5% more people now have a commute that takes over an hour ago than was the case in 1996. So says the radio this morning. Why should that be in a country when we're improving technology and supposedly can move things quicker and more efficiently generation by generation?
The radio highlighted traffic and congestion as a cause, and that's where the article lead - indeed, for business journeys where I have to drive I had been reviewing my 2008 strategy and I'll now be staying away in a lot more areas, and staying an extra night when I present (for example)
a course in Cambridge. It's foolish to drive when tired, and I know there are times I'm getting close to my limit.
But there are other causes of longer commutes too - changing demographics and the cost of housing in the stockbroker belt have pushed some commuters further out - people traveling in from Chippenham and Hungerford and Andover - a handful in 1996 but a significant flow in 2006. And then there's local issues which I have dealt with
here - a longer post with pictures!
Over the past month, I've watched how
The Coffeeshop has grown in popularity - in posts and viewers who are starting to take more interest in their daily time with the railway - after all, "an hour each way" is 8% of their time which is pretty darned significant! I expect that site will be even busier come the December changes!
On the positive "side", perhaps this is an excellent time for our
Business Hotel. As I write, we've only been running for a year but most rooms were sold last night and we've a busy week ahead. We provide the businessman with what he or she needs to have a good night's sleep, facilities to prepare personally and businesswise for the day, and to do a really good job.
And on that positive note, I should get ready for my
Perl Course
(written 2007-10-29)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
G204 - Well House Consultants - Equipment and facilities [432] New print centre for our manuals - (2005-09-01)
[450] Wheelchair access - can do! - (2005-09-25)
[452] Is enough enough? - (2005-09-27)
[460] New Network - (2005-10-10)
[1089] Playing old games - (2007-02-22)
[1126] MacFormat - Me and My Mac - (2007-03-31)
[1363] One computer per delegate, or pair programming? - (2007-09-23)
[1364] Korn shell course - resources - (2007-09-24)
[1488] New trainee laptop fleet for our Open Source courses - (2007-12-30)
[1701] Training Course and Business Conference Technology - (2008-07-07)
[2032] Mobile Internet - an alternative to hotel WiFi - (2009-02-09)
[2222] A (biased?) comparison of PHP courses in the UK - (2009-06-07)
[2370] C++, Python, and other training - do we use an IDE - (2009-08-21)
[2795] Simon says - (2010-06-05)
[2810] A course review - for the tutor to complete - (2010-06-14)
[2850] Fresh Paint for course presentation - including C++ - (2010-07-03)
[2935] 01225 707126 to 01225 344596 to 01225 899360 - Well House Fax - (2010-08-26)
[3109] A weighty decision - (2010-12-26)
[3130] New Computers for delegates to use - (2011-01-13)
[3137] Training Classes - should the training company provide a system for each delegate to use? - (2011-01-18)
[3174] Sharing a single hotel internet connection without carrying extra hardware - (2011-02-18)
[3196] No news is good news. - (2011-03-07)
[3310] How fast is your Internet access? Do you need something faster for your business or home? - (2011-05-29)
[3489] Python courses and Private courses - gently updating our product to keep it ahead of the game - (2011-10-20)
[4261] Updated delegate computers - nine of the best - (2014-04-10)
Some other Articles
National Speaker - now to get the talk readyA Golf Club Decision - Perl to JavaWhat software version do we teach?Good, steady, simple example - Perl file handlingBetter technology makes for longer commutes?What we teach - expained for the non-technicalThe little gestures that can really countSparse and Greedy matching - Tcl 8.4Buffering of inputs to expect, and match orderTcl / regsub - changing a string and using interesting bits