commute

commute

com·mute[commutecommutescommutedcommuting]verb,noun [kəˈmjuːt] [kəˈmjuːt]

verb

1. intransitive, transitive to travel regularly by bus, train, car, etc. between your place of work and your home

• ~ (from A) (to B) She commutes from Oxford to London every day.

• ~ between A and B He spent that year commuting between New York and Chicago.

• I live within commuting distance of Dublin.

• ~ sth People are prepared to commute long distances if they are desperate for work.

2. transitive ~ sth (to sth) (law) to replace one punishment with another that is less severe

• The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

3. transitive ~ sth (for/into sth) (finance) to exchange one form of payment, for sth else

Word Origin:

late Middle English (in the sense ‘interchange (two things)’): from Latin commutare, from com- ‘altogether’ + mutare ‘to change’. Sense 1 originally meant to buy and use a commutation ticket, the US term for a season ticket (because the daily fare is commuted to a single payment).

Culture:

commuting

Commuting is the practice of travelling a long distance to a town or city to work each day, and then travelling home again in the evening. The word commuting comes from commutation ticket, a US rail ticket for repeated journeys, called a season ticket in Britain. Regular travellers are called commuters.

The US has many commuters. A few, mostly on the East Coast, commute by train or subway, but most depend on the car. Some leave home very early to avoid the traffic jams, and sleep in their cars until their office opens. Many people accept a long trip to work so that they can live in quiet bedroom communities away from the city, but another reason is ‘ white flight ’. In the 1960s most cities began to desegregate their schools, so that there were no longer separate schools for white and black children. Many white families did not want to send their children to desegregated schools, so they moved to the suburbs, which have their own schools, and where, for various reasons, few black people live.

Millions of people in Britain commute by car or train. Some spend two or three hours a day travelling, so that they and their families can live in suburbia or in the countryside. Cities are surrounded by commuter belts. Part of the commuter belt around London is called the stockbroker belt because it contains houses where rich business people live. Some places are dormitory towns, because people sleep there but take little part in local activities.

Most commuters travel to and from work at the same time, causing the morning and evening rush hours, when buses and trains are crowded and there are traffic jams on the roads. Commuters on trains rarely talk to each other and spend their journey reading, sleeping or using their mobile phones. Increasing numbers of people now work at home some days of the week, linked to their offices by computer, a practice called telecommuting.

Cities in both Britain and the US are trying to reduce the number of cars coming into town each day. Some companies encourage car pooling (called car sharing in Britain), an arrangement for people who live and work near each other to travel together. Some US cities have a public service that helps such people to contact each other, and traffic lanes are reserved for car-pool vehicles. But cars and petrol/gas are cheap in the US, and many people prefer to drive alone because it gives them more freedom. Many cities have park-and-ride schemes, car parks on the edge of the city from which buses take drivers into the centre. In Britain in 2003 a scheme called congestion charging was introduced in London to make people who drive in the city centre pay a congestion charge.

Example Bank:

• She commutes from Peterborough to London every day.

• She commutes from Sunset Park to Manhattan each morning.

• The capital invested will be commuted to a loan.