Crowding is the most intuitive feeling of people returning from the Spring Festival in the past two days.
Some people get on the highway and are stuck on the road "unable to move", the same distance, three hours to go, and several times to return. Someone grabbed a ticket, and the station hall was crowded with people, and the train was flowing endlessly.
On the commute on the first day of rework, congestion continued. For Chen Mei, who drifted north, the scene of "crowding people" is not unfamiliar.
The painful daily of extreme commuting, the longer it lasts. At the beginning of 2022, Chen entered a foreign company in Beijing and started an extreme commuting life. She lives in Chaoyang District and works in Haidian District. A day of extreme commuting begins in a crowded subway car.
At 7:45 a.m., she had to leave home. Squeeze into the rush hour subway with the crowd, walk to the office, and arrive at 9 o'clock. At the end of the day, this one-way commuter is 27 kilometers and takes at least 2 round-trips5 hours.
The morning rush hour of the subway with huge passenger traffic Visual China.
Like Chen, office workers crowded on the commute abound.
According to the 2023 Commute Monitoring Report on Major Cities in China (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") jointly released by the Urban Transport Infrastructure Monitoring and Governance Laboratory of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, and Map, commuting more than 60 minutes is called extreme commuting, and among the 45 major cities selected in China, the proportion of people who commute for more than 60 minutes is 12%, and more than 14 million people suffer from extreme commuting.
The report also notes that a 45-minute one-way commute is becoming an important indicator of a healthy public transport system, impacting people's quality of life. Under the index, the commuting distance of less than 5 kilometers each way is defined as a "happy commute". However, in 2022, the ratio of people happily commuting to major cities in China continued to decline, while the average commuting distance generally increased.
Extreme commuting is a pain point on the road of struggle in the workplace. More and more people are stuck in long commutes due to factors such as families, rents, employment opportunities, etc.
Commuter relay
Zhang Wei, who works in a first-tier city, needs to cross different urban areas every day.
At the beginning of 2023, Zhang Wei's family of three moved into a new home. In addition to the joy, he was left with a total of 120 kilometers of commuting distance back and forth. For a long commute, he also gritted his teeth and bought an electric car.
At first, the fear of the novice driver made him enter the subway.
At 6:15 every day, Zhang Wei has to go out from his home and spend 10 minutes taking the subway shuttle bus to the subway station. After entering the pit station, race against time to change to a different line. After leaving the subway station, it takes another 10 minutes to walk to the company, which takes nearly 2 hours each way.
Later, he began to get used to commuting by car, commuting back and forth for about 2 days a day5 hours. But either way, by the time he finally arrived at his place of work, he was exhausted. And that's just the "beginning" of the day.
Zhang Wei's commuting subway station Source: Xiaohongshu @ Siberian commuter brother.
A day when a migrant worker commutes to work is like running a relay race. In order to arrive at work on time, no matter how far away, office workers try their best.
For example, Wang Zhen travels back and forth to different cities every day. For a day's commuting, she usually needs to use the transportation combination of "battery car + light rail station express + shared bicycle" to complete the "relay".
Wang Zhen is a native of Jinhua, Zhejiang, and her husband and children live in Jinhua City. In August last year, she changed her job in Dongyang City and began a life of cross-city commuting.
Since then, a timetable for the LRT station express has been imprinted in her mind. At 6:57 a.m., the train she was going to take would arrive at the station, and the bus home would leave at 6:17 p.m.
On the days of extreme commuting, every migrant worker counted the time. They carefully choreographed each link, so that the threads of time are connected into a day's life. When you go out and when you arrive at the station, you need to fit it accurately. Any "mistake" in any step may take more time to make up.
In order to catch up with the big station express, Wang Zhen will go out at 6:30 in the morning, ride a battery car to the light rail station, get off the car and then ride a shared bicycle, and arrive at the company before 8:30. At around 5:50 p.m., she leaves her office, rents a shared bike, rides for about 16 minutes, and arrives at the LRT station a few minutes before the train arrives.
Timetable of the big station express train that Wang Zhen takes.
However, accidents always arise from time to time and disrupt her plans. On the day of the interview, Wang Zhen missed the express train home due to temporary overtime.
The light rail train she takes has two modes of operation: the big station express train and the station stop. The Big Station Express only takes 6 stations and can reach the destination in 1 hour. The train stops at 20 stations, not counting the time at both ends, and it takes 1 hour and 40 minutes to take the light rail alone.
