Atlanta: The Land Of Horrible Traffic
So I was born and raised in Atlanta. Something that might surprise people is that Atlanta has horrendous traffic. We’ve been on the top 10 list of most congested cities since I was born and while I was growing up we were right behind New York and LA. We had the third worst traffic in the US.
Cars = The Path To Freedom
The way Atlanta works is that as soon as kids turn 16 they get their license. Why? So they can drive themselves to school or – if they ride a school bus – so they can have some freedom and not be dropped off everywhere by their parents. We don’t have public transit that is at all helpful unless you’re going from the airport to downtown or one part of downtown to another (Heads Up: Basically no one lives downtown). Driving yourself is the only path to freedom as a kid in Atlanta.
Sleep Driving
So when I turned 16 that’s what I did. After getting my license, from 16 to 17 (when I graduated) I drove myself to school. This involved getting up at 5:30am to try and ‘beat the traffic’ only to be stuck in it for 1-1.5 hours every morning and arrive at school an hour before it starts. Without traffic (which never happens) this commute would still have been 45 minutes.
One time I didn’t remember how I got to school. I ‘woke up’ in the parking lot. Is sleep driving a thing? It terrified me. I was so tired. I have issues going to sleep and usually read in high school until I passed out and was then awakened by my alarm before I took a bleary eyed shower and threw on my uniform before stumbling out the door (thank goodness I didn’t have to make a real decision! – no sarcasm there guys. It was too early and fashion isn’t my thing).
A Waste Of Life
After school I would rush out of the building and hastily yell bye to my friends in the hopes of getting on the highway before most people. It never happened. 3:30pm and I was in bumper to bumper traffic. Every. Single. Day. This is when I learned I never wanted to own a car or have a car commute again. It was stressful and felt like a huge waste of time. It was adding 10-15 hours of wasted time to every week! This was still when CDs existed instead of Spotify being readily available through smartphones. Before I knew what an audiobook was. Before podcasts were a big deal. I just sat there listening to the same Craig David album on repeat (Anyone remember Born To Do It?) because it soothed me during my hell commute.
NYC: A Public Transit Paradise?
One reason we chose to move to NYC was its readily available public transit. My partner has never even had a driver’s license and he’s almost 30. Trains were tolerable when I lived in NYC (I hear that’s not the case now…) My first few apartments and jobs were a straight shot North/South. I got on a train, sometimes for an hour and sat or stood there. I could journal or read a book on my phone or practice my Italian or French on Duolingo. I was fine with trains and really enjoyed the constant option of walking (Atlanta doesn’t really have sidewalks outside of downtown…my parents have lived in their neighborhood almost my whole life and are getting sidewalks to the grocery store now…they might be ready by the time I retire…) The option of walking home in NYC was an exciting one and I did it several times even though it was over 100 blocks home. It was fun trying to walk a block a minute.
NYC Doesn’t Do Diagonal
Then my job and apartment changed and I ended up having to go across the city, which is not what NYC is set up for. I had to switch to 3 different trains over the course of 30 minutes, which meant I couldn’t pay attention to anything else because the transit stops came up so quickly. The few times I tried reading a book I missed my stop and was late to work (Grrr!). So I ended up staring out the window into the darkness of the subway for 1-2 hours a day. It felt like I was staring into the abyss of my commuting future.
Seattle = An Actual Transit Paradise
So when we were deciding where to live in Seattle the ability to walk to work was a big factor. We drew a circle around our workplaces (which luckily were on the same street, 4 blocks away from each other) to show what apartments were a 30 minute walk or less away from work. We were fortunate enough to find a great apartment within the circle and despite me moving jobs I’m still able to walk to work in 30 minutes (my new job was actually in my partner’s building, which was hilarious, and then they moved downtown, which is still a 30 minute walk away).
Imposing Strategic Limits
So I’ve been very fortunate, but I also intentionally limit myself – in a good way. For example, when I was searching for a job I did consider ones were I would have to take a bus, but didn’t even apply for ones that would require me to get a car. My sanity and my wallet weren’t worth it. When I would calculate the extra time and money needed it seriously cut into the salary offered (which was already lower since it was outside of downtown and in a suburb) so I didn’t even apply. This might have lengthened my time finding a job, but it was worth it to me. Seattle is a huge and growing city where I felt comfortable making that choice. It all worked out in the end.
Carfree For Life
So I’m never planning to own a car. I may rent one for a road trip or to get around a rural area when visiting family or friends, but it won’t be a permanent arrangement. Not only for the reasons of stress I explained above, but the financial ones as well. I’ll happily substitute owning a car with a mix of public transit, walking and using the sharing economy (Uber, Zipcar etc.) We’re planning to be carfree for life.
What’s your transit situation? Have you ever thought about going carfree?
I commuted so many miles in my engineering career, I literally drove to the moon and back. Why didn’t I wise up earlier, like you? I admire your ability to learn from the Atlanta mess at an early age. But I must say, now that we are retired, we sure love traveling in our trailer and taking day trips to the mountains to hike and such. It does get old when we have to face Bay Area traffic to visit my husband’s parents. A car is both freedom and it handcuffs us too!
