Speaker 1: Most of the time, my workday starts with this sound
Speaker 1: clear of the door please. For many more Americans, it
Speaker 1: sounds something like this. A few people like commuting, but
Speaker 1: have you ever thought about how your trip to work
Speaker 1: affects your job and your life? This is a game plan. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Francesco Leavie and I'm Rebecca Greenfield, and today we're
Speaker 1: talking about commuting. Becca, How was your commute this morning?
Speaker 1: It was a cliche of a bad New York City commute.
Speaker 1: Why don't you do the thing that everybody says you
Speaker 1: shouldn't do and tell me about how bad your commune was. Yeah, sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna riot talk. You're gonna have to hear it.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was like, got on my regular train,
Speaker 1: that train got out of service because I later learned
Speaker 1: there was a track fire, got into the other train,
Speaker 1: which is a much slower commute, and at every station
Speaker 1: stop it was like some mumbled reasoning of why we
Speaker 1: were stopped and I don't know why, And like an
Speaker 1: hour and fifteen minutes later I got to work, which
Speaker 1: is like double the time it normally takes me. So
Speaker 1: it was frustrating. It was bad. I did get a
Speaker 1: seat eventually, because I was on the train for so long.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, it was just I was knew I
Speaker 1: was coming in to talk about commuting, and I knew
Speaker 1: you'd have a place to air those grievances. So thank
Speaker 1: you for listening. How is your community? My community actually
Speaker 1: was was okay this morning. Sorry I did. I left
Speaker 1: a little early this morning. I'm glad I did because
Speaker 1: I came in and I came into like a page
Speaker 1: of emails from people explaining how they were stuck on
Speaker 1: the train. And it's like, and this happens when I
Speaker 1: have worked places um where I would have to drive,
Speaker 1: and the same thing happens you you have this night
Speaker 1: were commute. You lose all this time that you wanted
Speaker 1: to spend out work getting stuff done, and then you
Speaker 1: lose more time when you get to work because you're
Speaker 1: commiserating with your coworkers about how terrible the commute was
Speaker 1: because everyone else had the same experience. Commuting is just
Speaker 1: this universal thing that connects us all because we hate
Speaker 1: it and it makes our life terrible. Yeah, And there've
Speaker 1: been a lot of articles about how in New York City,
Speaker 1: specifically this summer, it's the summer of hell. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of repairs happening for commuters who come into New
Speaker 1: York City. But then also the subway just happens to
Speaker 1: be breaking down a lot, making things even worse. But
Speaker 1: commuting in general is not like a New York City
Speaker 1: specific frustration. No, and we have it bad, but the
Speaker 1: whole country spends a lot of time getting to work,
Speaker 1: and the average Americans spends twenty five minutes getting to work,
Speaker 1: and most of those people are doing it in a
Speaker 1: car by themselves. So more than three quarters of people
Speaker 1: around seventies six or seventy seven percent are driving solo
Speaker 1: to work, and then a little less than ten percent
Speaker 1: car pool, five use public transportation, and then every other
Speaker 1: way of getting to work from like not going anywhere
Speaker 1: because you work from home, to walking or biking, those
Speaker 1: are all less than five percent each. I would argue
Speaker 1: that twenty five minutes in a car is equal to
Speaker 1: or worse than forty minutes on the subway. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: so there's yeah, And also remember like twenty five minutes
Speaker 1: of the average, which means a lot of people are
Speaker 1: spending way more time, and then some people and then
Speaker 1: a lot of people are spending way less time. But yes,
Speaker 1: there are advantages and disadvantages to both. Like in the subway,
Speaker 1: you could read a book or a newspaper, or on
Speaker 1: your phone frantically emailing our colleagues are running late. Well
Speaker 1: you if you have WiFi. True, but I feel like
Speaker 1: if you're in a car stuck in traffic, you could
Speaker 1: at least like get on a conference call. Maybe that
Speaker 1: not around a bunch of other cranky people. Yes, you're
Speaker 1: you're in your own space, you have music, and like,
Speaker 1: maybe there's more of a sense of control when I've
Speaker 1: been stuck in this summer of hell. I've been part
Speaker 1: of a couple of severe delays where you're just trapped underground.
