To think a 55 minute commute is too long?

[Penguinotterfoxbadger]

So dp and I are buying a house in London.

The house he likes would mean my commute was a 20 minute walk to the tube, a 30 minute tube journey (with one change) and another 5 minute walk.

My preferred area would have only about a 5-10 minute walk to the tube (the rest of the journey would be v similar).

Aibu to care about the extra 20 - 30 mins travelling time per day? (He doesn't work because of health problems).

X

It's hard - I do 10/15 min walk, 30 min Metrojourney, 10/15 minute walk to work (2 days a week I take toddler ds too)

Add on waiting for metros that never run to timetable / not being able to get on as it's already full and it can be pretty miserable.

I think that's very normal. I live NO where near London and my commute was 1hr 15 and that's not unusual.

Thanks for the replies!

I can see that iab a bit u but that doesn't stop it bothering me iyswim.

The areas are "upper" Walthamstow (where we have found a nice house that we can afford) and Bushwood in Leytonstone (a bit more expensive and nothing suitable on the market right now ).

House buying was so exciting at first but it is becoming exhausting and stressful

I agree with others. An hour commute is pretty much the Lonfon norm and so 55 minutes is not "too long", but a 20 minute hike to
The Tube station probably is.

I agree with you OP, I wouldn't live anywhere further than a 10 min walk to the tube. Twenty minutes would be too long for me, it makes a real difference to a daily commute, especially with bad weather, or if you have to carry heavy items/shopping etc, or when you want to dress up and wear heels. It is not just the extra travelling time but the extra inconvenience of having to walk that distance.

I know that it's not uncommon to live further than that from the tube in London, but I'm used to living up to 7 mins walk to the tube, even if that has meant living in lesser areas/living in a flat when we could afford a house a bit further away. If you are planning to buy a house, perhaps you could opt for a flat instead but closer to transport, or an area that is not so popular?

Can't you get a bus to the tube station if 20 minutes walking bothers you? Personally, I'd take it as a chance to do it fast and get fitter. An hour's commute seems pretty standard to me.

Cycling or scooting would cut the time right down... As would catching a bus.

For a 55 min commute you could prob live somewhere much nicer and bigger but further out of London.

I do love London though... moving out :(

Oh and upper Walthamstow is fine in my eyes (a bit gritty but it doesn't bother me, 15 mins to epping forest) but bushwood is just that bit nicer (a bit more up market, outstanding primary school, 5 mins walk to a big park)

Ah ok I don't really have experience of either of those areas so I guess I can't really comment! In the one with the 20 min walk to tube, are there buses you could take if bad weather? If so I think that makes a big difference.

Thanks to the people pointing out the 20-30 min is there and back. Makes perfect sense now, sorry!

I'm really shocked at the number of people that think the walk is bad. I used to do a 40 minute walk to work whatever the weather (in city admittedly not I don't know hiking across fields) and never thought it was that bad !

Don't get me wrong I could probably have taken a bus but I'd have had to wait 15 minutes outside for it anyway then get off and walk for the last part so it didn't really seem worth it.

Yes, there is probably a bus but I'd rather be walking the waiting for a bus in the cold!

It's not the walk from that bothers me exactly.. I like walking... I don't drive and have lived in central London for pretty much all my adult life and I think living so far from a tube scares me a bit.. Like I'm marooned or something.. Pretty sad!

Ah I see. Yes I can see how someone used to such good transport on every corner wouldn't be so happy about that.

DH is just about to change his job to get rid of a 1 h commute (bike and train) each way. He's now going to have a 15 minute cycle ride to work, it is going to save us £6.5k pa on travelling and childcare costs. YANBU.

Having said that, if you can't get the property you want close to the tube hsve you thought about getting a folding bike to make the commute a bit quicker?

Namechange I think Weecheeky is right about it being the number of elements too. Walk, navigate escalators and corridors down to tube station, wait, tube (probably standing all the way), then another walk, repeat in reverse every evening, is a lot more draining than just the walk in isolation.

OP it is all about what the trade offs are.

Yeah but all you people saying 55 mins is OK for London are ignoring that the OP has another option with a much shorter commute. Why should he get his choice when she's doing the journey? That sounds like a totally crappy journey, what with the tube change and everything. I know lots of people do it when they can't afford to live any closer (and when both of them are working!) but if you can afford to go closer, of course you should. Two hours a day, with 8 different bits to the journeys sounds exhausting on top of a normal working day. If I did that, I would expect to get home to my evening meal cooked, all the housework and laundry done and the recognition that I was still knackered (probs too knackered for sex).

Will you feel safe on the walk home?

I would have said 55 mins. was about average - especially for London.

I think living so far from a tube scares me I was living in South London - we don't (well didn't then) go in for tubes south of the river. Took me 55 mins/a hour to get to Holborn.

I used to do about an hour to central London - 15 mins to the tube, 20 mins on it and 15 mins walk. The worst bit for me was the walks to and back from the tube.

I walk 20 minutes to and from train each day in London. It's fine. Good shoes, umbrella, decent waterproof for the seldom days it's wild weather. Good music on the earphones.

I think of it positively - even if I do no other exercise, I still walk at least 40 minutes each day. Past week in the bright sunshine and brisk air has been lovely.

I seriously don't find it a problem.

It takes me about an hour to drive DS to school in the mornings and then an hour home again.

But that's all in the car

When I was younger I walked just over an hour, rurally, morning and night and I've never been so fit!! Am now peripatetic with 10-60minute car journeys. The commute is fine - what's not fine is your non-commuting DH expecting you to compromise when there's precisely nothing in it for you to do so... I'm also house hunting and my DH and I have never argued so much, for that you have my sympathies.