Commuting to Work...

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I think it would be interesting to see how far someone is willing to drive to a job they love, on a daily basis. Doesn't have to be a vet-related job, but I'm sure the gas $$ is a hard-hit for lots of us.

 

[david594]

I'm going to be applying to couple emergency clinics in the near future and about an hour (50 miles) is my upper limit for what I would consider. I a m just looking for weekend hours though, so it would be max of 2 days a week.

The weather is getting warmer so I will start riding my vespa to work again to keep the gas costs down. 🙁

 

[Danaish72]

Interesting topic!

I'm what you'd call a tree hugger (side effect of an environmental science minor and a subscription to Nature). A priority in my life is that I be able to walk or bike to work; not only does it make me feel better and healthier, but it saves me a lot of money and reduces the amount of CO2 I'm producing. That being said, I wouldn't work a job hated simply because I'd be able to walk there. Likewise I wouldn't live somewhere I hate because my job is nearby. I'm convinced that with a little effort, a compromise can be found between the two. I hope that our society will mature in the next twenty and thirty years to realize that our business as usual expansion and exploitation of resources is both unnecessary and unfulfilling. This is also the reason I chose to continue to live on campus where I can hope a bus or bike it to the vet school. Just my thoughts, hope I didn't go too far off topic!

 

[wi girl]

I'm most likely going to be volunteering at a large cat sanctuary this summer that is an hour or so away. Yeah, gas is going to suck, but its not everyday (probably two a week) and I'm willing to eat the cost to play with lions and tigers all day! 🙂

My (hopefully) actual job is roughly 20 mins from the condo where I'll be living. Lots of tentative things in the works right now ... 🙂

 

[OSJ]

I commute about 100 miles a day, between 2 - 3.5 hours driving, usually around 3 hours a day. I like my job, although it's definitely not my dream job! The commute gets tedious, and it makes the rest of my day/night seemed rushed because I get home late and leave early. On the plus side, I live in a really nice area and have my horses at home. I work in a city and could never have horses near where I work. I knew when I took the job that it would not be permenant and I would learn alot more working there than at some of the smaller clinics near me. I would say that this is about the limit that I would want to travel for any job. 10 hours a day working, plus 3 hours + driving really doesn't leave much time for doing anything else on those days.
When I go to school next year, I am going to make sure that I live very close to school- I'm sick of commuting!

 

[athenaparthenos]

I have a 40-minute bus ride to my clinic. It's not bad -- I sleep in the mornings and read on the way home. It's much better now than it used to be -- we assistants used to have to close up the clinic ourselves and so after a busy night I wouldn't be on the bus until 7:30 or 8 and not get home until close to 9. Now we have a kennel staffer who closes up for us and now I'm almost always out between 6 and 6:45, so I get home and still feel like I have free time. I don't think I'd be okay with commuting more, or through heavy traffic, though.

 

[Hobiecat1642]

I drive 45 mins for LA experience once a week. It's worth it to me! but I might get a job at the nursery up the street this summer because i can walk there.

 

[pupsforseeing]

For the last two summers I've had two jobs: one an 1.5-2 hours south (depending on traffic) and the other an hour north. It's managable...except on days where I have shifts at both places, then I have a 2.5-3 hour drive from one job to the next, NOT FUN! I live in Los Angeles suburbia, so one would think I could find decent jobs a little closer, but one is a really sweet research job in my area of interest at a big university, and the other is at the most extensive specialty clinic in my area, so I'm stuck with the long drives for the experience. This summer I'm not going to do research, though, so will only be making the trek up to the specialty clinic (an hour) a few times a week, which won't be so bad.

 

[zpinkpanther]

Not to brag or anything, but my clinic is about 2 minutes from my house. I'm sure I could walk it, if I weren't so lazy. And one of the docs (the one I like a lot better) lives in my neighborhood, so I always see him walking his dogs and I'll say hi. 😀

This summer, though, I'm planning on getting some LA experience a few times a week, since I don't think I'll be able to pick up more hours at work. I'm trying to get a volunteer thing at the zoo hospital (I already volunteer with another area of the zoo, so I kind of have connections), which would only be about 20-30 minutes. If that doesn't work out, though, I may have to apply to an LA clinic, which would probably be at least an hour away. It would be interesting experience, though!