Speaker 1: You have that unique New York feeling of being in
Speaker 1: darkness with no explanation why in an aluminum can with
Speaker 1: a bunch of other people, and you just feel so
Speaker 1: helpless and out of control. At least you have some
Speaker 1: illusion in a car of having some control because you
Speaker 1: can like move your car forward two feet every fifteen minutes. So,
Speaker 1: if I were a person who really cared about commuting,
Speaker 1: it was like my number one thing for finding a job.
Speaker 1: Are there places where it is better than other places? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so counties in New York are unsurprisingly among the worst
Speaker 1: places for commuting, so are some counties in California, Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: in the Bay Area. And then all of the best
Speaker 1: places to commute are pretty far flung rural areas like
Speaker 1: in Alaska, where the population density is really low, and
Speaker 1: so basically people just aren't traveling that far to get
Speaker 1: to work. They're also arguably aren't as many jobs, and yeah,
Speaker 1: the solution to your commute is probably not moving to Alaska. Um. So,
Speaker 1: we all know commuting is annoying and it's fun to
Speaker 1: complain about what a bad commute you have, But there
Speaker 1: are other bad things about commuting you might not even
Speaker 1: think about. For one thing, it's actually bad for your health.
Speaker 1: There was a UK study that showed that people who
Speaker 1: spend more than a half hour getting to work are
Speaker 1: more likely to have depression, They're more likely to have
Speaker 1: financial problems and have more work related stress. But yeah,
Speaker 1: you're it's affecting your life, and if you think about it,
Speaker 1: it's not that crazy. I mean, this is a big
Speaker 1: chunk of time. Even if you spend the average twenty
Speaker 1: five minutes getting to work, that's almost an hour every
Speaker 1: day that you spend on your journey to and from work,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of dead time, and it's either like,
Speaker 1: at best it's neutral, you got to work without any problems,
Speaker 1: but you kind of lost that time, and at worst,
Speaker 1: it's this nightmare that, like in your case today, gets
Speaker 1: you to work late and feeling pioed. Very I never
Speaker 1: really think of commuting as being bad for my health,
Speaker 1: but more I'm more annoyed in the way it affects
Speaker 1: my work day and how I have to shovel everything
Speaker 1: around and sometimes I have to cancel meetings, and sometimes
Speaker 1: people cancel on me. I read in a Bloomberg article
Speaker 1: that the summer of health is costing Manhattan employers fortune
Speaker 1: point five million dollars for every hour train commuters are delayed.
Speaker 1: And there have been all these articles about people losing
Speaker 1: jobs and people missing job interviews, and there was that
Speaker 1: it was a feel good, viral new story about that
Speaker 1: guy who like they held a graduation ceremony for him
Speaker 1: on the subway because he missed his graduation ceremony because
Speaker 1: of a delay. And that's your major life milestones on
Speaker 1: the subway. But that's that's happening regularly, and I think
Speaker 1: it's a big problem for not just employers, but people
Speaker 1: trying to do their jobs. Yeah, so these huge effects
Speaker 1: of commuting seem like they would be top of mind
Speaker 1: when we were picking a new job or deciding where
Speaker 1: we're going to live. But I like most of us
Speaker 1: just kind of accept our commute as a fact of life.
Speaker 1: And if it takes you an hour to get to work,
Speaker 1: or if it's a really frustrating forty five minutes on
Speaker 1: the subway, that's just the way it has to be.
Speaker 1: But we wanted to find out how exactly things got
Speaker 1: this way and what if anything can be done to
Speaker 1: make it better. And that's what our guest is going
Speaker 1: to talk to us about. Richard Florida is an urban
Speaker 1: studies theorist. He's a professor at the University of Toronto
Speaker 1: and author of many books, including The New Urban Crisis.
Speaker 1: Welcome Richard, it's great to be with you. Um let's
Speaker 1: get started just by asking why does it take Americans
Speaker 1: as long as it does to get to work? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I think Americans have been fascinated with the
Speaker 1: idea of buying I guess a less expensive house on
Speaker 1: the one hand, or a a home in the Bucolic suburbs.
