Longest Reasonable Commute?

[waitwhat]

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Hey all,

Internship is about to start quite soon and I'm trying to figure out where to live for the next couple of years. know we have to be there quite early to set up the room as well as for lecture. What would be your longest reasonable commute? Just looking for some opinions and insight from personal experience.

Thanks.

 

[kazuma]

Hey all,

Internship is about to start quite soon and I'm trying to figure out where to live for the next couple of years. know we have to be there quite early to set up the room as well as for lecture. What would be your longest reasonable commute? Just looking for some opinions and insight from personal experience.

Thanks.

My commute is about 50/50 surface streets and freeway, 12.5 miles each way. If the lights are in my favor, which they usually are at 5-6am, then it takes 20-25 min. If there's a lot of traffic then it could be 30-35 minutes. IMO it sucks commuting that far, but I do it so my family can live in a reasonably safe neighborhood. In med school and internship my commute was a slick 5-10 minutes and it was the bomb. I think most programs require you to be in the hospital within 30 min for emergencies or home/pager call. I know a senior who reportedly lives 45-50 min away, but she must spend pager/home call nights in the call room to get around the 30 min rule.

I'd recommend living as close as possible, it sucks commuting an hour a day when you are working upwards of 18-24 hr shifts. In fact, some page/home call nights I just sleep in the call room because its not worth losing an hour of sleep if I'm working late (9-11pm) and then have to be back at 5-6am.

 

[pgg]

I think predictability of commute time is more important than average time, within reason.

When I was looking for a place to live as a resident, I had the options narrowed down to city A and B. A had a very consistent 25 minute commute with no traffic, ever. B was considerably closer, perhaps 15 minutes on a good day, but there is a tunnel to traverse that often gets backed up, so the commute might be 45 minutes on any given day. I picked A. Mostly those were going home / end-of-day times though. Morning rush hour usually isn't an issue, considering how early a resident's day starts. But I imagine it sucks to get out at 5 or 6 PM and sit in traffic for 90 minutes.

Also, it depends whether or not any of your call will be pager call from home. All of my resident call was in house.

 

[Guillemot]

Im looking for <15min. There are a number factors to consider though such as neighborhood of hospital at which you work (cost, crime), where s/o works, etc. Therefore what is reasonable may vary some between residency programs and the individual.

 

[IlDestriero]

You really don't want to be driving for more than 30 min. Your free time is too valuable.

 

[survivordo]

Live as close as you can and still feel safe/comfortable. We go to a couple different hospitals, one of which is about 25 mins and even that gets old very quickly.

Survivor DO

 

[Direct Laryngoscopy]

I say your commute should be less than 30 minutes. One of the hospitals. I rotate through (I live in Queens, NY and work in Brooklyn) is a 30-40 min commute in the AM, but PM rush hour pushed that commute to 60-90 minutes. It got to the point if I got out between 4 and 6 I didn't bother sitting in my car wasting time, I decided I should make more use of my precious time and be productive. So I went to the library and read (I did really well on all my exams and clinically and I'm very 😎 )

Although my commute was tough at times, I was able to maximize my time and have quality time with my wife and kids, and time for fitness and hobbies (I'm a golf head). But moving forward, I will work within 15 minutes where I live (and not live 15 minutes from where I work, if that makes any sense). 👍

 

[Jay K]

You really don't want to be driving for more than 30 min. Your free time is too valuable.

This.

In residency I lived 8 min away
1) saved my ass numerous times from being late
2) let me sleep in that many more minutes
3) never got caught in traffic
4) wasn't as painful being called in for any reason
5) never crashed my car from sleep deprivation driving home after a long painful call

Now, in private practice, my furthest venue is 18 min away
All the same reasons apply and
6) lets me take home call

 

[Masseter Spasm]

The longer you spend in the car the less time you have to do other things. Let's say you trim 15 minutes off your commute each way to the hospital. That's 30 minutes a day. That could be 600-750 minutes per month. That's an extra day you saved each month or almost two weeks a year.

Also:

The longer your commute, the more likely you are to crash a car post-call.

You may need to make that commute more than once a day if you take call from home.

 

[IveGotTwins]

I live 35 miles from the various places I rotate. In the AM its 35 minutes with zero traffic going 85 while on the highway. Coming home is ****ing terrible. From 3-6 pm the highways are a mess and it takes 90 minutes on a good day. Throw in a fender bender or rain and it's two hours no problem. I've implemented an aforementioned plan of using this time for reading until traffic dies down with some success.

I do this so my twin boys can attend a great public school which my wife basically insisted upon. If I had it my way I would live next door to the hospital but apparently kindergarten is important.

Anyone out there tell their wife/husband that they refuse to commute a long distance and put their kids in an "inferior" (read: urban) school?

