How far do you commute?

[Bren]

I was totting up how far I commute back and to to work each year.

 

I came up with the figure of 9618 miles. Other mileage takes this up to around 14k, possibly a bit more. This is why I run a diesel - I need a fairly large family car, hence the vectra. I could not afford to run a petrol engined equivalent, although owners of such vehicles will claim that they can get over 40mpg from theirs - if this was true then nobody would run a diesel (1.8 pez vectra can drop to 25 mpg around town).

 

My other half has the fiesta which does about 4k a year.

 

I refuse to believe that the average annual mileage is still 10 -12 k per annum - people are travelling ever further in pursuit of better wages. Trying to find a medium / large car with lowish mileage is difficult unless it is fairly new.

 

So how far do you commute? Have you ever got to rhe point where you decided it was'nt worth it?

[Guest Lord Sward]

25 miles per day, not too bad except there is a toll road (read also bottleneck) in the middle which essentially doubles the driving time in anything like rush hour.

 

My missus has just left a job which was 35 miles per day.

[Andrew353w]

37 miles each way per day, in a 2 litre Citroën Xantia automatic and getting a staggering 38 M.P.G. Working shifts means I don't cop a rush hour either way, too!

 

And as I've just filled up for 119.9 per litre I can honestly say motoring IS getting cheaper!

[r.welfare]

30 miles per day, round trip. About half is back road, 10 is dual carriageway and the rest the gridlocked roads of central Reading.

 

Door to door without traffic and all the lights in my favour, it can be done in half an hour, which is what it takes when I drive into work to be at my desk by 7.30am. But usually it can take 45-50 minutes in the evening with all the extra time coming from being in and around town. Once I'm across Junction 11 of the M4 I'm laughing.

[oman5]

32 miles a day, but only 4 days a week. The volvo 940 td I use will do 40 mpg, it's motorway all the way and I don't travel at busy times.

[DVee8]

An 18 mile round trip 4 days a week.The astra does around 5-6K a year.It is a 1.6 petrol that does around 36mpg.So around 3280miles for work,the rest is running around.

 

The X-Trail does around 12-14K. 2.0d returning around 40-44mpg.This is the family car and work horse for our company.Monday afternoon,Tuesday and Wednesday morning this week it will cover 500ish miles to meet brides.Mileage is built into the contract.

 

The Daimler is now a toy and does around 1000 miles a year.

[nigel bickle]

My Mrs commutes 200 miles a day (Arundel to Dorchester, return), I don't have a regular office but anticipate 2-400 per day , more if I have to cross the puddle ( most weeks). And all in old shite.

[oldcars]

3 miles each way, lucky as i run a Rialto as a daily 

[John F]

In my last job I did 108 miles a day, all of it at about 90 miles an hour in my 17-year old Calibra which only failed to proceed once in three years due to a replacement fuel line that I'd fitted being slightly compressed in a clamp. My fault, then. Commuting cost per month: approx. £400

 

Now I do 0 miles per day as I work from home. Quids in

[Mr_Bo11ox]

^^^Respect. I was doing 100/day in the Rover 220 and getting 37mpg avg. Now I do 40/day in the Primera and average 38mpg.

[Lacquer Peel]

I commute between 30 and 150 miles but work provides a vehicle and diesel. I get to drive silly things like this Sprinter 4x4.

[Cavcraft]

6 miles each way, or thereabouts. I honestly don't think I could 'commute' more than about 15 miles each way, it'd drive me mental. I had a week of driving to Liverpool/back Mon-Fri and it was awful, absolutely soul destroying, and I take my hat off to those of you who a fair distance.

 

I used to drive for a living, seemed to average about 150 miles a day, but as annoying as that could be, it didn't seem as bad as driving that far to get to work.

[eddyramrod]

4.1 miles each way, 7 shifts a week in 6 days.  CBA with economy, do it in comfort, far more important.  Unfortunately that means the 3.0V6 in my lush Mercury is just getting up to temp when I have to switch off!