Speaker 1: So you know, beginning I'm assuming sometime in the in
Speaker 1: the beginning of the twentieth century. This idea is that
Speaker 1: that you could live far away from work and at
Speaker 1: that time take a subway or a train to work,
Speaker 1: or then more recently, drive your car to work, and
Speaker 1: that was something you did to have the suburban lifestyle
Speaker 1: or the size of home that that you want. The
Speaker 1: point of fact is, though you know, according to nearly
Speaker 1: every study of the subject I've read, and trust me,
Speaker 1: I've read a lot of them, the single thing you
Speaker 1: can do to make yourself the most miserable is endure
Speaker 1: a long commute to and from work. So so maybe
Speaker 1: we have to begin to rethink that. So has the
Speaker 1: American relationship to the car changed as commutes have gotten worse? Well,
Speaker 1: I think so. You know, um, my father, who was
Speaker 1: born in the twenties, certainly saw the car, you know,
Speaker 1: he talked to me a lot about that as his
Speaker 1: escape from Newark, New Jersey, is his escape from the
Speaker 1: old Italian village, you know, with grandma and grandpa and
Speaker 1: aunts and uncles looking over their shoulder. You he didn't
Speaker 1: feel like he had freedom, and the car for him
Speaker 1: as a young person, you know, as a young factory worker.
Speaker 1: Blue collar work was a way to have some fun.
Speaker 1: Uh And then when he got married, you know, it
Speaker 1: was a way to move to a bedroom, working class
Speaker 1: bedroom suburb of Newark. Uh And and that raised his
Speaker 1: family the way he and my mom won't saw fit
Speaker 1: um And certainly for me and people of my generation,
Speaker 1: you know, baby boomers, the car was also you know,
Speaker 1: I was so mad at myself when I was a
Speaker 1: young person, I didn't have much money. I worked on
Speaker 1: my jobs. I had to help put myself through college.
Speaker 1: But you know, people had these you know, camaros and
Speaker 1: can tell him the kid from New Jersey, Thunderbirds and
Speaker 1: and all of this kind of thing. And I felt
Speaker 1: so bad and inadequate because I couldn't afford a car.
Speaker 1: In fact, I couldn't afford a car until I graduated
Speaker 1: and got my pH d. And at that point all
Speaker 1: I could afford was a little measly Toyota Tersell, and
Speaker 1: I guess I felt inadequate. But but today, you know,
Speaker 1: the people I teaching, the people I teach in university,
Speaker 1: they don't want a car. And I think that's the
Speaker 1: big change, you know, And and they say, you know,
Speaker 1: for them, a car is just a part. It's a
Speaker 1: financial burden. And anyway, you know, if they want to
Speaker 1: go out and have fun at night, what kind of
Speaker 1: lunatic would drive a car. Then they want to ride
Speaker 1: their bicycle or live close enough to walk or or
Speaker 1: take transit. So I do think, you know, the shift
Speaker 1: isn't is in the majority. You know, look, percent of
Speaker 1: Americans still drive a car to work alone by themselves.
Speaker 1: And of course those numbers are very different in the
Speaker 1: New York metropolitan area than anywhere else where. Many more
Speaker 1: people walk a bicycle and certainly, um, you know a
Speaker 1: large share of people take transit of one sort of
Speaker 1: another go to work. But but it's very interesting when
Speaker 1: you look at it the people who who who take
Speaker 1: transit or bicycle to work, it's actually very bifurcated. They're
Speaker 1: they're either relatively affluent people or they're not affluent people,
Speaker 1: their economically disadvant And where it really strikes me is
Speaker 1: so interesting, is that's particularly true of people who bike
Speaker 1: to work. You know, the image the image of people
Speaker 1: biking to work are you know, young millennials and yuppies
Speaker 1: with a scarf around their neck and and you know,
Speaker 1: a saddle bag, a leather saddle bag, riding a Dutch bike,
Speaker 1: you know, one of these handcrafted Dutch bicycles to their
Speaker 1: graphic design job. And certainly that's true. You know, you
Speaker 1: have a greater percentage of people making over a hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year biking to work. But but but
Speaker 1: there's also a great percentage of people making under ten
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year biking to work. So so the
Speaker 1: very interesting thing that that that these alternative modes of
Speaker 1: transportation are something that either the very affluent use or
Speaker 1: the very poor use. You've talked about changing preferences. How
Speaker 1: the younger people you teach are they want to take transit.
