commute

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
(kə-myūt') pronunciation

v., -mut·ed, -mut·ing, -mutes.

v.intr.
  1. To travel as a commuter.
    1. To make substitution or exchange.
    2. To serve as a substitute.
  2. To pay in gross, usually at a reduced rate, rather than in individual payments.
  3. Mathematics & Logic. To satisfy or engage in a commutative operation.
v.tr.
  1. To substitute (one thing for another); exchange.
  2. To change (a penalty, debt, or payment) to a less severe one.
n.
An act or instance of commuting, especially the trip made by a commuter: a 22-mile commute; an easy commute.

[Middle English commuten, to transform, from Latin commūtāre : com-, com- + mūtāre, to change.]


Top

verb

    To give up in return for something else: change, exchange, interchange, shift, substitute, switch, trade. Informal swap. See change/persist, substitute.


v

Definition: exchange, trade
Antonyms: keep

v

Definition: reduce punishment
Antonyms: increase, lengthen

v

Definition: travel
Antonyms: telecommute, work from home

The movement from suburban or rural locations to the place of work and back. Commuting developed as transport systems improved; initially it was the rich who could afford to commute by train, so that exclusive suburbs developed, but the tram, and later the bus and private car, put commuting within the means of most workers, with a corresponding increase in the size of the city, and the problems of rush-hour congestion; the predicament of Parisian commuters in the public sector strikes of late 1995 indicated the crucial importance of transport systems for a majority of commuters. There is some correlation between city size and commuting distance—some workers commute to London from Leeds, for example, while the catchment area of commuters to Oxford is much smaller. The gravity model may be used to predict commuter flows.

Commuting is usually on a daily basis but can occur weekly. Most commuting is in-commuting involving movement into the city to work, but reverse commuting also occurs where residents in the inner city travel daily to workplaces in the suburbs. Lateral commuting involves the journey from one residential location to another as the suburbanization of industry develops. see Lowry model.

Word Tutor:

commute

Top
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: To travel to and from work.

pronunciation There's plenty of time to daydream when you're stuck in commute traffic.

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

Quotes About:

Commuters

Top

Quotes:

"Commuter -- one who spends his life in riding to and from his wife; And man who shaves and takes a train, and then rides back to shave again." - Elwyn Brooks White

"Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion." - Elwyn Brooks White

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'commute'

Top
Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to commute, see:

  See crossword solutions for the clue Commute.
Commuters on the New York City Subway during rush hour.

Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.

Contents

History

The word commuter derives from early days of rail travel in US cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, where, in the 1840s, the railways engendered suburbs from which travellers paying a reduced or 'commuted' fare into the city. Later, the back formations "commute" and "commuter" were coined therefrom. Commuted tickets would usually allow the traveller to repeat the same journey as often as they liked during the period of validity: Normally, the longer the period the cheaper the cost per day.[1]

Before the 19th century, most workers lived less than an hour's walk from their work. Today, many people travel daily to work a long way from their own towns, cities, and villages, especially in industrialised societies. Depending on factors such as the high cost of housing in city centres, lack of public transit, and traffic congestion, modes of travel may include automobiles, motorcycles, trains, buses, and bicycles.

Suburbs

Commuting has had a large impact on modern life. It has allowed cities to grow to sizes that were previously not practical, and it has led to the proliferation of suburbs. Many large cities or conurbations are surrounded by commuter belts, also known as metropolitan areas, commuter towns, dormitory towns, or bedroom communities. The prototypical commuter lives in one of these areas and travels daily to work or to school in the core city.

As urban sprawl pushes farther and farther away from central business districts, new businesses can appear in outlying cities, leading to the existence of the reverse commuter who lives in a core city but works in the suburbs, and to a type of secondary commuter who lives in a more distant exurb and works in the outlying city or industrial suburb.

Education

Institutions that have few dormitories or low student housing populations are called commuter schools in the United States.

Traffic

Most commuters travel at the same time of day, resulting in the morning and evening rush hours, with congestion on roads and public transport systems not designed or maintained well enough to cope with the peak demands. As an example, Interstate 405 located in Southern California, is one of the busiest freeways in the United States. Commuters may sit up to two hours in traffic during rush hour. Construction or accidents on the freeway distract and slow down commuters, contributing to even longer delays.

