Think you have it bad? Try a 240-km commute

How about this? Would this be defined as "progress"? Then why is this lifestyle the one the majority of Canadians/Americans aspire to?

From the Toronto Star;

Think you have it bad? Try a 240-km commute

December 08, 2007
Tim Harper

BERRYVILLE, Va. – With West Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains and bucolic farmland still virtually in her rear-view mirror, Lori Forrester wheels onto Route 7, her target fixed, 120 kilometres southeast.

A quick left. And then she stops.

Pastures of green have given way to taillights of red...

...Research by David Dinges, chief of Sleep and Chronobiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, shows that the work commute is squeezing Americans' sleep.

When he and colleague studied why Americans are sleeping less they found, to their surprise, that the extra waking hours were not spent on leisure, in front of the television or with family, but sitting in the car.

"The more time people spent commuting, the less they slept,' he said. "The other activities did not relate to sleep time.''

It is also known that a lack of sleep, fewer than seven hours a day (or more than eight hours) also leads to obesity and risk of heart attack, diabetes and stroke, he said.

While that doesn't mean that lack of sleep is killing people, it plays into other factors that might.

It could mean that long commutes mean more fast food, he said, but that has yet to be proved.

"What's really going on here is that we can't do anything without getting into our motor vehicle and going somewhere,'' he said.

Beyond the health risks of sleep deprivation, there are also psychological dangers.
Dinges says fatigue leads to more risk-taking on the highways, likely adds to road rage and general "emotional deregulation'' which leads commuters to expect greater rewards for their time.

Alan Pisarski, a commuting consultant and author of Commuting in America, said there is still a significant economic advantage if your housing prices are cheaper in the exurbs, even with transportation costs going up.

"You have something you wanted, something you have always valued,'' he said.
"But how do you get to enjoy this thing when instead of being there, you're sitting in a car?''

I'll take my ten minute bike ride anyday, thank you very much!

The times, they are a'changin'

Yesterday, my whole family decided to enjoy the first major snowstorm of the season and go for a walk. We headed up to Ottawa street, playing in the snow drifts and pelting each other with snowballs. We then ducked into Karen's 4 Kids, as two of the three tykes needed something a little more substantial on their feet.

The kids didn't know what to do when the salesperson lead them to a chair, sat them down and took off their shoes. When he sat on the stool in front of them, cradling their tootsies in that silver foot measurement device, they looked as if they were being strapped into some medieval torture device for some long forgotten offence. Then it dawned on me...

They've never had their feet measured before!

In all the years their parents have been putting footwear on their feet, those shoes and boots have just been pulled down off the department/big box store's shelves and thrown on without a second thought. Then, here was this salesperson, dealing not just in manufactured goods (some actually made in Canada as well!) but also in service, pulling out an assortment of boots for the kids to chose from, trying them on and test-walking around the store. It was an experience that I remember participating in hundreds of times growing up, but have since forgotten as those store owners and shoe salespersons evolved into "sales associates" over the years.

The kids actually had fun shopping for winter boots, once they realized they weren't in trouble.