Speaker 1: Our city is changing to accommodate these preferences. Um, not
Speaker 1: fast enough. I mean we we really in the United
Speaker 1: States have have not invested in our transit infrastructure for
Speaker 1: a century. One of the things I point out in
Speaker 1: my book The New Urban Crisis. The reason why real
Speaker 1: estate around transit stops close into the city center, of course,
Speaker 1: but around transit subs, around subway stops, around rail hubs
Speaker 1: is becoming so valuable is because there's so few of them. Um.
Speaker 1: And you know, according to really recent and important research
Speaker 1: what what what is really driving people back to cities.
Speaker 1: There's a better you know, there's a lot of good
Speaker 1: job opportunities there, and there's fun to be had, and
Speaker 1: there's great restaurants and great amenity. But one of the
Speaker 1: big things is to keep their commute short and to
Speaker 1: stay out of a car. So when they have a
Speaker 1: more enjoyable life, they get more done. But but more importantly,
Speaker 1: they get more time to spend with their friends and family,
Speaker 1: which is very valuable. So they want to keep their
Speaker 1: commute short. And if they can't walk close enough to
Speaker 1: work to be able to walk to work, they want
Speaker 1: to be near transit so they don't have to endure
Speaker 1: long and again very painful, psychally painful car commute. How
Speaker 1: does commuting affect not only the decisions people make about
Speaker 1: where they work, but their jobs overall. Well, company after
Speaker 1: company that I talked to tell me they're moving out
Speaker 1: of suburb X in x y Z metropolitan area back
Speaker 1: to the urban center, not only because there are more
Speaker 1: people living in downtown and more things to do downtown,
Speaker 1: because it's an easier to commute. There's much more transit connectivity.
Speaker 1: People can take a train or a bus and they
Speaker 1: can get there from any part of their city or
Speaker 1: metropolitan region. So I think we're seeing a big movement.
Speaker 1: You know, in my own research, I've documented that now
Speaker 1: well more than half of all tech startups, which used
Speaker 1: to be completely and entirely located in suburban offices complex
Speaker 1: as you know, the so called nerdos stands where the
Speaker 1: high tech engineers wanted to drive their fancy sports cars
Speaker 1: are hepped up SUVs. Now more than half of those
Speaker 1: startups are in urban centers like Lower Manhattan or the
Speaker 1: downtown parts of San Francisco. So I think you've seen
Speaker 1: a big shift over the over the past years. That
Speaker 1: the problem is there really is a class divide here. Um.
Speaker 1: The people who are most likely to be able to
Speaker 1: walk to work or or or take a quick one
Speaker 1: stop transit ride to work, you know, under a half
Speaker 1: an hour, under twenty minutes, tend to be affluent, highly
Speaker 1: educated people, um, you know. And then the middle class,
Speaker 1: if you will, and the middle class and smaller metrists
Speaker 1: drive their car now. And the people who are stuck
Speaker 1: with these heinous and horrendous transit commute you know, like
Speaker 1: two buses, a train, a subway, and a long walk
Speaker 1: are the less advantaged, and the and the disadvantaged and
Speaker 1: the poor. And you know, I also hear this all
Speaker 1: across the country. You know, the people who are working
Speaker 1: in our schools, the people who are working as firefighters
Speaker 1: and e m t S. The people are working in
Speaker 1: retail shops and restaurants. They're enduring h two and three
Speaker 1: hour commutes. Are there any companies or cities or communities
Speaker 1: doing anything to make communing more egalitarian. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: this is something I'm actually writing about now because I
Speaker 1: really believe that as we've revived our cities, in our communities,
Speaker 1: we've created a prosperity which is winner take all, and
Speaker 1: that has benefited the advantaged third um of knowledge workers, professionals,
Speaker 1: highly educated people in our society, with sixty six being
Speaker 1: left further behind. And one of the cases I'm trying
Speaker 1: to make is that it's it's it's really incumbent upon
Speaker 1: anchor institutions, medical centers, hospitals, universities, but also high tech companies,
Speaker 1: high tech companies and real estate development companies to to
Speaker 1: to engage in this. And you know, in in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: UM really people got very upset with the tech companies
Speaker 1: and and tech is not only colonizing downtown but then
Speaker 1: running their private shuttle buses UH to the corporate complexes
Speaker 1: of Yahoo in Google and Apple in the Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1: And there were very virulent protests over those and in fact,
Speaker 1: there was a ballot measure that fortunately was defeated because
Speaker 1: it was it was not not a good thing to
Speaker 1: to go after high tech companies that are so innovative
Speaker 1: and so important to creating jobs and wealth. But a
Speaker 1: ballot menasum that wanted to prohibit high tech companies from
Speaker 1: locating in the downtown areas of San Francisco and so.
