this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 68 points 5 months ago (5 children)

this still smells of propaganda, like it's woven through the whole thing. "The American worker is making peace with a longer ride".
and yet the very first example they provide is someone who works from home twice a week.

I'll tell you this: the commute is even better when you work from home. WFH means less carbon emissions, less time wasted in traffic, and less time literally putting your life at risk from vehicle collisions.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

As someone that loves going into an office, I wish they let people who didn’t stay at home.

I miss the aspect of the pandemic where people were freer to stay home if they chose, and the roads were so much emptier. It’s better for people to work how they’d like to, it’s better for me trying not to spend an hour commuting, and it’s better for the Earth to have fewer people burning carbon twice a day.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I almost got into a pileup on the way to work this morning. I hate commuting

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Same! Dickhead cut off a truck hauling gravel, forcing truck to evade, nearly running me off the road onto a sidewalk with several people on it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Glad it was only nearly!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Got cut off by a BMW today. I know this might be shocking but the driver didn't have their turn signal on.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago (2 children)

WFH means less carbon emissions, less time wasted in traffic, and less time literally putting your life at risk from vehicle collisions.

It speaks volumes that all of these problems are car-related. The whole push for WFH is a massive condemnation of how badly people actually feel about the effects of the car-oriented development that the U.S has been spending so much time championing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Even if I lived across the street from my office, I would still prefer to work from my home.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Hey! That sounds like pure communism! You go to work where the overseer can keep an eye on you and your productivity!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago

my overseer can see my work just fine. also I fucking rock.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Trains, bitches - and WFH for people who have no business being in an office.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Lol I have no reason to be in the office for my job. My company started forcing people back in January. I take the train in. It takes me 2.5 one way, 5 hours total. Doesn't make any fucking sense that I have to make the journey, and it makes no fucking sense that the train ride takes an hour and 45 minutes

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

If there only were trains, or trams, or busses. In many areas, public transport consists of "the morning bus" and "the afternoon bus".

And not everyone can WFH. Actually, most people with lower pay grades can't, so they still have to be present whereever they work.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And while we're at it, everyone gets a pony.

I'd love more trains and I'd love more WFH jobs, but that's not the reality in 2024 and just declaring "trains, bitches" is not helpful or particularly cordial to all of the people who have no choice but to make long commutes to their jobs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

I would wager most people don't actually have no choice but to make a massive commute. Often it just comes down to policy choices. As a country, we've made deliberate decisions to ignore developing mass transit, just as we've decided homes should be treated as investment vehicles. If we built out and maintained more trains, buses and light rail, congestion could be cut down and more people could travel much more rapidly and efficiently. If we didn't obsess over the idea that property values must go up without fail and encouraged building affordable housing, people could actually afford to live closer to where they work, rather than being pushed ever farther into the suburbs and countryside in search of a place they could afford to live in. Some people make insane commutes chasing higher pay in a neighboring region. I knew of people at one company who commuted from Philadelphia to Brooklyn every day, because NYC pay was higher and Philly rents lower. That said, that's absolutely a conscious choice those people make.

Likewise, not every job is capable of being done from home, but many are, yet workers are still forced to come into the office anyway. This is a choice by company execs, not an inevitable fact of life.

I'm sure there are some jobs that are relatively remote, yet need to be done in person despite the long commutes. Let the people doing them be compensated accordingly, but this is absolutely not something that should be normalized for the population at large.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

As a country, we've made deliberate decisions to ignore developing mass transit,

But as an individual, I need to have an income, and I need a place to live that my income will support sustainably.

I don't get a say in where the affordable homes are in relation to where my work needs to be done. And I don't get a say in the transportation infrastructure between those locations.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Ah yes, "find a cheaper place to live or get another job." What a 'choice' you're saying people have.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (11 children)

Individually, no, but this is the decision people have been making in aggregate for decades with the people they vote into government to represent them. You can still see it happening when people oppose any attempts to build out public transportation when they believe it would either personally bother them in some way, or give poor people an easier way to access their communities.

Heck, you saw it earlier this year where municipalities around NY have fought and ignored the mandate to build up more dense housing, or the congestion pricing being walked back now. Housing costs being unaffordable is a serious issue when it impacts them or their acquaintances, but that's a sacrifice they're willing to make if it keeps poor people and minorities from also being able to afford to live in their town. Something needs to be done about traffic and air quality in Manhattan, right up until it means they would either need to pay up or take the train.

The governor is taking most of the heat for these policies, bud meanwhile, people keep reelecting the same local and state officials that aggravate the problems that the public is chronically complaining of. They'll shoot themselves in the foot if it means they can hurt others too.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

wfh for people who have no business being in an office

I don't belong in an office but it's kinda hard to mop the floors where I work from home. 😭

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Sounds like an engineering problem to me

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

but it's kinda hard to mop the floors where I work from home.

Yeah, the "everyone should work from home" factions seems to forget those of us whose work requires us being able to touch the things we're working on.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Same in Canada, and I have not moved, I live ~12 miles (~20km) of my working place, 90% highway. Early 2000s it took 30 minutes or less, early 10s ~40 minutes, 2019 before pandemic it was already a good 45+ minutes. 2023+ it is more than one hour (forth, and 1h back).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So you're passively looking for work every day, right? You're not gonna keep doing an additional 10hr shift a week unpaid, right?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I WFH since COVID, best thing ever and only 8h work per day 🙂

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Mine has been creeping up as well. More construction and more traffic.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I worked in Manhattan and had coworkers who lived in Pennsylvania. Two hours each way. A story I heard was that a bus company recruited drivers who would get up at 4am, pick up passengers, drive to the city, and then go to another job. 6 pm they get in the bush and drive home.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

That doesn't make much sense. What happened to the bus in the middle of the day?

Parking in Downtown Manhattan can be rented out for $30 - $50 per hour, maybe $80 all day. And that's a car-sized space. Since a bus is two or three of those, it would make no sense to just waste $240+ on an unused bus.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Before Hudson Yards went up that space was mostly empty. I've also seen lines of buses parked under the FDR downtown.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I have a horrendous 2 min drive to work each day. #fuckcities

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

If it's two minutes do you need to be driving? That seems like a walk or bike

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Well I wasn't counting dropping kids off at school or daycare, which is the opposite direction. I often walk.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I drop off kids and pick them up every day. By bike. There's really no excuse for driving in a city.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (3 children)

I mean there are plenty of reasons. Some seasons it rains everyday here. Get off your high bike.

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