Some people consider driving a means of unwinding the same way. Personally I'd consider all three a waste of time compared to actually being at the desired location. Couldn't you unwind more easily at home?
I used to bike 50 minutes twice a day (13 and a half miles each way) through London - and I can honestly say I loved it every day.
Some days I'd wake up feeling tired and grumpy, but once I was on the bike I'd be fine. Some days it would start raining just before I was going to leave for home, but still once I was one the bike everything melted away.
I totally agree everyone is different, and living closer to work would have been nicer. But by living far away I was able to: afford a house not a flat, afford a car for when I wanted to take journeys that actually cost more by train in the UK, live near huge green open spaces - all the while working for the UKs biggest media organisation and getting all the benefits of that and of living in London.
I ate listening to music on a commute, so it was 50 minutes of silence, 50 minutes of either planning my day or shaking off my day. When I'd get home I'd be totally chilled no matter how my day had been, and I'd get to work with a full plan of my day - or if I wasn't busy I'd just let my mind wander onto a million what ifs.
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I currently can't cycle and I really miss it - zoning out on the tube isn't the same, working out isn't the same, and it's hard to force yourself to cycled 25 miles a day if you aren't aiming to get anywhere.
But I can totally see how you could get the same from a car journey, or from just being at home earlier.
For me I have to work where I work now (central London), and I love living where I live.
God, I love driving. If I'm trying to think through a hard problem, I hop on the freeway and let my unconscious mind work through it while my conscious mind is focused on driving. It's as good for problem solving as sleeping is.
Biking, while healthy, is much more stressful for me. There's too much to watch for, too much that can go wrong too quickly, and no safety net if it does. I can't stop my mind of thinking what would happen if the rim collapsed right now, or if a squirrel ran out in front of me, or if the seat or handlebars broke... any system fails in a car you're still pretty well protected. On a bike, you're screwed. Doesn't stop me from commuting by bike, though.
I love driving... on open, uncongested highways at night. I can't stand driving to commute, straining my foot muscles in a maddeningly irregular pattern of pressing and releasing the brake as the cars ahead of me expand and contract at zero-to-five miles per hour.
Don't submit to playing the stop-and-go traffic jamming game. http://trafficwaves.org/ Even in rush hour I make a goal to press the brake as little as possible which simply means finding the average speed of the cars in front of me and going slower than it. It's a much less stressful way to drive and since I have a manual also requires less work.
I actually do my best to maintain a constant speed, though because of the large window in front of me, it often doesn't last long before someone merges in and sends me back to stop-and-go. I'm just glad I have transit options available.
A former roommate had a similar complaint. My response was "Your large window in front of you wasn't large enough." But I've also had a mile in front of me thinking the way ahead was clear only to turn a bend and brake really hard at the sight of yet another traffic jam. So it's not a perfect solution unfortunately. I want to see a startup that tracks people's phone and car GPSes (or other means of locating them since you don't need a GPS to get a cell phone's location) and offers a screen to put in the car or a tablet/phone app that shows you the locations and speeds of everyone in your vicinity it can and offers advice like "See this traffic jam 3 miles ahead? That's why you should slow down to 40 now like the new sign says you should do." (Eventually the app can control the car's speed itself.)
Transit is a good solution as well if time isn't important to you or you have a good transit system that doesn't take an hour to go a mere several miles. I've been up to BC's Vancouver a few times and I'm jealous of their skytrain.
Try commuting in a manual :) You can use the brake less by downshifting (which helps relieve congestion, people are seeing less brake lights), but talk about irregular foot movements. Need to be off the clutch to slow your car using the engine, but on it to slow your car using the brakes, off the clutch on the gas to start moving, then (clutch in) into second (clutch out) but whoa hold on, (clutch in) back into first (clutch out to slow down) and we're stopped (clutch in, brakes on, shift to neutral, clutch out).
Then we go again (clutch in, into gear, clutch out+gas), and it continues. If everyone was forced to drive a manual, we'd have less slowdowns (and less DUIs, IMO) just from the thinking and movement it requires. No one would want to stop.
Sadly, I don't know if this is true - all cars in England are manuals pretty much and we still have plenty of traffic and drink driving. Manuals are more fun though :)
True, this only works for places where people don't normally drive manual transmissions. Once the populace learns, this will no longer be effective.
I'm all for making driving more involving. If you have to use both feet and both hands to drive, it gets harder to eat a burger and apply your makeup and type on your laptop and wank all at the same time.
I doubt we (in the UK) have the same Drink Driving problem that the USA has, but I wonder if that is more to do with the distance to get to a good pub? It's often walking distance in the UK.
That said there are many nice country pubs, and I rarely see /drunks/ leaving them, though I am sure a fair few are over the limit.
Agreed. I think commuting by bike on trails, small streets, or separated from traffic is must less stressful than biking on a busy street. Even taking a bus is a bit more stressful than driving (for me) because the buses are so infrequent. Missing a crucial bus can cause an extra 30-45 minutes of travel time.
A 30 minute walk to work is great. It ensures that you get some exercise in before you get to work. If it's a nice area, you can drink some coffee, listen to a podcast and enjoy the walk. I'd much rather have 30 minute walk to work than a 10 minute drive.
You probably also don't see the point in home cooking when you could eat out, or growing your own vegetables when you could just buy them in a grocery store?