Pollution

The suburbs in the United States and elsewhere tend to have less air pollution than their neighboring inner cities, even though more workers in the inner cities use public transport. Some governments and employers have introduced employee travel reduction programs that encourage such alternatives as car-pooling and telecommuting. Some are also carpooling using Internet sites to save money.[2] Alternatives like personal rapid transit have also been proposed to reap the energy-efficiency benefits of a mass transit system while maintaining the speed and convenience of individual transport.

Cars not carrying passengers use fuel and roads less efficiently than shared cars or public transport, and increase traffic congestion. However,alone by car is often a more efficient method for people doing so, as their travel times tend to be lower. Commuting by car is a major factor contributing to air pollution. Carpool lanes help commuters reach their destinations more quickly, encourage people to drive together, and reduce air pollution.

See also

References

External links


Top

Dansk (Danish)
v. intr. - pendle, være ombyttelig, rejse på abonnementskort
v. tr. - forvandle, ombytte, erstatte
n. - pendling

idioms:

  • commuter belt    nærtrafikområde, opland

Nederlands (Dutch)
forenzen, (straf) verlichten/omzetten, (ver)wisselen

Français (French)
v. intr. - faire la navette, faire le trajet
v. tr. - (Fin) convertir, (Jur) commuer en
n. - (US) trajet journalier

idioms:

  • commuter belt    grande banlieue

Deutsch (German)
v. - umwandeln, pendeln
n. - Weg zur Arbeit

idioms:

  • commuter belt    Einzugsgebiet

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - πηγαινοέρχομαι καθημερινά μεταξύ κατοικίας και χώρου εργασίας, μετατρέπω, μετατρέπω ποινή (επί το επιεικέστερον), (για μορφή αποζημίωσης) αντικαθιστώ, υποκαθιστώ, (ηλεκτρ.) μετάγω (μετατρέπω εναλλασσόμενο ρεύμα σε συνεχές)
n. - εργαζόμενος στο κέντρο

idioms:

  • commuter belt    (καθομ.) περιαστικές περιοχές κατοικίας

Italiano (Italian)
fare la navetta, fare il pendolare

idioms:

  • commuter belt    periferia

Português (Portuguese)
v. - comutar, converter, compensar
n. - comutação (f)

idioms:

  • commuter belt    local de trabalho para onde as pessoas viajam

Русский (Russian)
заменять, компенсировать, ехать и возвращаться с работы

idioms:

  • commuter belt    пригород

Español (Spanish)
v. intr. - hacer un cambio o sustitución
v. tr. - conmutar, cambiar, sustituir
n. - viajar a diario de la casa al trabajo

idioms:

  • commuter belt    zona suburbana, barrios periféricos

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - byta ut, förvandla, pendla
n. - pendling, pendelavstånd

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
通勤, 代偿, 替代, 交换, 减轻, 改换支付方法

idioms:

  • commuter belt    通勤者居住的地带

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
v. intr. - 通勤, 代償, 替代
v. tr. - 交換, 減輕, 改換支付方法
n. - 通勤

idioms:

  • commuter belt    通勤者居住的地帶

한국어 (Korean)
v. intr. - 통근하다, 돈으로 대신 갚다, 교환 가능하다
v. tr. - 교환하다, 감면하다, 전류의 방향을 바꾸다
n. - 통근 , 통근거리

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 取り替える, 交換する, 減刑する, 金で代償する, 通勤する
n. - 通勤, 通勤距離

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) سافر بوميا من و الى مكان عمله, أبدل, حول, خفف, استبدل (الاسم) سفرة يوميه للعمل‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. intr. - ‮נסע בקביעות (לעבודה), החליף‬
v. tr. - ‮המתיק עונש, החליף‬
n. - ‮נסיעה לעבודה‬


Best of Web:

commute

Top
Some good "commute" pages on the web:

Math
mathworld.wolfram.com

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

Copyrights:

Mentioned in

nonabelian gauge theory (particle physics)
Off Day: My Boys (TV Episode) (2007 TV Episode)