 

In 2006/7 I did have a 27 mile commute, across Southport, through the countryside (about half being dual carriageway) and then across Preston, leaving home at 4am.  So I did it in (mostly) a then-20-year-old Volvo 740 auto estate, which was totally ideal.  I was coming home in the afternoon rush hour, you can imagine what that was like in Preston.  Again the Volvo was the perfect tool for the job.  Want that bit of road in front of me?  Bring a Land Rover then, cos you ain't getting it with anything less!  However, I eventually got fed up of the commute stretching an already-long day and kicked it into touch.

[hairnet]

three quarters of a mile

 

but then i might cycle/walk about 10 miles a throw

 

in previous job was 20 miles to far side of rochdale for a 6am start 4 on 4 off

 

the record was 11 minutes (and they had a barrier you had to wait for so you could get out)

 

was costing 35 quid a week just in juice even o the bike so fekked it off - dread to think what a car would have done

[HillmanImp]

I do just over 13 miles each way in the XJ8 which is just short of 7,000 miles a year of I continue at this rate. Averaging about 23mpg in it. Not too bad. Was getting just under 40 in the Visa mind you. 

[dollywobbler]

I work from home. I really miss having a commute.

[Timewaster]

11 miles to the office but usually another 50 - 100 during the day.

Company car, diesel Focus.

Pay for all the fuel and get a mileage allowance back. Currently making a few pence a mile profit by driving like an old lady.

[Skizzer]

Mine varies: I do projects that normally last 3-6 months, so I either work from home (about 4 months of the year) or somewhere random in Britain or mainland Europe.  When I'm away, it never seems to be close enough to commute daily (especially as the working day is normally at least 8am-8pm) so I commute weekly and stay in some sort of hotel.  500 miles a week is typical.  

[Wackeldackel]

Worst ones I ever had were Ramsgate, Kent to Sudbury in Suffolk, 120 miles each way did that for a while until the boss realised it was costing him more in diesel (ragging a fiat ducato through kent and essex 5 days a week) than it would cost him to put us up in a hotel which just so happened to have sauna, steam room, buffet breakfast every day. Plus we were all fucked off with traffic so we used to bugger off an hour early at 4:30 to try and beat some of the M25 lemmings.

 

Another good one was Canterbury to Berkhamstead, 110 miles each way. this was a network rail job and as such we had to fill in a form each day stating time left place of rest (in my case 4:15am to get to Faversham to be picked up) and time expected back at place of rest (if I got home by half 7 I was doing well). Naturally we couldn't write the real times down or we wouldn't have been able to work, meant to be a minimum of 10 hours between arriving home and leaving for the next shift, network rail would have bolloxed the boss big time. I only stuck that one for a week then found another job in South London, fiver a shift less but lots less travel.

 

Furthest I've regularly driven my own car is Ramsgate to Banstead, 75 miles each way ,junction 8 or 9 of m25, used to leave mine 5:15 to get there for 6:45 , cup of tea and then start at 7:00. But I suppose that's the nature of the job, got to go where the work is.

Swings and roundabouts really cause for the last year I've had a 700m walk to the yard and gone from there in a works van.

[Mr Lobster]

Difficult to say but our unit is three miles from home plus a run to the sorting office is my daily routine. That said by the time I include the school run and a couple of trips to suppliers and whatnot I'm doing around 350 miles a week in my car. Mrs L's Mazda manages about 10k per year somehow.

 

Plus we have an assortment of rental vans through the year so business mileage ends up about 25k.

 

Used to commute to Liverpool every day which was almost 150 mile round trip. Didn't actually mind that though, quite enjoyed the relative peace and quiet offered by an hour or two in the car on my own.

[meshking]

My commute varies on a weekly basis. A large percentage of this year has been at the office, which was thoughtfully moved closer to my house, 1.5 miles away. Usually I walk or if I'm feeling lazy drive the 2cv. If I'm in the mood I will ride my bike, usually taking a longer route to make it worthwhile.

