How far would you go to work?

The British take twice as long as Italians to get into work in the morning, a new study has established.

People would rather travel an average 45-minute journey to work in the UK so that they can stay living in an area they like.

"We have the longest commute in Europe and even if our commuting time doubled, most of us would just shrug and leave more time for the journey" says the RAC executive director.

What's the longest or most difficult journey to work you've heard of? Is it part of the British temperament to put up with long, dreary journeys or do other nations accept as much to get to work? What wouldn't you endure to go to work?

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The following comments reflect the balance of views we have received:

I used to travel 2hrs each day on the M25, as I non-smoker I even took to smoking to calm my nerves on that epitome of urban hell, figuring the stress would kill me first. I now have 1 minute commute downstairs to my home office where I 'telecommute' using a broadband connection.
James Westgate, UK

I fly from Edinburgh to Munich via London Stansted on Monday and fly back the same route on Friday. My commute to work takes almost 8 hours, endless flight delays not included. If the government invested more in Broadband services, rather than building or expanding road networks more of us could work from home thereby reducing the congestion on roads.
G Smith, Scotland

I used to commute from Reading to Gosport, 135 miles round trip. Then I saw sense and got a job less than 8 miles from home - a journey I now cycle (quicker than driving!).
Guy Chapman, UK

My former boss was Dutch, and he would always laugh at the distances Canadians would drive. The next job I had, I ended up driving 1400 km each week...
Eric Hovius, Canada

In Denmark people travel more than one hour one way, and some times more than that. As people tend to get fresh air and want to avoid noise pollution typical of the cities, increasing number of people settle down in a small town and work in places which are quite far off! It is, of course causing traffic jam in the peak hours!
Srinivasan Toft, Denmark

One of the programmers in my IT team travels from Leicester into London and back every day by train. When the trains are unusable or we have weekend work to do he'll drive. Great bloke not so sure about his sanity.
MS, London

The lengths people will go to in order to get to work are very much conditioned by the size of our island. Americans are quite happy to drive over four hours to work and back in the same day (top of New York State down to Manhattan). I need three breaks if I'm driving from London to Birmingham, but that's because our concept of distance is different.
Edward, London, England

If the job is worth it then the journey is worth it! James, UK

I travel 1.5 - 2 hours each way on train and tube each day. One leg has been known to take 4 hours or more!! However I am becoming very well read and get full marks on the 'current affairs' in my pub quiz! If the job is worth it then the journey is worth it!
James , UK

Just as an aside, our local train company has recently restricted the carriage of cycles to off-peak hours only - does this strike anyone else as a kick in the teeth to people trying to make their commutes quicker/cheaper/easier on our roads?
Sarah, UK

I used to commute weekly to Paris from Reading. It was far easier than my daily commute across London nowadays.
Rachael, UK

The figures show that we spend more time in our cars than Europeans. That is because congestion is so bad! We are not actually going anywhere!
Chris, UK

Shouldn't the question be: How far would you go to get away from work?
Ben, UK

I currently live 75 km (ca. 46.5 miles) away from work. I work in the evenings, so travel in the opposite direction to rush hour traffic, yet the journey takes just over 1 hour. The advantages: I can live on a rambling old farm with a big house and lots of land - and FRESH AIR! I spend the mornings in the garden or out with the dogs - I am therefore tanned and healthy all year round. I also pay much less for all this house and land and good health than people living in small, one or two-room apartments in Munich
Ellie, Germany, ex-UK

I gave up on the commuting nightmare and started my own business working from home. "Travel to work" now takes about 20 seconds from the kitchen to the office. Feel healthier (no traffic fumes, more time for country walks), it's cheaper (no public transport or car costs) and less stressful (I know exactly the time I will arrive at work!). And the coffee is far better than that in my previous place of work...
John Kirriemuir, Lochwinnoch, Scotland

I currently take anything from 45 minutes to 2 hours to travel the 22 miles to work every day. This is because Edinburgh house prices are only getting higher and higher, and no-one on a public sector salary like mine can afford to buy anything decent in town. Over 50% of the adult population in the town I live in are in a similar situation.....
Jenny, Scotland

I know of a businessman whose home is in Johannesburg, but who works in London. For over a year this man "commuted" to work on an overnight Sunday flight and then "commuted" home on the overnight Friday flight, which sounds insane! As for me, I walk 30 minutes to work through a park, and count my blessings. I wouldn't want it any other way.
Gail, UK

We all need degrees of separation Ian Simmins, UK

Why would you want to live near to work anyway? We all need degrees of separation in our lives.
Ian Simmins, UK