According to the calculation of taking the big station express, Wang Zhen, who goes out at half past six in the morning, usually arrives home after eight in the evening, and the round-trip commute time is 4 hours. If something goes wrong, the commute will be longer.
The general perception is that big city people spend a lot of time commuting, but today, extreme commuters are spreading from the traditional image of "big cities".
When Yang Jing ended her two-year life in the north and returned to her hometown Jinan, she unexpectedly found that the time she spent on commuting increased instead of decreasing.
In 2019, after graduating from school, Yang Jing stepped out of Jinan for the first time, where she had lived for many years, and found a job related to software testing in Beijing.
At 9 o'clock in the morning, the sun shone through the curtains on the bed, and she woke up from her dream. At that time, it only took half an hour to ride to the office. She likes to cycle through the city streets and take in the sights.
Yang Jing's scenery recorded on her commute Courtesy of the interviewee.
Later, Yang Jing passed the exam and successfully went ashore. The trajectory of her life was thus redrawn, and the reversal of two buses became the first step in her daily life to work.
At 6:30 in the morning, the sky was still chaotic, so Yang Jing had to put on her bag and hurried to the bus station. Take the first train at 6:40 a.m. and arrive at the transfer station just after 7 a.m. Wait a few minutes for her second bus to arrive at 7:10. All the way from the starting station to the final station, the time will point to 8:20. Get off the bus, get on your bike, and arrive at the work point by 8:30.
Now, Yang Jing has no time to look at the scenery.
"Dozing off while driving".
Getting in and out of the car, Wang Zhen's day usually passes like this. And she was used to it.
For half a year, Wang Zhen shuttled between the two cities. As night fell, she had to settle dinner on the light rail home.
On the days when she returned late, she had to prepare the next day's dinner in advance, put it in the company's microwave oven before leaving work, and bring it to the car. In this way, the bento in your hand can still have residual warmth when you eat. Sometimes, after a quick meal, she has to pull out her computer and get back to the work she left over.
For Wang Zhen, who lives in two cities, the trouble of commuting usually haunts her mind before she leaves the house: whether it will rain or snow, and whether she can catch the big station express. She never looked at the weather forecast, and gradually developed the habit of reading the weather forecast.
Winter is a test for her. The icy air made her cycling before and after the LRT station hard. This is compounded by extreme weather and can have a direct impact on commuting times. Once, she arrived at the station earlier than usual, only to find that the Big Station Express was out of service due to snow. She can't get a taxi, so she can only take an ordinary train to work. The result is lateness.
Missed the big station express train, Wang Zhen took the ordinary train home Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
Like Wang Zhen, Yang Yingxin, who drives to work, was also late for an extreme commute, and even wrote a review because of this.
Yang Yingxin is a native of Jinhua City. Since 2012, she has been working in the system in Dongyang City, Zhejiang Province, and lives here. After getting married and having children, the husband and children settled in Jinhua City, and the couple became a "weekend couple".
Later, when the child reached the age of elementary school, in order to better accompany the child, she began to travel back and forth between Jinhua City and Dongyang City. Instead of light rail, she opted for an electric car commute with more freedom of time and lower costs.
Every morning at 7 o'clock, Yang Yingxin sat in the driver's seat, and the day's commute officially began. The 80-kilometer journey usually takes an hour and a half. But that's when things go well.
In case of traffic congestion, especially during rush hour, the one-way commute can be extended to two hours, and occasionally even two and a half hours. At the end of the day, her commute often takes three and a half hours.
Evening rush hour of congestion at Visual China.
In Yang Yingxin's view, extreme commuting is time-consuming and energy-consuming, "When I go to work, I am more free (idle), as if I can ease over." Sometimes, work becomes a good medicine for her to relieve her exhaustion.
She used to be busy with work during the day, and it was difficult to resist the invasion of sleepiness on the way to work. "I feel like I can't open my eyes, and I doze off while driving," Yang said.
Extreme commuting is a long journey, and there are always many people who struggle with sleepiness.
The probability of sleeping on the way to work (on the way) is likely to be above 90%, and the probability of leaving work is likely to be 80%. For Yang Jing, commuting is the time to get back asleep.
In the past two years, headphones have become the standard for her commute. In-ear noise-cancelling headphones isolate the noise from the outside world, close your eyes, listen**, and sleepiness will sweep in. Later, even without ***, she used to plug headphones into her cochlea. When you sit in your seat, your eyelids will unconsciously become heavy.
