I meant to post this item awhile back, but it is an interesting query.
According to The Idiocy of Urban Life, the classic essay by The New Republic's Henrie Fairlie, the average 19th Century industrial worker had a seven mile, walking, commute to work. At that time, and up until at least the 1920s, people who lived in the center of cities were more well to do than those who lived on the city's margins, with some extremely notable exceptions, as that allowed the richer to walk to their offices and to city services more readily, while the poorer had to hike. Now, of course, the reverse is true.
I think my commute is about three miles long, and in the summer I do it by bicycle, weather and schedule allowing. I've known, however, friends of mine who had very long urban commutes indeed. And even here I've known people who drove 30 miles one way every day to go to work, something that would have been inconceivable before widespread ownership of the automobile.
2 comments:
I drive 60 miles one way to work. I'd kill for a 30 minute drive!! I will be glad when I can retire and not DRIVE every day to work. Fortunately, my job is flexible and they don't make me drive the icy snowy blowy winter roads.
60 miles one way. Just imagine, up until some point in the 1950s, that wouldn't have even been conceivable. And its quite a burden now.
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