Speaker 1: But so it's it's in common, I think on these
Speaker 1: companies to stop the you know that people view private
Speaker 1: shuttle buses as selfish because they are the better thing
Speaker 1: to do in Google is now considering a new campus
Speaker 1: in downtown San Jose near a transit hub UH and
Speaker 1: and also providing affordable housing is part of that, and
Speaker 1: workforce housing is part of that. But but really I
Speaker 1: think the key here is is for these companies to
Speaker 1: see two being beginning to think that they're going to
Speaker 1: have to invest in transit options that are publicly shared,
Speaker 1: to work with state and local government and where you
Speaker 1: still possibly can federal agencies to make sure that you
Speaker 1: have the public transit infrastructure you need that not only
Speaker 1: serves your employees, but but but serves people broadly. So
Speaker 1: I think this is a slow, a slow dawning awareness.
Speaker 1: But but I and see, you know, I can see
Speaker 1: the wheels ticking with companies, communities, anchor institutions now saying
Speaker 1: we all have to buck up, um to do things
Speaker 1: to one provide housing, more affordable housing, and workforce housing
Speaker 1: closure to where people work, to provide better jobs on
Speaker 1: these sites for service workers, but also to work to
Speaker 1: ways to make public transit UH work better. In Miami Beach,
Speaker 1: where this problem has kind of reached ahead with terrible
Speaker 1: traffic in South Florida, you know, the mayor of Miami
Speaker 1: Beach actually created a trolley service because they couldn't get
Speaker 1: the line, you know, across the bay from Miami. The governor,
Speaker 1: the darn governor didn't want the high speed rail which
Speaker 1: is now being built by by private sector investors, but
Speaker 1: he actually put in place. It wasn't a trolley. It's
Speaker 1: like a little bus that looks like a trolley. And um,
Speaker 1: the people who work in the service industries use that
Speaker 1: trolley like crazy as a way to get up and
Speaker 1: down Miami Beach to go from an apartment or if
Speaker 1: they take other transit onto the beach. I think it's cents.
Speaker 1: And the other thing that they're doing in Miami Beach
Speaker 1: that I think is really fascinating is there there's a
Speaker 1: proposal now to convert many of the city owned parking
Speaker 1: garages into affordable housing. That that does not mean living
Speaker 1: in a parking stall. What they're going to do is
Speaker 1: build on top of the garages and they're going to
Speaker 1: add you know, they're going to have parking, and then
Speaker 1: add on top of the garages affordable housing units. So
Speaker 1: you can see in city after city people beginning to
Speaker 1: think about what we can do small steps first, but
Speaker 1: to begin to grapple with some of these problems. So
Speaker 1: we've heard from you a little bit about what cities
Speaker 1: have done and can do more of, and what individual
Speaker 1: companies can do. Is there anything that as an individual
Speaker 1: worker you can do to make your commute better, especially
Speaker 1: if you are not graced with a really high income. Well,
Speaker 1: I wrote a whole book on this called Who's Your City?
