Good article on commuting in The New Yorker:

Commuter-wise, New York City is an anomaly. New Yorkers have the highest average journey-to-work times (thirty-nine minutes) of any city in the country, but are apparently much happier with their commutes than people are elsewhere. It could be that New Yorkers are better conditioned to megalopolitan hardships, or that public transportation ameliorates some of the psychic costs. Or maybe they’re better at lying to themselves.

For myself, I really wish I was using the lightrail as much as I was the first couple months I came downtown. As it stands now, a monthly pass is as good as throwing away half the money (simply because I’m not coming downtown every day, which you almost HAVE to do to make the monthly pass pay for itself), and the weekly tickets are hard to remember to buy — the car is always there, and always ready, but it doesn’t get me to work any faster (sometimes quite the opposite); there’s a hidden benefit in that delays on the train just mean more time to read (they’re out of your control, and thus no big deal), while delays in your car are frustrating and stressful. Mostly, I miss the time I get on the train for reading; while I was using the lightrail more, I read more than a dozen books in a month and a half. Since then, I’ve read perhaps a quarter of that. I miss that, if nothing else.

But I miss working a four to ten minute drive away from my house most of all.

I was commuting downtown prior to the Light Rail being through, but even taking the "express" bus worked pretty decently (well, aside from the standing out by the bus stop for 5-10 minutes on snowy pre-dawn days). Plenty of time to read (I actually read the paper in those days).

I, too, miss the time back in Pasadena when, um, Margie's house was only 4-10 minutes from the office. On those occasions when I happened to be starting my commute from there. :-)