town, 15 minutes of train ride, 15 minutes of walk to the workplace.
The workplace I’ll start at soon: 5 minutes of walk to the train station, 20 minutes train ride, 25 minutes of walk to the workplace. I guess I’ll take a bus sometimes instead of that 25 minutes of walking, but I still have zero idea how the bus connection works there, and I also dislike buses, and I also like walking, though maybe that 25 minutes in one direction plus 25 minutes back every day will be a bit less fun, I’m not sure. But I’m positive. It’s 6 kilometers in total. On the positive side if I’ll have to wait for my train on the way back home the Danube will be literally 20 meters from the train station, where I can sit and chill. I’ll also be able to walk to the neighbouring country (Slovakia) from the same train station in 5 minutes. Fuck yeah, Schengen! Look up Komárom/Komárno on the map. Hurray, cheap and good beer in the stores/pubs while I’m waiting for my commuting train that departs from another country.
Some people were already saying I’m mad I do that 15 minutes walk there and 15 minutes back to my previous workplace, but I was always half joking that this is my only “sport” and it keeps my already unfit body from going totally broke. Funny thing is that now that I stopped doing it, I’ve started growing a beer belly first time in my life. So yes, I really need that walk.
Oh, I also saw a hare when I went there for my interview. I’m sure we will be good friends. I’ve never seen a hare on my way to the previous place, only deers and foxes.
I live in Copenhagen and work in a suburb. If I take the car and leave early it takes around 25 minutes. Rush hour would be around 40. Bike is around 45 minutes. Public transport to this particular location is not so good, it would be almost an hour. Used to work at a company not far from there (like 2-3km away), public transportation was around 40 minutes.
I’m lucky insofar as the office is relatively close – I can commute on foot to save on public transport costs and as a way of getting some exercise. It’s ~30 minutes, and it takes me through one of the most dilapidated parts of Budapest (back of [Nyugati railway station](https://maps.app.goo.gl/27bThmjfk8hdGdBN7)) to one of the most beautiful ([Bajza utca](https://maps.app.goo.gl/g5rhq9ZyW53wzctt6), [Andrássy út](https://maps.app.goo.gl/sxAo7jNnFin4iav69)), so it’s a fairly wild experience when I stop and think about it, heh.
As far as public transport goes, I could go by trolley bus, but honestly it’s not much faster… traffic is usually heavy in the mornings/afternoons, and there’s a lot of traffic lights. Also the bus stops are very close to one another, which means the bus has barely any time to speed up before it has to brake either due to a traffic light or to stop, making it constantly lurch to and fro, which is supremely uncomfortable.
(Bike sharing would be possible too, but there’s no dedicated bike lane for most of the way, and there’s *no way* I’m going out into the traffic.)
I’m fortunate that it doesn’t take me too long, with it taking around 15-20 minutes. This is because I drive to work, because if I had to rely on public transportation then I’d be screwed. There’s already a limited amount of buses that stop near where I live and none that stop anywhere near my work. I would rather not cycle because of the hilly terrain, or heat in the summer.
1:30 hours one way by car. officially 51 minutes by train but adding the usual delays let’s say 1 hour.
I literally commuted to another country. I lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, and commuted to Malmö, Sweden. It was a 5 minute walk to my train station and then I had to change to another train at central station. The trains were 50 minutes in total. Then I had a 5 minute walk to my work. So all in all an hour. If I couldn’t connect the trains because of a delay there was another train in 20 minutes so I guess my commute was between 60-80 minutes.
I do a 1h45m each way journey 1-2 times a week
Hybrid working has been a godsend because decent jobs where I live are as rare as rocking horse shit, but it’s also where all my family are and I don’t want to move away
My wife’s got a 120km (1 hourish) commute three days of the week (waiting to transfer closer to home) and she is going insane. I cannot imagine willingly doing more than that every day.