I had to Google how many miles it is to the moon and back 🙂 . 477,800 miles! Wow. And thank you! Traveling in a trailer sounds lovely! RVing across America is actually on my bucket list. It will likely be a rental or one we borrow from friends. I’m completely with you in that a car can be freedom and handcuffs. I’m just trying to find my balance within that 🙂 . And thank you for being my first comment ever!
Yikes – that kind of commute for HIGH SCHOOL?? That’s a crazy thought to me. And thanks for the reminder that for all I grouch about the Seattle transit system (especially outside of Seattle proper where we are) that it is still wildly ahead of most places in this country.
Yeah…It’s pretty standard in GA. One of my classmates had 2x that commute. She lived even farther out and had horses (country alert 🙂 ). And anytime for the Seattle/WA reminder! Since moving here from Manhattan I’m still in awe with how clean, relatively on time and filled with kind strangers Seattle’s public transit is!
I completely agree, commuting in Atlanta is the worst. Years ago I had a commute from Midtown to Marietta that got my day off to a stressful start. A few years ago I had a short-term gig that required a before the butt-crack-of-dawn commute from LaGrange, GA to Columbus. What a horrible way to live.
Fortunately, most of my jobs have had minimal commutes. In LaGrange I drove four easy miles to work, in Echols County it was 5 country miles, and in Douglas, GA I had a six-mile commute with minimal traffic. Avoiding killer commutes will add more joy to your life for sure.
Our next job will be about 100 meter from our home and will require no commute. We won’t even need bikes; we’ll just walk on over! The “bad news” is that our move back to South Georgia did require us to buy a car, so we bought a 2014 Toyota Prius. We don’t drive it every day, but we need it for shopping trips to Valdosta and the surrounding areas. We plan on taking many road trips in our new economical ride.
I’m enjoying your blog! Ed
Wow – those are some commutes! It’s awesome you also found jobs with short commutes. Removing a commute definitely brings more joy. I enjoy my commute now – walking 1.5 miles with my partner or while talking to my mom or while listening to a finance podcast. I’m usually walking faster than the cars sitting in traffic next to me too, which is both amusing and sad.
100 meters is an amazing commute! A Prius sounds like an awesome choice for your situation and road trips sound like a great way to get a lot of use out of it.
So glad you’re enjoying the blog!
Does this apply to self driving cars? I think the cost shaves some serious benefits off traditional cars that it’s definitely not a good feature or even necessary besides how much our culture dedicates it. We live without a car and will until they roll out driverless ride sharing programs.
Oooh great question! And it’s funny you say that because when my partner declares we should go on a road trip I respond with “I’m not driving you across the country!” (He’s never had a driver’s license). And his response is that he won’t ever need to get one because driverless cars will be here soon. I would much prefer a road trip where no one drives…
ANYWAY, to answer your question my declaration above was in response to human driven cars. When driverless cars are here I’ll have to re-do my cost/benefit analysis. So I guess my answer is I don’t know 🙂 . Depending on the cost and how much traveling we’re doing it might be worth it! It’s awesome y’all are already planning for that future.
I hear you! We’ve never been even a single car household, though I do borrow once in a while, and it is so liberating! No maintenance, no traffic, no parking fees, no worrying about gas prices…
We recently got an electric bike instead, and my commute to and from work is so much quicker and more comfortable, plus I am allowed to ride on the sidewalk. Riding in the road with the cars scares the heck out of me.
Right?! I love it. My friend commented on gas prices being high the other day (we’re approaching $4 in Seattle) and it struck me how that’s something I literally never think about…Same with parking. Apparently you have to pay to park in a lot of places in Seattle – I had no idea!
An electric bike sounds awesome! They have a few to borrow around here. I should try one out – especially on our hills! It’s awesome you can ride on the sidewalk too. Riding in the road scares me as well. Luckily we have stretches of separated bike path that I like to stick to. Thank you for commenting!
I lived in Atlanta for a few years and I agree, traffic is a nightmare. I was so relieved to get out of there before it got more insane, but I have friends who still lived there until recently and they’ve confirmed how miserable even a short commute can be.
I just moved to Santa Barbara and it’s much easier to get around without a car. My apartment is less than a 30-minute drive from where I work. I’ve been lazy and just driven to work the first few weeks, but I want to slowly wean myself from that and walk there instead.
Yeah it’s gotten way out of hand. Santa Barbara sounds wonderful! That sounds like quite a walk – how long would it take since it’s a 30 minute drive? And it’s awesome you’re weaning yourself off of it. I absolutely love walking to work. It’s a great way to start and end the day.
Oops, I was typing too fast. Meant to say less than a 30 minute *walk.* Less than 10 minutes to drive. 🙂
Aaaah! That sounds a lot easier 😉. That’s a great walking commute length.
The experience you described above sounds like a phenomenon called “highway hypnosis.”
Pretty common occurrence, actually – especially once you’ve mastered the task of driving. Unnerving…but common.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_hypnosis
Good to know it’s a thing and nothing is wrong with me lol, but that is scary how common that is!