 

Both my modern cars average 6k miles per year on average, always quite surprised about that when it comes to mot time.

[HH-R]

I work across different sites but about 30-50 miles in total a day. I usually fill up every Monday morning and pretty consistently get 45/46 MPG. I do very little driving outside of work, typically 4 or 5 miles a weekend if I need some shopping and it's too heavy to carry or maybe about 10 if I have to go to B & Q or whatever, everything is in walking distance. Petrol getting cheaper is nice, last tank to the brim was just over £32.

[Lord Sterling]

About 18/20 miles a day round trip a day. This across the city so can take me up to an hour and half to get into work.

 

The furthest I've ever travelled on a daily commute was around 80 miles to and from work per day.

[garethj]

I'm down from 75 miles a day to 50, the distance isn't really the problem it's more the other people on the road.  The Land Rover is quite good for this as it's high for looking a long way down the road and it's got huge steel bumpers which ward off most, but not all of the twats who want to cut you up.

 

The other advantage of being high up is that people who don't bother to adjust their headlights don't bother you so much.

 

When I worked in London I commuted by motorbike, there's nothing like starting the day by wheelies off the sleeping policemen in Hyde Park.

[Felly Magic]

The Mrs commutes around 130 miles round trip daily, knocking the snot out of the car, and she spends up to 10 hrs driving clapped out Dennis Darts all day, I suspect its around 13 hrs a day she spends behind the wheel of something. I used to be an alarm responder/supervisor in the security industry, and in an average 12 hr stint, I would do on average about 350 miles in a Pugrat Bipper, horrid little things, couldn't speed in them cost they had trackers

[AlabamaShrimp]

Now doing about 16 mile there and back to college in Leeds now. Is very slow going in the morning with all the dual carriage way and M621 being totally blocked averaging about 10mph so takes about 30 mins.

 

It's only 3 days a week though and finish at 1500/1530 so it's all clear on the way home can do it in a out 10 mins. No idea with the mpg on the Fiesta is but it's not very high.

 

The Fiesta ST is used for any long trips and that's got crap mpg too, make up for it in speed

[nacho man]

I do about 16 mile a day which is lovely compared to my old slog, also my new nicky clarke special mr2 has avg 36.6mpg over the last month so happy with that.

[cobblers]

Since I've moved in with our lass it's only about 3 miles to work (5 at the moment cos there's a road closed until the end of January!). I get about 25mpg on them runs in the Cream Ibiza (It'll do 35 on a run but it doesn't really get warmed up).

 

I pass a combined Greggs/Mcdonalds/Starbucks at 6:49AM every day I usually cop for one of them more often than not which is why I've put on about a stone in the last 6 months.  The £2.40 Bacon and Sausage bap + Large Latte from Greggs is the most common but sometimes I am feeling so woefully lazy that I spend almost £4 on a coffee at the drive thru starbucks just to avoid getting out of the car. 

 

I used to do about 18 miles each way, it used to stress me out bigtime because it was directly down the M1 more or less which was quite often a shitshow. I know all the rat runs to bypass it, but so do a lot of other people so a 20 minute journey would turn into an hour no matter what you did.

 

For someone that loves cars as much as I do, I really don't like driving all that much unless it's totally on my terms, these people that do 100 miles each way blow my fucking mind!

[fordperv]

i commute 14 miles a day and am lucky the hours i work are compressed into 3 days so that takes my commuting mileage to 42 miles a week thats 2184 per year everything else is pleasure mileage, so mpg doesn't mean anything to me

[Pillock]

Depends. Officially I'm home based so occasionally just into my dining room although I go mad if I don't leave the house so I normally find a reason to drive somewhere and claim it as work mileage.

 

I'm usually further away though. Last year was 26k work miles but this year is looking bigger, the last three four-week periods have been claimed for as 3000ish, 2600 and 2700 miles respectively.