cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/30733236

This map shows the average commuting time from home to work in Europe.

(Author: Maps.interlude, Link to image information and dfferent resolutions )

It might be surprising that, in spite of wildly different traffic systems and large differences in the use share of cars, these times are so similar.

An explanation is given in the wikipedia article on Marchetti’s Constant. Basically, the time spent commuting is mostly an anthropological constant, and is largely independent of means of transport and culture.

In other words, if we use faster means of transport, we almost automatically commute larger distances - regardless whether this improves our quality of life or not.

This relationship should probably be central in modern traffic planning, but it is often not considered. (There is an interesting article in German by the traffic scientist Rudolf Pfleiderer, titled “Das Phänomen Verkehr”, which describes in more detail the relationships between traffic, speed, and distance - perhaps somebody knows a good English article?)

  • bryndos@fedia.io
    2·
    1 day ago

    I don’t get how this is any sort of "constant’ - surely it’s multi-modal with loads of variance. I don’t like averaging over such distributions. I’d think a distributional analysis or cluster analysis would be more interesting than averages. And I just don’t think “constant” is anywhere near the right word for whatever phenomenon this is describing.

    The wiki doesn’t give much detail on their sampling frame for proving this “constant”. I suspect it might be a weak and biassed dataset.

    I WFH 4 days a week normally, so i have quite a variance over the week [<00:05, <00:05, <00:05, 01:30, <00:05].

    • more extreme variance if you count stopping off in the pub as “commute” time. So not “constant”.

    People like farmers typically/traditionally have quite short ‘commutes’ - but then they move around a lot from task to task. But office/factory workers will probably have longer commutes. Lots of other peripatetic or locum workers, taxis and deliveroos will inherently vary depending on the first customer/job of the day.

  • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    28·
    2 days ago

    I’ll take a 30 min walk/bike ride down a country path over a 20 min car drive through constant traffic in a city.

    Commute time isn’t really the main factor, how enjoyable or miserable is it?

    And yes I will take that bike ride in the rain too. Left my old job because they moved the office to become over an hour on the train, new job is a half hour bike ride down an old railway line.

    • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.netEnglish
      4·
      2 days ago

      Yeah I used to have a 40 minute subway commute time, but the stations were a few blocks from either end and I read or listened to music / podcasts on the way. Even when the train was crowded it was fairly pleasant.

      Similar for a 12.5 mile bike commute I used to do.

  • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.netEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    What the hell is going on in Malta? It’s takes like an hour to drive across that whole place, how did they fuck up so bad that their average commute time is half a cross-country trip?

  • minty@aussie.zoneEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    Mine is 2-2.5 hours, when I go into office anyway. Work from home is so good for me, couldn’t imagine doing that every morning and night.

    And yes I live in the country

  • Steve@communick.newsEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    This makes perfect sense, no matter the mode of transport.
    People are going to choose where to work or live so their commute is this kind of time range.

  • abbadon420@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    2 days ago

    2 days per week I have a 90 minute commute. 3 days I have 0. So my average is 36, which is bit above the nationl avergae

  • acargitz@lemmy.caEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    The Greece figure looks wildly inaccurate, at least for the 50% of the population that lives in Athens.