THE commute

So I'm sure a lot of people are asking ... how's the commute to work now?
Well, it really isn't too bad. Yes, I said it, NOT too bad.

Here are the times:
Previous commute at rental apartment - 5 minutes
Current commute at new house - 45 minutes

Okay, okay, so the time increased by 40 minutes.
But, let's look on the bright side .. I live in a much more comfortable place and I like my house. The only adjustment I have to make is waking up earlier. Not a difficult tradeoff once you get used to it.

Let's get back to the commute. We leave at 7:20am and access Hwy. 404 via Stouffville road. Once we get on the 404 at about 7:27am, the traffic flow slows down to anywhere from 20km/h to 80km/h depending on the lane until 16th Ave. One thing that really pisses me off is how slow people drive in the far left lane. THIS IS THE FAST LANE PEOPLE ! Just b/c you sit on the left side of the car, doesn't mean that you have to drive on that side. In the end, I have to conform to others' stupidity (yeah, I'm being harsh) so I drive along the far right lane which ends up being quicker.

Once we pass 16th Ave, the brand new HOV lanes start. This is one thing that I will give full credit to the Ministry of Transportation for having the balls to implement. This lane is DA BOMB ! For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about ... yes, you downtown people ... this is a new lane on the far left side that will accommodate any vehicle with 2 or more passengers. Vehicles can only enter and exit at designated spots so traffic is much better controlled. Very similar to those in California. You can usually drive anywhere between 100km/h to 140km/h in this lane and it has it's own exit to the westbound Hwy 401. Pretty convenient, ehh?

Once I get onto the 401 at about 7:45am, I head over to Yonge St. in about 5 minutes. The drive down to Yonge and Eglinton is your typical city drive with traffic lights and vehicles making left turns. We arrive at our parking spot (located at our old apartment on Holly St.) at 8am and do our 5 minute walk to work.

Now on the way home, for the past few days, we've been leaving Y&E at about 6:45pm since we like to hit the gym after work before heading home. This drive is a little quicker. We drive along Eglinton to hook up with the DVP and then head home. By the time we are in the driveway, it is 7:20pm. So give or take 35 minutes.

We plan to test the drive home at 6pm tomorrow just to do a comparison.
If we can get home before 7pm, then life will be good.

Anyways, this blog is even longer than our commute so time to sign off for now.