 

[PJlovin]

Currently driving one-way...

- an hour and 20 min to my Vet clinic 4 times a week...
- an hour to school 1x week...
- an hour to volunteer at a wild bird center 1x week...
- an hour to volunteer at a sea turtle hospital 1x week...

I'm probably shelling out an easy $150 in gas and tolls per week. Sometimes I feel like I'm paying to work!!

When I first found out I was going to Glasgow, I was like, oh no...my car! I won't be able to take it with me. But now, I can't wait to get rid of the damn thing!!

I do, however, still kringe at the thought of having a paid off car right now...to not having any car when I graduate. Things are going to be tight!

 

[NittanyKitty]

Not to brag or anything, but my clinic is about 2 minutes from my house.

Yeah, mine's about two miles away, which makes the "commute" quite bearable. 😉 It's really handy for on-call and emergency fill-ins and stuff. Since I don't have a car of my own, I'm really glad it's so close; my parents usually don't even have me reimburse them for gas money.

 

[nyanko]

Well, when I worked at the same clinic as the original thread poster (hah!), I had to commute about 45-50 minutes depending on traffic on 46. But it was worth it. I miss that place sometimes, backwards country folk and all. 😉

Now I ride my bike to my job on the UCD campus and it is about 3 miles or so and takes me 15 or 20 minutes on a good day, 25 or 30 on a pokey day (wind, tiredness, etc).

 

[Truth74]

I work about 30 driving minutes away from my job. I live on the far north west end of Champaign, and my job is on the far south east side of Urbana.

 

[lailanni]

My home town is pretty small, so you can get to any place in it within 20 min, more or less.

There are 3 clinics in my town, mine is 10 minutes away. There's one 30 minutes away that does exotics, but they never take in help. I would have like to shadow there though.

The nearest emergency clinic is 45 minutes one away, which stinks because I'd really like to work there. But that'd just suck up all my gas. And there's traffic in the afternoon,which makes it more like 1 hr away.

I voluntered at a wildlife shelter 1.5 hours away, but couldn't keep it up. It took too much gas and I didn't like the 3 hour round trip just to clean poo.

For a permanent job, the max I'd want to commute is 20 - 30 min. I live in the sticks and was on a dance company in the city for several years- about 2 hrs ONE way. After that much commuting, I swore I'd never have a long commute again if I could help it.

 

[projekt]

I had a job at a horse farm about an hour away. The commute was beginning to bother me and when the gas prices went up, it sealed the deal. If I could have had that farm within 30 minutes drive, that'd have been so much better. I really liked the work.

 

[TCVM808]

I worked at a SA clinic for 3 years and drove 14-23 miles to get there (depending on whether I was coming from school or home). May not sound too bad until you consider that I live in the state with the highest national gas prices....ouch!

It was undoubtedly worth it, BUT I am really enjoying spending less on gas now! 😀

 

[168135]

I have a volunteer position lined up for me in a couple of monthes... it is a 15 minute car ride, but I'm going to have to rely on the bus to get me out there and once I get out there, I have a 15 minute walk. To get home, I'll have to get a cab to take me downtown so that I can catch yet another bus home.

It is going to be so much fun 😛

 

[Kara31191]

I commute about 20 minutes on a good day, and about 30 minutes on a slow day. But- it's worth it... now that my hours are MUCH lower! 🙂

 

[rachroo]

For school during my first few semesters for school I had to allow about about 2.5 hours to travel per day (Monday through Friday). I was a full-time student, had a part time job, and with the traveling combined it really put a dent in my grades.

Now that I've been commuting to a regional campus of the same university it only takes about 30-45 minutes of travel time per day. I'm still a full-time student while having the same-part time job, and the decreased travel time has ultimately allowed my grades to be waaayy better. 🙂

 

[david594]

For school during my first few semesters for school I had to allow about about 2.5 hours to travel per day (Monday through Friday). I was a full-time student, had a part time job, and with the traveling combined it really put a dent in my grades.

I can feel your pain on that one. I need to allow myself 1.5 hours to get to class. No traffic its 45 minutes from home to the parking lot. Another 20 minutes walking from the parking lot to class. I am only on campus 4 days a week and yet still burning 10 hours a week just in commute.

Work is fortunately only about 15 minutes during a normal week day. 8ish on a Saturday morning.