> Back before cars, when, if you didn't live in a very dense metropolis, your commute to work was almost certainly done using an open-air conveyance such as horses or feet or donkey carts?
> Yeah, I can't imagine many people would choose a 45 minute each way commute. Not unless they lived in some magical place where temperatures never drop below 15 degrees and rain only falls on weekends.
How many people actively choose their commutes today? I know many people who had moved somewhere for a job, bought a house with their spouse, and subsequently changed jobs. Once you start adding things that can tie you to a place (high-school age children, elderly parents to care for, mortgage, etc) it becomes harder to uproot yourself for the sake of one's commute.
It's easy to forget how much of an echo chamber HN can be. It seems like everyone here is a single, young, successful city dweller. It's easy to let that totally skew your world view if you don't pay attention to it.
> Yeah, I can't imagine many people would choose a 45 minute each way commute. Not unless they lived in some magical place where temperatures never drop below 15 degrees and rain only falls on weekends.
How many people actively choose their commutes today? I know many people who had moved somewhere for a job, bought a house with their spouse, and subsequently changed jobs. Once you start adding things that can tie you to a place (high-school age children, elderly parents to care for, mortgage, etc) it becomes harder to uproot yourself for the sake of one's commute.