I've done everything from an hour and 10 minutes one way (in Kansas City) to 7 minutes in Newport Beach. I'm currently doing about 25 minutes, and about 10 minutes more going home, and I'm ok with that. I'll be moving back to the KC metro again next month (to Overland Park), and I plan on putting myself in the 10-15 minute range.
Doing the reverse commute in Chicago (from 5700 north at the Lake to Lisle) was about 50 minutes on a good day but on a Bulls game day (in the Michael Jordan era), all hell broke loose and it could take me 2 1/2 hours or longer to get home . And no sane person can drive the Eisenhower every day and stay that way.

My commute: 8 subway stops against rush hour traffic, 25-40 minutes. "against rush" doesn't mean much in NYC as the subway is busy enough to have traffic and screwups in any directions.

Longest commute: 3 hours from Queens to Morristown, NJ, all on public transit. NEVER AGAIN. Fellow tri-state GCers, give tld221 circa 2006 a hug.

My ideal commute on public transit is under an hour door-to-door, and close enough that cab fare is less than going to the airport.

((Hugs))

I've done this before! When I was living in NJ, I had to go one additional stop to Morris Plains. Even just getting across the city to reach Penn Station in time was a task, then add waiting for the track to be announced, everyone herding themselves like cattle into the small doorways of the track entrance, and trying to find a seat! Then it was an additional 45 min to an hour to Jersey. It takes a special kind of person to put up with that every day. Fortunately, I only had to do it on occasion for a few weeks at a time!

I commute about 33 miles each way. On a good day it takes 50-60 minutes driving straight east into the rising sun on the Mass Pike, then about 40-45 minutes driving home (straight west into the setting sun). On a bad day or snowy day it's taken me up to 4.5 hours (but only two or three times in the past 5 years). It's pretty dependent on the time I leave as to how much traffic I hit going in.... I use the time to wake up fully, gather thoughts, ponder meals to cook for the week, etc.

Good luck in conquering the exhaustion!

Start my new job today and it should be about 23 minutes in zero traffic. It could be up to 30-45 at peak traffic. Maybe I'll actually time it today to know for sure.

In OKC, there's no traffic to speak of. I live about 10 miles from work near the downtown area. It takes me 15-30 minutes to get there depending on traffic.

45 minutes for 5 miles. That is crazy. I'd probably start walking to work and get the exercise. :)

I live 5 miles from my job and it takes me 10-20 minutes depending on time of day. We live 65 miles away from my husband's job and it takes him a little over an hour because he works weird hours. 65 miles is a lot but it allows us to live near family and in a nicer area than if we lived closer to his job. We think about moving but we'll probably wait until our kids are in college.

We just budget for high gas bills, monthly oil changes and new cars for him about every 5 years (he put over 200K miles on the last car). He loves talk radio and listening to books on tape so it seems to work for him. I couldn't do it but it's a sacrifice he makes for his family.