Previously, Yang Jing left her parents for the first time and lived a "semi-free-range" life in Beijing. At night, after half an hour of fixation and mother**, she was immersed in entertainment. Sometimes "mobile phone addiction", it is two o'clock in the morning when I come back to my senses.
Now, she is living a "wellness" life that is different from before. Before eleven o'clock at night, she would lie in bed and rest, just to get up early the next day.
But the exhaustion did not diminish from this. Several times, Yang Jing fell asleep in the car, and she didn't notice when the car arrived. It wasn't until she was woken up by the driver that she realized that the car was already empty.
Wait for spring
People who spend a lot of time on the road are used to spending their time in their own way.
Like Chen, who travels between Chaoyang and Haidian districts, she tries to find a balance so that commuting time is not purely negative and wasteful. And she did "taste a little sweetness" in it.
During the year of her extreme commute, she regained her habit of reading books and listening to podcasts. Her job doesn't require overtime and doesn't have too many workplace worries. After work, the more than an hour journey became her time to improve herself, and it also became her "the most time to read books since work".
Passengers on the subway commute to Visual China.
Last year, Chen moved to Haidian District, ending his days of extreme commuting. With similar rent, her home is nearly half smaller than the original, but the one-way commute takes only half an hour. Still, she keeps her commute to podcasts.
Yang Jing also thought about renting a house, closer to the office. However, there are not many houses that can meet her psychological expectations and can afford them, and some houses that are "not particularly good in condition, but can only be said to be unsatisfactory" also need to cost her 1 3 salary.
In contrast, at home, she only needs to pay a few hundred transportation expenses a month, which can not only save a rent, but also the living environment and quality of life of the family can be much higher. As soon as you get home, you can eat a hot meal, and you don't have to worry about utility bills.
The rest of the expenses through the extreme commute are used by her to satisfy her own emotional value. In her opinion, such expenses are "well spent".
In fact, behind every extreme commute, there are calculations and considerations. And everyone has their own solution.
Yang Jing drives herself to work and sometimes encounters ice and snow Photo provided by the interviewee.
In the solution of balancing family and ideals, extreme commuting is the optimal solution made by Wang Zhen.
Wang Zhen has always been independent. A long time ago, she thought she wanted a stable job and income. Even after giving birth to two children, she never thought of leaving the workforce. So, when a better job opportunity was in front of her, she longed for it.
Wang Zhen's last job met the criteria for a "happy commute" and only took about a 10-minute drive to arrive. And this new job is 81 kilometers away from home. The children at home are at the age when she needs to take care of them, and she can't rent a house near the company alone. To this end, she asked netizens who had similar experiences for help. After struggling for a long time, I finally mustered up the courage to jump to a new platform.
In order to squeeze out more time to spend with her children, Wang Zhen can only work hard during the day. Her company is in its infancy, and the heavy workload is eating up her time and energy. Time to eat, drink, and even go to the toilet has become a race against time, "equivalent to no rest time".
But she had no choice. Family is the reality that Wang Zhen has to face, and it is also the motivation for her to persevere.
Because of her family, Yang Yingxin said that after starting her extreme commuting, her happiness has improved.
In the early years, Yang Yingxin lived alone in Dongyang City, and bought a suite there, becoming the envy of others. However, the house and the three-kilometer commute did not make her happy.
I'm fine in another country".
At that time, when I got home early, all that was waiting for Yang Yingxin was an empty house. Dinner was solved outside, and when she got home, she didn't know what to do, and she stayed in her own house, but she always felt "drifting".
Now, the commute is exhausting. But when you walk into the house, the smell of food and the smile of your child will instantly fill up that sense of emptiness.
But extreme commuting is not the best state of the day. For Yang Yingxin, maintaining an extreme commute for long periods of time is unrealistic. It's just that until a better option arrives, she will continue to walk on the road with a more positive attitude.
Next spring, after the company's factory is built, Wang Zhen will move to a more remote location. There is no light rail there, so she has to drive to and from work. Because it is a fuel vehicle, at that time, the cost of transportation will rise. But the journey has been reduced from 81 kilometres to 60 kilometres, and she thinks the commute might be "easier".
Hopefully, it will get better and better in the future, and the weather will be warmer in the future. Wang Zhen was looking forward to it. She knew that spring would eventually come.
At the request of the interviewee, the names of the characters in the article have been changed).