What I miss about commuting

I liked the Mall and the ferry. Also, 7 other things worth your time.

“Overslept, so tired.

If late, get fired.

Why bother? Why the pain?

Just go home, do it again.”

Well now, that’s a cheery, morale-building message, don’t you think?

It’s from a poem plastered on the wall in New York City’s 42nd Street station, which the writer Jerry Useem used to pass during his commute.

He included it in his article in the current issue of The Atlantic, writing about the paradox many former office workers are slow to admit:

• They don’t miss commuting every day, but

• They’re surprised to realize that there are things they’ve missed about the commute itself.

His conclusions are mostly about the loss of buffer time and role-switching. But I think there might be something more.

To illustrate, allow me to switch gears for a moment.

I’m reaching back to a study I read a couple years ago about outdoor time, happiness, and mental health. It came from the University of Exeter in England, and was published in Scientific Reports in 2019.

Basically, researchers found that people who spend a…