There are folks who commute by car from Scranton to New York. There are also people who live in Harrisburg and York who commute to Baltimore and DC.

It’s insane.

The article says the commute took so long because of traffic and congestion on the roads, so the distance itself might not be that far. It’s an unreasonably long commute either way though.

I could maybe understand accepting a job that far away as a temporary solution, like if you are eventually planning to relocate to that area and need to save up first, or trying to break into an industry with limited local opportunities until you get a bit of experience and find something closer.

I live in Tipperary. A while ago I had an interview for a job in Louth, and one of the interviewers asked me if I would be driving the breadth of the country every weekday; her tone of voice and body language suggested this was a perfectly reasonable thing to do, and more plausible than moving house.

I answered no, I'd move, because people who drive across multiple counties 10 times a week are lunatics. Turned out one of the other interviewers was a lunatic.

Imagine judging someone because they couldn't find affordable housing (in this market) closer than 3 hours away from their job

There are some supercommuters who travel long distances to work in Manhattan. I knew of some who live in Pennsylvania.

Traffic may have been more manageable when they took the gig.

Or, maybe housing costs and limited jobs forced them into this position. I know a lot of people in my area live away from the urban center for more affordable housing, but they work in the urban center because that is where the job opportunities are.

I've got a coworker that works in the Bay Area but lives in the Midwest. Another I know works in New Jersey but lives in the Midwest. Corporate RTO initiatives in High COL areas with a salary differential coupled with lower Midwest COL and housing costs make strange things viable.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/housing-planning/2025/12/05/the-35-hour-35km-commute-kildare-motorists-on-their-m7-traffic-nightmare/

At those speeds I would advise using a bicycle, it's faster and cheaper

The study that I think of is the one that attempted to quantify how much a 45+ minute commute was worth to employees vs. an equivalent job that had a trivial commut but paid less. It came out to at least $15,000 a year and that was awhile ago.

What's really fascinating to me is that I hated our 35-40 minute commute, but now I drive even more and don't mind it.

I took the early retirement and am now working as a real estate photographer. Yesterday I drove 120+ miles for a job. No problem. I've had several days with over 100 miles, no problem. Monday I'll drive 50 miles for one job, then another 50 miles to another job, then 25 miles back home.

The differences are that it's not rush hour, and it's to different locations. It's more like exploring the area. There will be jobs I'm not looking forward to, I'm sure, but so far I really enjoy it. I even enjoy the drive, which is something I haven't done in many years.

My only concern is that my car is approaching it's 30th birthday, but I haven't had a single problem as a result of pressing it back into daily driver duties this way.