Speaker 1: And the theme of that book was that you know,
Speaker 1: it's up to you to pick the best place for
Speaker 1: you to live and work. And most of us don't,
Speaker 1: you know. Most they call it drive to you qualify. Oh,
Speaker 1: I want a house and it has to have a yard,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to drive far because it's more affordable
Speaker 1: the further I get from the city center, or we
Speaker 1: go visit a friend or a cousin. Oh it looks
Speaker 1: nice here. The park was okay, my friend lived here.
Speaker 1: I liked it. And no one really does this calculation.
Speaker 1: I should. Very few people do this calculation of you know,
Speaker 1: when I locate myself, when I pick a city to
Speaker 1: live in, or a neighborhood within a city, what is
Speaker 1: that going to cost me? How long is my commute
Speaker 1: going to be? What's it going to be like in
Speaker 1: a daily basis? And I noticed recently someone wrote an
Speaker 1: article in New York Times as a young woman living
Speaker 1: in New York City and said, you know, I'm going
Speaker 1: to go test drive a few suburbs. It's exactly the
Speaker 1: phrase I used in this book, Who's Your City? I said,
Speaker 1: before you spend all of this money on a home
Speaker 1: or a new rental, you know, moving all of your
Speaker 1: goods in a moving van, setting up a house that
Speaker 1: you're you're kind of stuck in whether you rent it
Speaker 1: for at least a year, but if you own it
Speaker 1: longer than that, go test drive the darn place. See
Speaker 1: if you like the neighborhood. Try to commute a couple
Speaker 1: of times and not you know, at at eleven o'clock
Speaker 1: in the morning. Try it during rush hour and see
Speaker 1: what it's like. You know, people drive out there in
Speaker 1: the middle of the day on a Saturday and they, oh,
Speaker 1: it's great, I love it. And then Monday morning comes
Speaker 1: and they're stuck in traffic for an hour and a half.
Speaker 1: So I think we owe it to ourselves. I actually
Speaker 1: think it's the most important decision we make. You know,
Speaker 1: It's as important as the job and career we do.
Speaker 1: It's as important as the person we take as our
Speaker 1: life partner. We give those two things at least a
Speaker 1: measure of thought. We get very little thought. We just
Speaker 1: make snap decisions when it comes to where we live.
Speaker 1: So that's what I think, and really think about it,
Speaker 1: you know, and try it, don't you know, maybe if
Speaker 1: you think about it, it's one thing, go try the
Speaker 1: darn commute, and and that goes with a car, and
Speaker 1: you know, I remember a couple of times thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: I lived in a place where I could take transit
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't have to drive, And then I want
Speaker 1: and try it out the transit, you know, after I
Speaker 1: had moved, and it was like two and a half
Speaker 1: hours because the subway didn't connect to the bus, the
Speaker 1: bus didn't connect to the subway, something else was delayed. So,
Speaker 1: whether it's a car commute or a transit commute, try
Speaker 1: to try the thing out and and see how you
Speaker 1: really like doing it. I don't we just try it
Speaker 1: at once, try it out for a little while, and
Speaker 1: see if it fits you. If it's making your miserable,
Speaker 1: if it's making you miserable, rethink where you might want
Speaker 1: to live. Yeah, Franciscan and I were just talking about
Speaker 1: how I never consider commutes times when I'm looking for
Speaker 1: apartments and I've certainly paid for it. And I think
Speaker 1: many people think the commune will just sort of work
Speaker 1: itself out, it will get figured out, but it doesn't,
Speaker 1: and it's and it's really the thing you do. Some
Speaker 1: of us do every day. Others of us do it
Speaker 1: less frequently, but we have to do it. It's probably
Speaker 1: also something people should think about not just when they're
Speaker 1: considering a new home, but considering a new job, which
Speaker 1: probably people people don't take into consideration nearly as much. No,
Speaker 1: people get all excited um with the new job and
Speaker 1: the new home because the grass is always greener and
Speaker 1: it always looks better, and they never think about, well,
Speaker 1: what is that going to do to my day to
Speaker 1: day routine? But yeah, so I think I think being
Speaker 1: close to where you work, are close enough to have
Speaker 1: a reasonable commute is something both in terms of getting
