Being stuck on a train for an hour isn't the end of the world. But taking the same train ride twice a day, 5 days a week?

I value my time highly (not because I'm some rockstar who bills $300/hr, but because I like having autonomy over my own life). Assuming I sleep 8 hrs/day, work 8 hrs/day, and spend 2 additional hrs/day doing chores like showering, cooking, random errands, working out, etc, that only leaves 6 hours of free time.

With a two hour roundtrip daily commute, that cuts my free time by 1/3 and only leaves me with 4 hours to myself. Thus I place a high premium on those 4 hours.

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I think it's absurd that 1 hr+ commuting times are pretty normal (I live in NYC, and even 2-3 hour commutes are pretty common), and I think we should be striving to reduce this wasted time by increasing density in cities, making transportation more efficient, and increasing workplace flexibility (eg. embracing remote work).

I think it's a bit of an open question whether density will end up cutting average commute times.

It hopefully enables more people to have short commutes but the lower density housing around cities doesn't go away.

maybe I'm weird but I recently traded the density and short commute for a longer bus commute (hour each way) out to the suburbs and I actually like it better. I like having my work and home be two completely separate worlds, as well as not having to smell fermented bum pee on the suburban bus routes.

Personal time on a train? We must have very different ideas about personal time. Or maybe trains.