Commuting includes both very social and very personal space and time. We travel the tension between society and individuals. And we are situated in nowhere, neither social nor personal during the commute.
- Relationship/ Others
Social relationships are essential aspects of commuting.
If we do not work at a certain organization, do not need to go to school, do not have any client meeting, or there’s no planned time, there’s no such thing as commuting. Time and space have to be determined by social commitments. We follow social responsibilities and social roles.
Thereby, commuting is different from any other journey.
Let’s compare it to travel.
Let’s say, I am staying in a hotel near Heathrow and going to Westminster at 8 in the morning by Piccadilly line train. This journey is no different from the daily ride to work as it is a movement from Heathrow (location A) to Westminster (location B) and as I would be surrounded by hundreds of other workers at rush hour. I, however, would be okay to be late or to get off the train in the middle of the journey. Maybe at Kensington, or at the Hydepark corner wherever I want.
When I have an exact same journey from Heathrow to Soho to work, I cannot have the options. I should arrive at the office by 9. If I take off the train by accident, I try really hard to get to Soho feeling nervous. If I cannot make it at the right time at the right place, my colleagues and bosses will call me. Lots of relationships are intertwined in commuting.
Both my interviewee C and Y answered ‘yes’ to the question “Have you gone through the same route as their commute when it is not for commuting?” They had different impressions from commuting. Y said, knowing the destination is ‘work’ changes everything.
2. Relationship/ Society
As mentioned above, particular people and organizations are in relation to commuting. Also, more abstract and comprehensive concept of relationship with society.
Feeling restrictive, feeling like the action is not on free will. Society assumes the people who can work as the ‘normal’ member. Sometimes people are overwhelmed by feeling they are only following the order, strong stream of social pressure. Also, because of that, people want to be ‘normal’, be in the mainstream.
We put ourselves on the rhythm of others, and the city. David Bissell, the author of “Transit Life: How commuting Is Transforming Our Cities.”, said commute is the main time that we actually can be exposed to the vibe of the city.
We see that we are all going in the same direction. Witnessing not being alone in there gives a sense of security. Just like the zebra, hiding the body in the huge pack of them. The pressure becomes connectedness. I feel I am belonging here, the same as others, and we are not ditched here but going towards a life with a certain goal.
3. Gearwheel
Erich Fromm’s <Escape from freedom> presents the desire, work, and relationship with society in the modern era. Let’s apply this to commuting.
According to him, in a capitalistic society, individuals are rid of traditional social status and it makes the world a threat to them. There’s no fixed position any more. Fromm said the individual presume themselves as one of the gearwheels among the huge distribution machine. A huge distribution machine that they cannot have control over.
Standing with the majority, or so-called ‘the normal’, we often suppress individuality. Especially in collectivism. There are abstract individuals in the working place but no concrete individuals. One’s emotion or sometimes even health condition cannot be ahead of the social matters. Same on the commuting. The statistics talks about the commute, the analysis for the social phenomena or the urban planning talks about the commute, but not many of them consider the personal experience during commuting.
The position we have, where we are going to work is an unstable and frail achievement. It helps to maintain a socio-political position but also to change all. Therefore, we sometimes feel be swept away in the barrel. We need to go to a meeting even though we feel sick (before COVID, or maybe even after COVID?). We cannot be late to work the day after we broke up with our lovers. How much we cried last night cannot be an excuse to be late and how much we feel down cannot be an excuse to go home earlier.
The individuals stop being themselves, become the same to every other, and become to the others’ expectation. Erich Fromm describes this as the ‘protective coloring’ and says people can be free from loneliness and anxiety. And he adds, ‘loss of self’.
How is this whole thing similar to our figures on the commute? or How much is this whole thing different from us?
Fromm emphasizes A capacity and willingness for spontaneity to rid oneself of alienation and conformity. By realizing oneself spontaneously, human reintegrate the self to the world.
“Spontaneous activity is the one way in which man can overcome the terror of aloneness… for in the spontaneous realization of the self man unites himself anew with the world — with man, nature, and himself.”
“Most of us can observe at least moments of our own spontaneity which are at the same time moments of genuine happiness. Whether it be the fresh and spontaneous perception of a landscape, or the dawning of some truth as the result of our thinking, or a sensuous pleasure that is not stereotyped, or the welling up of love for another person — in these moments we all know what a spontaneous act is and may have some vision of what human life could be if these experiences were not such rare and uncultivated occurrences.”
I remember I found lots of keywords “autopilot”, “my body moving automatically” in the survey and interview about the commuting experience.
And then, I ask again —
Can we change the current commuting experience? Are we okay with this hostile tension on the way to work?