I'm a salesman with an established route on long Island. I cross the Island about two to three times per week, and everything in between(Nassau County). I stop and start my 1983D about 10 to 15 times a day. I never see a highway, it's mostly back roads to avoid traffic. On Fridays I drive to New Jersey where my main office is located 100+ round trip.($1.65 for 45oct I always fill up.)
All toll I put on the average of 200-300 miles per week. You can get used to anything, when the kids like to eat. (still average about 30mpg with ac on)

Here's another twist,,,,,, longest commute due to traffic or weather.

I made the ride home to NW NJ one night, with heavy snow that started at noon.

The commute took 5 hours, 40 miles. The funny (now) part was there was only 1 real gas station that was convenient to stop at. It had a convenience store as well, suprisingly rare in NJ. The line to the bathroom streatched out the building. Most of the food was gone, the coffee and drink area looked like a bomb went off in it and the poor people working in the store were just hanging on by a thread. In my life I have never seen such a mess.

My 2 cents,

JCD

How far is that? My dad's record for commuting is 3.5hrs for 50 miles, again during bad weather, averages to 14.3 mph. I think I averaged about 20mph tonight, perfect weather, 1 hr after rush hour traffic.

__________________
Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

Sure turbodiesel, you would rather sleep than stand in the rain, I see.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Well, I think I can top that, although my situation happened several years ago. Left work about 4:45 and faced the typical Chicagoland rush. There's about 20 miles of I-294 I had to travel, then hook up with southbound I-55. Traffic was getting increasingly heavy, but I didn't think much of it. Then about 3 miles from the I-55 interchange (where there's a toll booth), we were at a dead stop. There was an accident that (I think) happened near the I-55/I-294 interchange between 4 vehicles including 2 tractor trailers. One of the cars caught fire and one of the trucks lost its load.

Fine and dandy, except the load was those huge rolled up steel coils. You could imagine what happened. We sat. Still. For hours. Couldn't get on I-55, couldn't continue on 294 and there were no exits between where I was and the I-55 ramp. Pretty much we just turned off the cars and got to know our follow commuters. I had a nice conversation with about 6 people that night. I never did make it home. I was still about 100 miles from home when this all happened. Once it was cleared off, I drove maybe about a 1/2 hour and crashed at a hotel. It was almost midnight when I checked in.

__________________
Lance Allison
Lance@LanceAllison.com

Current:
11 MB S550 4Matic, 55k miles, Designo Black/Black
14 Ford F150 XLT Lariat Crew, 73k miles, 5.0
Coyote V8 4x4. Black/tan.
09 GMC Envoy Denali, 5.3 V8, 4x4 SWB. 38k miles,
Jewel Red/Med Gray.

Gone:
87 MB 300SDL, 320k miles, Astral Silver/Blue.
98 VW Jetta TDI, 488k miles, Classic Green/Gray.
85 Olds 98 Brougham FWD, 4.3 DIESEL V6, 80k
miles, 3x Gray.

MBCA Member, Chicago Region

Few years ago I used to commute 48 miles each way to work to Montville, NJ. The snow started at noon and they let everyone go home early at around 3PM. By then there was already 2" on the ground. Took me 4.5 hours to travel the 48 miles home.. when I got home there was a good 6".

On Monday morning, it's 80 miles one way. We have a lot of construction on Interstate 40, and sometimes I have to get off 15 or so miles out of town, and take the old highway.

But then Tuesday through Friday a.m. my commute is zero miles, because I live upstairs of my business, and only have to walk down 27 stairs to the office.

Then Friday afternoon, I have that 80 mile drive back up to my weekend place.

I know that this is not the "norm" for this thread, but y'all asked!

George