What’s a reasonable commute? An hour? Maybe two? What if, on some days, you spend more time getting to and from work than you do at your office doing your job?
This is the daily grind for hundreds of thousands of workers
who spend on average six hours – and sometimes up to nine – commuting to and
from Beijing, according to a recent BBC report.
Beijing residents spend on average 52 minutes commuting.
Many workers, however, have been priced out of the capital’s sky-rocketing
property market. They live instead in more affordable satellite towns and
cities, such as Yanjiao, in Hebei province, which is around 35 kilometers from
the capital.
By 2030, Chinese cities will be home to more than 1
billion people – or up to 70% of the population.
Traffic jams stretching for many kilometers are already
a familiar sight in Beijing, and other Chinese cities. In an effort to avoid
the gridlock, some commuters are not using their cars. Some ask elderly
relatives to queue for them at bus stops, where the wait to get on can be over
an hour.
The average American daily commute was about 24 seconds
longer in 2016 than 2015. Over the year, this added about three hours and 20
minutes to the total time spent getting to and from work.
In the UK, a two-hour commute is a daily reality for 3.7
million workers – a figure that has increased by a third in five years.
In recent years, a growing number of people have been
travelling even further to work. Known as “super commuters”, they cross borders
or cover very long distances. These commuters often work from home part of the time, and
make the journey once or twice a week, or less. They take advantage of
lower-cost housing where they live and higher salaries where they work.
In Europe, the share of cross-border commuters is
particularly high in Slovakia (5.7%), Estonia (3.5%), Hungary (2.4%) and
Belgium (2.3%). The rise of low-cost airlines in Europe has also contributed to
the growth of the super commuter.
Longer commutes are linked to increased rates of high blood pressure, back and
neck pain, depression and divorce. But there are upsides too. People report having the time to fall
in love with reading again and using it to further their education.
In the future, technology may well make long commutes a
thing of the past. Big data could revolutionize
traffic management. A system already in use in Madrid uses big data to match
fluctuations in demand for public transport by adjusting the frequency of buses
or trains. This improves punctuality while also reducing overcrowding.
But we may not have to commute at all. In the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, 44% of HR managers agreed with the statement: “Organizations are likely to have an ever-smaller pool of core full-time employees for fixed functions and external consultants and contractors for specific projects.”
Edited from World Economic Forum
