It's not you. Commuting is bad for your health

This is my morning commute. I get up, get ready, get in my car, drive to the train station, find a parking spot, get on the train for an hour and a half, get to Penn Station, take another train, walk five minutes and start work for the day. Will it kill me? Before you post a comment telling me to come close, you need to see that I'm not the only person who does this. This place is huge, but it's packed almost every day. Just this fall, they had to uproot a lot of trees to make more space for the parking lot, and it's still not always enough.

According to the US Census, the average one-way commute in America is nearly 30 minutes, which has increased in recent decades. In general, people are choosing to travel farther and farther than ever before. And those long exhausting working hours in a car, train or bus can affect one's health. Especially since we all hate it so very, very, very much. If you've driven or used the internet at all, you've seen articles and maybe read some research. Commuting has been linked to increased obesity, stress, anxiety, depression, higher blood pressure, higher divorce rates, neck and back problems, shorter life expectancies, and you get the idea.

Long round trips are not good for you. But a lot depends on how you do it. For example, a study of commuters in Montreal, Canada found that people who walked, biked or hopped on the train were more satisfied with their lives than those with comparable commute times to other modes of transportation. In another study, British researchers found that people who commute to work instead of public transport are more likely to be obese. Sitting in a car all day actually increases the negative effects of an inactive lifestyle.

You sit for hours, and when all is said and done, it's really hard to find the time or motivation to exercise. And that's not all. Studies have shown that driving alone in particular can make you more unhappy. You're alone with your thoughts for hours on end, often in frustrating situations, so it's no surprise that it's a disaster for mental and physical health. But according to a 2010 report, 80 percent of Americans drive to work every day.

By comparison, public transport users are slightly healthier and slightly more satisfied with their lives. However, we tend to be more negative about our experiences. Public transport riders often hate timetables. If I don't leave work on the dot at 6, I won't make it to 6:21. If I don't make it to 6:21, I have to get up at 6:53 and that's the difference between getting home at 8:00 p.m. and I go home at 8:45. When you factor in things like transfers, delays, cancellations, you are really setting yourself up for a very stressful and annoying trip. Basically, it doesn't look good for my mortality. So why do so many of us do it?

Commuting has been considered a source of stress, but it actually gives people a break. Sometimes this is the only time of the day when people can be alone, think and listen to music. That means my commute isn't technically dead space during my time. I enjoy reading, listening to podcasts, taking advantage of my alone time, but I also work when necessary. The change in communication transformed commuting into an extension of the workday or an individual's ability to do things that could not otherwise be done. It's not just a way to get from A to B.

In other cases, when people live in the gig economy, a home accessible by transportation is much more important than being near work. If you don't have a job for life, have a home for life. Is my commute killing me? Well, it's not really the best way to spend so much time and it's tiring, but you can make the most of it. And there's something to be said for coming home at the end of it all

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