Speaker 1: a house and in terms of getting a job. The
Speaker 1: two sides of that so called journey to work where
Speaker 1: you live and where you work are critical. Well, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for sharing your thoughts with us. Thank
Speaker 1: you this is a really great subject, and thanks for
Speaker 1: having me on. As it becomes harder and harder to
Speaker 1: live near where we work, we're seeing companies create some
Speaker 1: of those solutions to commuting as a way to attract employees. Facebook,
Speaker 1: for example, is building this huge campus and it's going
Speaker 1: to subsidize housing for employees nearby, So it's trying to
Speaker 1: encourage people to live in an area they might not
Speaker 1: want to. They probably want to live in the hub
Speaker 1: of the city, but they can instead be really close
Speaker 1: to work and not pay that much for housing, so
Speaker 1: hopefully they don't have this soul sucking and time consuming commute. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we need big solutions, Like there's only so much that
Speaker 1: individuals can do, because, as you say, we're moving further
Speaker 1: and further from where we work and that isn't likely
Speaker 1: to change. So the problems kind of have to be
Speaker 1: solved at the company level or at the city level,
Speaker 1: like what Facebook and Miami Beach are doing, rather than
Speaker 1: individuals being responsible for making their own commute better. Although,
Speaker 1: as you said, thinking about where you're gonna live and
Speaker 1: where you're gonna work a little more carefully is important
Speaker 1: if you can do it, and there's probably some ways
Speaker 1: you can make a terrible commute slightly less terrible. Becca,
Speaker 1: you told me you actually kind of don't mind commuting, right, Well,
Speaker 1: I consider it work time a little bit, you know.
Speaker 1: I listened to our episodes and edit them. I do emails,
Speaker 1: and I know a lot of people that if their
Speaker 1: teachers great papers on the train. So I think if
Speaker 1: you do reframe it as productive time, then it doesn't
Speaker 1: feel so horrible when you're getting into work an hour later.
Speaker 1: I don't know yeah. I think that's one important thing
Speaker 1: is actually keeping track of how much time you spend
Speaker 1: in your car or on the subway and not imagining
Speaker 1: that that time is just like disappearing time. For me,
Speaker 1: it's almost two hours out of every day, so I
Speaker 1: should think a little more carefully about how I'm spending
Speaker 1: it and maybe not spend so much time playing phone games.
Speaker 1: And now it's time for half big takes half fake takes.
Speaker 1: You can call us with your half big take leave
Speaker 1: a voice amount two one to six one seven zero
Speaker 1: one six. And this week's listener half big take is
Speaker 1: on topic. It's about commuting. So my half big take
Speaker 1: is when you're coming to work on the subway in
Speaker 1: the morning, it's really crowded um, and you have all
Speaker 1: those people standing up when people sitting down try to
Speaker 1: get up before the subway stops, and everyone's standing has
Speaker 1: to make extra room for them. I feel like everyone
Speaker 1: should just stay seated and stay in their place until
Speaker 1: the subway stops and then everyone can get off. It
Speaker 1: just makes me easier to me when the when the
Speaker 1: subways are really crowded. Anyway, I really enjoy the show. Thanks.
Speaker 1: I'm acting viscerally to this because I have very strong
Speaker 1: feelings of agreement. Um, I think it's basic subway etiquette.
Speaker 1: People do not stand up while the train is still moving.
Speaker 1: You will fall over on top of somewhere somewhere else.
Speaker 1: And the laws of physics state that people won't de
Speaker 1: materialize and they can't get off the train and get
Speaker 1: out of your waye, So no one's going anywhere. I
Speaker 1: think there's a whole genre of where to standing on subways,
Speaker 1: getting on, getting off behavior that could be some really
Speaker 1: good happy take materials. Yeah. I think us as New
Speaker 1: Yorkers are very adamant about our subway etiquette. Probably car
Speaker 1: coommuters have their own things like don't cut me off
Speaker 1: and re Becca, what unbaked idea do you want to
Speaker 1: share with us this week? Mine is about the spelling
Speaker 1: of your and your apostrophe are e and the other one.
Speaker 1: And I think we need to be nicer to people
Speaker 1: who make that mistake. This is shocking coming from a journalist.