Train from Southampton to London. Second train from London to Inverness. Drive from Inverness to the west coast of Scotland. Ferry over the sea to the Isle of Skye. Round trip roughly 1,600 miles, repeated at weekly intervals for 18 months. It's quicker now because there's a bridge to the Isle of Skye. These 45 minute daily commuters are little softies who have it easy!
C. Hunter, England

I can't imagine when else I'd get a chance to read the papers! I can't believe people find a 45 minute round commute frustrating. All my jobs and even my journey to school have been more than double that. To me the prospect of living and working in the same area is truly depressing. It suggests that your work priorities are paramount, and control almost all other aspects of your life.
Phil B, London, UK.

I drove 120 miles around the M25 everyday for two years and caused serious damage to my back and my sanity. Never again will I travel more than 30 minutes for any job.
Steve, UK

One of the reasons I have heard for such a far commute is that people prefer schools in the country for their children. However, people who are then commuting three hours a day to get to jobs in the city seem to ignore the fact that their children will benefit from decent time in the evenings and mornings with their parents far more than they will benefit from a school slightly higher up a league table!
Sharon, Scotland

I enjoy travelling Ian Simmins, UK

I was working in Scotland earlier this year. I used to travel for seven hours (car, plane and train) every Monday morning and Friday night between Devon and Dundee. I have worked away from home for the last five years, travelling during the week and returning home at weekends. The reasons I do it are simple; I enjoy travelling and Devon wages are low. You have to go where the money is...
Ian Simmins, UK

British people are wimps! Stop this country becoming a labour farm!
Colin, UK

During school holidays it takes me 15 minutes to travel to work, as opposed to 30 minutes during term time. Why don't all you people doing the school run leave your 4x4's at home and walk your overweight kids to school instead?
Dave, UK

The lady who lives in Spain but still works at an Asda store in the UK has to be the most ridiculous commute. She doesn't even earn enough money to cover the cost of the flight!
David, UK

I think I had one of the shortest commutes ever in London. Four minutes from my apartment to my office. I could actually see my desk from my bedroom window!
Rob, UK

We travel furthest to work, because property in our towns and cities is so extortionately expensive that no-one can afford to live near their jobs. My father used to work with a man who commuted from Kettering to Tottenham every day. I currently live 12 miles away from my office - the closest I have ever been to work !
S. Harris, UK

I once got to work 12 hours after leaving my house Wendy, UK

I once got to work at 5.30pm, exactly 12 hours after leaving my house. It was meant to be a 50 minute journey... but a crumbling railway and a lot of rain conspired against me.
Wendy, UK

Unlike most European countries, we've turned our cities into functional ghettos - offices in one place, industrial estates and shopping malls in another, with homes often displaced altogether. The commercial centre of Luxembourg contains banks and offices, apartments and shops, theatres and other civic amenities, all next to each other. If you live there as I did, you never have to get your car out of the garage.
Geoff, UK

I commute over two hours each way, from Ashford to London each day. It's not great, but by doing it, I own my own two-bedroom house with garden, and I get to live in the countryside, as opposed to renting some tiny flat in town. I think it's a fair trade.
Catherine Jung, UK

I live in the city and have a 15 minute bike ride to work. My house was in one of the poorest wards in the country and me and my partner have completely renovated it. As a result we live in a nice house in a nice city for less than a house in the suburbs and have a lifestyle that means our J-reg Fiesta has only 21,000 miles on the clock. We worked hard, yes, but it's also about working smart. Not like Catherine Jung above who feels it is her right to use London without contributing to it. People need to put more thought into what they are doing before we turn this planet into a complete mess.
Jus, UK

After WWII Britain just re-built its cities instead of completely redesigning them. As a result, we have a pre-war transport infrastructure that cannot cope with 21st century demands coupled with chronic underinvestment in the 1980s and 1990s. Until the powers-that-be recognise that public transport is less reliable, less convenient, more expensive, less comfortable etc than travelling by car then they'll NEVER get people to switch and commuting will continue to be a pain.
Andy, England

Any job that requires me to buy a car in order to get to work is too far as far as I'm concerned. When I lived in LA, I travelled for two hours to get to work every day and two hours home. It completely cured me of any desire to drive a car ever again.
Lisa, Cambridge, UK (US ex-pat)

A colleague was commuting from Derby to Central London during the Hatfield crash speed restrictions - four hours each way!
Dan, UK

I've heard of people commuting from the Isle of Wight to London every day. What is that, a minimum of three hours door-to-door? Lunacy!!
Andy, UK