Outline: The high cost of commuting

This post explores the personal and economic toll of commuting, utilizing tracked data and cost analysis.

1. Thesis

Core Argument: Commuting is a “soul suck,” a waste of personal time, and a significant waste of economic resources.
Goal: To quantify these costs using real-world data and extrapolation.

Tracking:
- Rudimentary tracking of commute times and legs from home to work.
- Reality Check: I used poor tools and didn’t invest in better ones (e.g., Amp Flow, personal app).
- Method: Primarily a stopwatch on my phone.
- Challenge: Data is sometimes sampled, sometimes forgotten.
- Precision vs. Accuracy: Discussion on the reliability of the dataset (highly accurate samples vs. consistent daily precision).
Privacy:
- Methodology for masking the exact starting location while still providing valuable insights into travel times and density.
- Data presented as coarse-grained times for each leg.

Commute Maps: Visualizing travel density and time variance.
Specific Legs:
- Visualizing each leg and commute method: Drive & Park vs. Drive Dropoff.
- Comparisons: Bike vs. Walk vs. Bus vs. Train.
- Note: We’ve already mostly self-optimized.
External Data:
- Metra: Looking at train data (if available).
- Chicago Maps: Overlays of bike and bus maps to visualize downtown commute methods.
Divvy Bikes (Potential):
- Scraping Divvy data to correlate distances and duration.
- Comparing personal tracked times against public bike-share data.

Time Extrapolation:
- Calculating total time spent commuting per year.
- “Time Back”: How much free time could be reclaimed daily/monthly without this commute?
Economic Impact:
- Comparing direct costs (transit/fuel) vs. opportunity costs.
- Opportunity Costs: Lost time, impact on health, family time, and more.

Addressing common anecdotes (e.g., “Can’t you just read or work on the train?”).

Constraints:
- Train: Jerkiness, seating availability, embarking/disembarking time, actual time available for deep work.
- Biking: Safety concerns (helmets, traffic awareness), inability to safely listen to audiobooks/podcasts while navigating city streets.
- Conclusion: Most “productive” activities are non-feasible during these commutes.