With just a few days to go before I move to Brighton, I come across this headline in the local Brighton paper, The Argus:
Stress of commuting cutting Brighton and Hove life expectancy
Is the commute from Brighton to London really that bad?
The article describes how people living in Brighton and Hove and travelling up to London each day can expect to die a year earlier than the average person on the same pay.
Couldn’t they have told me that a few months back before my wife and I made the decision to move? The timing of this headline a few days before we move to Brighton is uncanny – almost omen-like.
I’m well aware the commute is not going to be fun – and I’m not looking forward to it one bit. The fact that I can work from home a few days a week does help though – and I’m sure this wasn’t factored into the study.
I also plan some steps to make the commute less stressful:
- Music on my iPhone
- Meditation/hypnosis mp3 tracks stored on my iPod
My plan is that this commuting experience will not be forever – it will be something I have to do at this stage of life. How long I end up doing this in reality, and whether I end up in a new job where I have to commute from Brighton to London every day remains to be seen.
