Many commuting long distances to work

DETROIT — Every weekday morning before 5:15 a.m., Neil Bunting pulls his gold 2007 Kia Spectra out of his driveway in Bay City, Mich., and heads to work.

Awake since 4 a.m., the 55-year-old project manager is armed with coffee, blues CDs and, sometimes, an audiobook.

For the next 90 minutes to 2 hours — and again in the evening when he retraces his treads — Bunting will live a commuter's nightmare, driving 112 miles to and from EWI Worldwide, an exhibit-creation company in Livonia, Mich.

Bunting is one of an estimated 3.1 million Americans whom researchers call "extreme commuters," people who travel more than 90 minutes to work each way, according to the most recent U.S. Census data.

"I get a lot of reactions. Some people think I'm crazy," said Bunting, who started his current job 14 months ago.

Commutes have been rising for several decades. But they especially tend to increase during periods of joblessness and belt-tightening, leading people to increase the radius of their job searches.

"There's not a lot of work up this way, especially in what I do," said Bunting, previously a 25-mile commuter. "There's a few other employers a little bit closer that fit the type of work I do, but this is one of the better choices."

For 22-year-old Adrienne Procopio, accepting a job — her first — 90 minutes away from her parents' house in downtown Detroit was a no-brainer: She can save money living at home, even despite the $120 she spends each week to fill up her 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

"People think I'm crazy. They don't know how I do it," said Procopio, who graduated in May from Central Michigan University and is an account executive at Franco Public Relations. "When I got hired, people said, 'You're going to move closer?"'

But for Procopio, extreme commutes are a family tradition. Her father, Jack Procopio, has commuted 1 1/2 to 2 hours to his job at a specialty food company for years.

"Because he's been doing that since I was little, I always thought when you grow up, everyone drives 1 1/2 hours to work," she said. "I thought it was normal."

According to Denise Reiling, an associate professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University, extreme commutes can have several public health and safety implications.