Should drive time trump all else?

So where do we rank?

Top honors for the most miserable commute goes to Maryland, where it takes the average commuter 31.8 minutes each day to get to work. Commuters in New York, Illinois (Chicago) and New Jersey also all have it worse, but that’s it.

By contrast, in the fine state of North Dakota the median commute is just over 16 minutes – though where folks are commuting to out there beats me. That’s the best in the country.

If you don’t want to spend 10 hours or more on the road each week then you need to find those commuter sweet spots scattered across Greater Boston. (I define GB as from I-495 in.)

Of course, it all depends on money. If you have the bucks to buy into a Newton or a Wellesley or even a Needham, you can get the best of both worlds. You can hop on the commuter rail and be in town in a half hour, or you can jump on the Turnpike – not perfect but less miserable than 128.

Natick and Framingham are the next stops – the drive and train time increases a bit, but it’s a bargain compared to, say, slogging it in each day from Plymouth.

There are also little commuting sweet spots to the north and south of Boston as well.

Quincy is one of my favorites – home prices, after getting out of hand during the bubble years, have fallen, while the commute, at least if you are working in Boston, is a relative dream. The Red Line, the most reliable of the T lines, can get you downtown in 15 minutes – a North Dakota like commute!

The key to the North and South Shores is the commuter rail – driving can be a tougher proposition than if you live to the west of the city.

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