Speaker 1: Feel like, Okay, it's just sometimes your fingers just type
Speaker 1: some thing. It's true too fast, hit enter, you're not
Speaker 1: thinking it's not, doesn't. I don't think it's a marker
Speaker 1: of your intelligence. I think why you are if you
Speaker 1: spell if you intelligence, Yeah, exactly, it could be a
Speaker 1: marker of y O you apostopheary intelligence. I mean, I
Speaker 1: just I think we there's a couple of spelling errors
Speaker 1: like that that people they're there and there to too
Speaker 1: and to yeah, that people get up in arms over
Speaker 1: and I just don't think that it's meaningful at all. Well, yes,
Speaker 1: and you know the difference between a chronic error maker
Speaker 1: and someone who's just had a brain part. I've done
Speaker 1: it myself, and I'm familiar with the horror that comes
Speaker 1: over you after you've sent someone a text that's like, no,
Speaker 1: it's your turn to do this, but you spell it
Speaker 1: with an apostrophe, and you're like, how did I do that?
Speaker 1: I know better? Yeah, but you just did it and
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean anything, and we should be nicer to
Speaker 1: people who do it. It happens to the best of us.
Speaker 1: I'm certain the smartest person in the universe has done it.
Speaker 1: So that's my hatpic take, Francesca, what is your not
Speaker 1: done idea for this week? I'm struggling to justify this
Speaker 1: as at all work related, but it's definitely half baked.
Speaker 1: But okay, so maybe it's work related. If you imagine that, Like,
Speaker 1: you might be at a company picnic or work event
Speaker 1: and you are compelled to take a picture with somebody
Speaker 1: you don't know that well, like your company CEO or something. Right,
Speaker 1: what do you do? You smile for the camera, and
Speaker 1: you put your arms around each other. You put one
Speaker 1: arm around them and they put one like a half hug. Yeah,
Speaker 1: don't you think that's kind of weird that that's the
Speaker 1: DeVault photo pose because it's kind of intimate. But if
Speaker 1: you were to, like, Okay, the reason that came up
Speaker 1: is because I saw a Facebook photo of somebody I
Speaker 1: know who works in the music industry posing with Bonnie Rate,
Speaker 1: and my first instinct was to be like, oh, wow,
Speaker 1: him and Bonnie Rate must be really close. But then
Speaker 1: I was like, no, that's just how you stand for photos.
Speaker 1: Bonnie right put you know, was kind enough to take
Speaker 1: a picture with him and put her arm around him.
Speaker 1: But like, I'd stand around with my arm around you
Speaker 1: in the office or any coworkers or even my friends.
Speaker 1: Like it's sort of an intimate post, don't you think. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that there's some another show out there that
Speaker 1: could really dig into the history of why we stand
Speaker 1: like to it on my commute. Yeah, but you can't.
Speaker 1: I mean, it would be terrible if you were. If
Speaker 1: you were like, oh, well, you take a picture with me,
Speaker 1: and then the person just like stood by your side
Speaker 1: with their arms at their sides, so you have to
Speaker 1: do it. But it does suggest like this closeness that
Speaker 1: someone you probably have never touched before and never currently
Speaker 1: figure out where to put that hand. I was, I'm
Speaker 1: always I'm obvia, I'm very bad at it. You can imagine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just something I noticed and I guess this has been
Speaker 1: half big takes, half baked takes. Thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to game Plan. You can find me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Francesca Today and I'm at RZ Greenfield and you can
Speaker 1: call into our hotline with anything you want at two
Speaker 1: on two six seven zero one six six. We also
Speaker 1: have a weekly newsletter. You can find it at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: dot com slash Newsletters. You check the game Plan box
Speaker 1: and you'll get a sweet email from us. It wouldn't
Speaker 1: be easier. If you like our podcast, please go to
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen and rate, review, subscribe
Speaker 1: to one or all three of those things. It would
Speaker 1: make us so happy. This show is produced by Liz
Speaker 1: Smith and Magnus hendricks On. The Head of podcast is
Speaker 1: Alec McCabe and we'll see you next week. Bye. It's
Speaker 1: our new that's our new contest. We're gonna try to
Speaker 1: sneak tongue twisters into unique, unique right,