Mega-regions are large enough that, were I told to meet physically within one, the suffering of getting to somewhere else within one would be about equivalent to getting to completely different one. These are huge!
I'm about a 1.5-2 hour trip in at rush hour into the major city about 50 miles away. (Not sure why all these people supposedly not in their offices seem to be driving in and out in cars; it's actually gotten worse post-pandemic.) It's not that much easier/quicker than flying to a city an hour or two away. I certainly wouldn't do either multiple times a week long term unless I had absolutely no choice.
I'm a 2 hour train ride from a major city. I almost took a job that would have me commuting in twice a week. Since the train has good WIFI, it really didn't seem like a bad option. More than twice a week would have been unacceptable, and so would have been driving that distance.
I actually have a relatively good transit option. It’s still 4 hours out of my day, isn’t really practical if there’s an evening event, and locks me into a schedule that usually involves getting up around 5:30. I do sometimes use it but it’s not a panacea
I think if I had a 2 hour ride, I’d need to get enough work done on the train to justify leaving the office a bit early. That is pretty rough, even if it is a nice ride.
And it's not even as neat as a 2 hour ride to the office. It's take a short drive to the train station with a little bit of buffer--because the next train will be an hour later. Take the train. Take the subway where I probably won't have a seat. Walk about 15 minutes.
So it's a pretty reasonable transit system, albeit with reduced schedules (and eliminated express trains) since COVID. But it's still a haul to go in for a day even though it's a pretty reasonable 1 hour drive outside of busy times.
I have a similar, but not as bad, situation here. About a 20 minute walk to the bus station. If I go very early, I hit the reduced schedule and so I could wait up to an hour (typically less, that’s the max). Then the ride is around a half hour.
These sort of transit systems seem reasonable-ish in comparison to, say, the rest of the US (if that is where you are from—it is the only standard I have to compare against). But it is actually not really practical if it wipes out 4 hours of your day. I mean, assuming your are some sort of programmer (since this is hackernews), then your time is probably worth around $40-$50 an hour at least… $200 a day should be able to buy a better option somehow.
I like my trip: it is good to take a walk anyway, there’s a nice coffee shop near the bus stop, and I usually get a seat so I can do something work related… but even still is is just on the cusp of not really being practical, and I’m probably giving it a mental discount for ideological affinity.
A (long) time ago, I commuted into the city (Boston) maybe a couple days/week on average for a job I had for about 18 months. (Took about 90 minutes each way--in that case, I could just walk to my office from the train station.) It was sort of tolerable because it wasn't every day. But I still don't think it would have been sustainable long-term.
If I can do it on a train in ~6 hours I'm pretty happy. If I have to get on a plane I'm miserable. DC to Boston (or Portland ME at a stretch), London/Paris/Amsterdam, etc. come to mind as comparable regions.
No, I hate planes. They destroy Earth, they're unpleasant (though once you're cruising they're OK I guess), they land miles and miles away from where I actually want to be, and my folding bike (a Brompton) is to big to be a carryon for a plane, but is fine for a train.
When travelling as a family a train is nice. We can linger in the observation car, hang out in the snack car (RIP bar car and dining car :-( ), and enjoy the scenery.
I suspect the US will indeed move towards more and more restrictive security on trains (there's money to be made in pointless security theater after all!) But, as noted elsewhere, trains have the advantage of predictable motion (pretty hard to crash a train into a building!) and being able to stop anywhere without killing everyone on board.
A train doesn't go off its rails into the Pentagon.
TSA does actually (very rarely) check passengers before letting them board trains. I think I've seen it about once when I used to take a train roughly 2/wk for a year.
I could see doing trips in one of these regions same day if I'm willing to get up super early and get back super late or with a single night stay if I'm not. It sucks but you can do it, where as you really need a whole day each way just for traveling between mega regions.
I haven't spent much time there, but the Front Range region did really strike me as a contiguous city/zone when I was there. I think it's because it's so narrow.
