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Gerad Kite used to spend his lunch hour
walking along London's Marylebone Road breathing in the traffic fumes. Now,
more often than not, the acupuncturist can be found sitting in the garden of his
17th century home in Southwest France, taking a leisurely lunch or working on
his new book.
Kite hasn’t given
up his career. Rather, he is one of a growing number of super-commuters –
people who travel 145 km (90 miles) or more each way to their place of work.
Many swap the daily commute for weekly or fortnightly travel.
Every two weeks
Kite flies 965 km (600 miles) to London from his local airport, cramming in two
weeks’ worth of client treatments into several days. He rents a room near his
work when he is in town.
His income
declined when he made the switch to super-commuting, but Kite said his travel
expenses are low and the cost of living in France is much lower than in London
— to the point he has been able to pay off his debts.
“It's a better
lifestyle,” Kite said.
Eudald Ayats, a 35-year-old chemical engineer,
lives in Barcelona, Spain where the economy is still suffering after a long
recession. So, when he received a good job offer in Brussels, a two-hour trip
by plane, he negotiated commuting and housing costs with his employer and now
commutes weekly between the two cities. This decision means he can continue
living with his partner, who remains in Barcelona.
“We have a better
financial situation, and we both have jobs we love,” he said. “Work-life
balance has shifted to two extremes [for me]. Monday to Friday morning is full
work-mode, usually meaning long work hours, while Friday evening to Sunday is
full family-mode, where working is forbidden with very rare exceptions.”
David Furlong, a 52-year-old financier, recently
purchased a property in the south of France and commutes weekly to the City of
London, a move made possible because his employer allows him to work one day
per week from home.
He’s in London
Monday through Thursday, and works from his home office on Friday. It costs him
more to maintain two homes, but the trade-off is long weekends in the sun and a
calmer home environment. That’s one reason higher costs, or a loss of income,
are worth it to some people who want a more peaceful life at home.
Furlong said he
had a “wake-up call” after several friends and colleagues passed away at an
early age, he believes partly as a result of over-work.
“At that point, I
told myself I had to change something. It was about finding balance in my
life,” he said.
Terrence Karner, a 43-year-old consultant with
advisory firm Deloitte in Chicago, is in the middle of a six-month placement
with his firm's New York office to pursue better opportunities. He commutes
weekly from Chicago and, while the work is stimulating, he’s sensitive to the
pressures the long-distance commute puts on his wife.
“Even so, the trade-off has been worth it. It
was outside of the comfort zone for me and my family,” Karner said, but the
increased opportunities he’s had in New York have been a big benefit. “It's
probably a cliche to say it, but the world economy demands it.”
Experts who study
commuting estimate there could be hundreds of thousands of super-commuters
worldwide, made possible in large part because of technological advances and
the proliferation of low-cost airlines. Combined, these make it cheaper and
easier for employees to work and commute from remote locations.
For instance,
across Europe, low-cost airlines Easyjet and Ryanair now offer over 1,000
routes between them, with the cost of return flights between European
destinations sometimes as low as 40 euros ($50), about the same price as a
weekly travel pass on London's underground train network. In fact, a growing
number of Easyjet's 12 million annual business travellers are super-commuters,
according to the airline.
Between 2002 and
2009, the most up-to-date data available, New York University’s Rudin Center
for Transportation found that the number of super-commuters in Houston doubled
to 251,200, accounting for 13.2% of the local workforce. In Manhattan, the
group grew by 60% to 59,000, with Philadelphia – 161 km (100 miles) away from
the city center – the biggest source of the city's long-distance workers.
But
super-commuting is much broader than such relatively short-distance trips.
London's Metropolitan Police once had a police officer who commuted from New
Zealand – 19,312 km (12,000 miles) away – working two months on and two months
off. It is estimated that around 300,000 Lebanese travel 3 hours by plane to work in the Persian Gulf, often in the oil industry, yet
maintain residency in Lebanon. Less extreme: the 322 km (200 miles) roundtrip
from Tucson to Phoenix, the most popular super-commute in the United States,
counting almost 55,000 workers who work in a range of industries, according to
the Rudin Center research.
One New York City
super-commuter is the husband of Megan Bearce, author of 2Super Commuter
Couples: Staying Together When a Job Keeps You Apar"t. Just six months after the
family relocated to Minneapolis, Bearce's husband was offered his dream job in
New York, more than 1,600 km (1,000 miles) away.
The couple
decided to give it a try, and four years later they have not looked back.
“It's actually
been really great,” Bearce said, although she advises would-be commuters to
“weigh what it is costing you financially and emotionally.”
Long-distance
commuting can mean greater expenses, for instance, but “if you are going to New
York, for example, the salary increase may offset the higher cost”, she said.
Not everyone who
opts to super-commute does so out of choice, according to Bearce. In the US,
after the financial crisis it was difficult, if not impossible, to sell homes
in some areas of the country and the job market was extremely tight. People had
to look further away for work, but were unable to move, she said. The same has
been true outside the US, too.
Whatever the
motivation for super-commuting, those who have done it advise caution.
“Have a Plan B if
after six months it's not worth it,” Bearce said. And, Kite’s advice is to test
the super-commute lifestyle before you leap. “Experiment first and then do it.”
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| Gerad Kite commutes to London from his home in southern France. (Gerad Kite) |