Sometimes I think I'm a dick for wanting to put my kids in a different school just so I can spend less time in the car but then again I'm missing out on time with them. The late arrivals and missing dinner is occasionally a cause for marital discord which usually results in my pointing out that if we lived closer I'd be home sooner. This usually causes my wife to get supremely upset and end the conversation.

Just recently she admitted that she doesn't like talking about the commute because she feels so guilty about making me do it.

Don't commute if you can avoid it. It's simply lost time.

 

[Jay K]

Sometimes I think I'm a dick

IveGotTwins - You've got a tough situation and my sympathies, man. BTW, you're not a dick.

 

[IveGotTwins]

Thanks Jay K. Perhaps if I spend all the commuting time I have left in residency to developing a personal flying machine I could solve the problem for myself. If not, sitting in a chair, with a/c and listening to music isn't so bad. It's just crazy when I listen to the same disc 3x during a single day. Or hear ALL the stories on All Things Considered.

To the OP. In my opinion a stable and predictable commute is probably more important than the absolute time/distance.

 

[Star2285]

IMO the closer the better. However, many people have circumstances such as family etc that would cause the time to increase. My father commuted 2 hours when he was an anesthesia resident. Somehow he made it work. I think anymore than 30 minutes is going to add stress to an already stressful day during an already stressful year.


-Star
www.shortwhiteconfessions.com

 

[chaucer]

My wife and I are close to accepting good job offers about 25 miles apart, in neighboring states. We found some great places to live near her hospital, giving her a 10-15 minute commute, but it would take me about 40 minutes in the morning and probably >60 minutes in the evening. The catch is that her state is more tax-friendly, meaning we would save >$15,000 a year in state income taxes. She says we should live in the middle to equalize the commutes, which would require the higher taxes in my state. I feel like I could tough out the long commute for the savings now, but am not sure about the long term. I expect the job to be about 45-50 hours/week. Most of the partners live near the hospital. No distance requirement per the group.


We have no kids yet and manageable debt, and while living in my state would definitely be more convenient, the additional cost of living there equals the cost of leasing two really nice cars, or two awesome vacations a year, etc. Even factoring in commuting costs (toll, gas, wear and tear, etc, but excluding time), I think it might be worthwhile - but I'm not sure if in the big picture it is, or if in my residency mindset, $1200 or so a month seems bigger than it actually is. Would appreciate hearing from anyone with experience or opinions in commuting to try to save some coin.

 

[ssmallz]

My wife and I are close to accepting good job offers about 25 miles apart, in neighboring states. We found some great places to live near her hospital, giving her a 10-15 minute commute, but it would take me about 40 minutes in the morning and probably >60 minutes in the evening. The catch is that her state is more tax-friendly, meaning we would save >$15,000 a year in state income taxes. She says we should live in the middle to equalize the commutes, which would require the higher taxes in my state. I feel like I could tough out the long commute for the savings now, but am not sure about the long term. I expect the job to be about 45-50 hours/week. Most of the partners live near the hospital. No distance requirement per the group.


We have no kids yet and manageable debt, and while living in my state would definitely be more convenient, the additional cost of living there equals the cost of leasing two really nice cars, or two awesome vacations a year, etc. Even factoring in commuting costs (toll, gas, wear and tear, etc, but excluding time), I think it might be worthwhile - but I'm not sure if in the big picture it is, or if in my residency mindset, $1200 or so a month seems bigger than it actually is. Would appreciate hearing from anyone with experience or opinions in commuting to try to save some coin.

Do you take home call or is it all in house? If you are taking home call understand that you can and will be called in so that 45 minute commute can be a killer in the middle of the night or after a long shift. You should also factor in getting called back after you leave on non call days which might not happen often but will happen often enough where you will regret being that far away form the hospital. These are things you generally don't deal with as a resident but will as an attending. Personally, I wouldn't want to live more than 15 minutes away from any hospital I was covering, your time is way more valuable than you give yourself credit for. I would advise you take that into consideration

 

[chaucer]

Do you take home call or is it all in house? If you are taking home call understand that you can and will be called in so that 45 minute commute can be a killer in the middle of the night or after a long shift. You should also factor in getting called back after you leave on non call days which might not happen often but will happen often enough where you will regret being that far away form the hospital. These are things you generally don't deal with as a resident but will as an attending. Personally, I wouldn't want to live more than 15 minutes away from any hospital I was covering, your time is way more valuable than you give yourself credit for. I would advise you take that into consideration

It is in-house call, but I did not consider the possibility of getting called back on non-call/back-up days - great point, thanks.

 

[Sonny Crocket]

I drive 42min in morning and just over an hour home after work. I like where I work a lot. And love where I live. It's fine. Could it be better? Probably. I don't have back up call either.