We discussed commuting and commute alternatives a couple of years back. I spent three decades commuting in a car, followed by one decade where I rode the train and shuttle while working, and later tele-commuted.
Tele-commuting is the only thing that makes life in the mountain-to-mountain city that is Silly Valley (aka the Santa Clara Valley) bearable. But we are still attracting immigrants seeking blue collar jobs, unemployed white collar workers, and the homeless. The service industries are all feeding off the high tech center of the valley. They are commuting because they have no choice.
I SO want to move away and live in Wisconsin. But I am being the dutiful spouse, keeping house and home together while the wife commutes and complains. I will be 12 months retired in May, and I'm going quietly nuts, studying the online traffic monitors and planning my minimal travel in off-traffic times. It has several times happened that I make less than one trip per week away from home. I am thus further minimizing gasoline consumption - although I think of it as minimizing my personal stress level.
Sometimes I fantasize about putting a monster motor and really big tires on the Jeep - the better to deal with traffic: