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Your commute: Breaking back, bank and spirit

Wednesday - 8/7/2013, 6:01am  ET

Outer Loop i495 beltway delay (WTOP/Kristi King)

WASHINGTON - While a bigger, more affordable house outside the city is appealing, long commutes to work are costly to body and mind -- not just the bank.



"When you're commuting for that long, the problems go beyond just money. It's really a situation where the amount of time you're spending behind the wheel is costing you in other elements of your life, too. It's hazardous to your health, and I think hazardous to your well-being, potentially," Heimer tells WTOP.


Heimer does say other issues can cause back problems, too, but being cramped in a car in a tense, defensive driving position isn't the best for the spine. On top of that, being overweight is also associated with too much time spent in the driver's seat.

"Studies have shown there seems to be sort of a magic distance, somewhere in the 16- to 20-mile range seems to be the tipping point. People who have commutes of that length or longer are much more likely to be obese, and they're much less likely to get the recommended amount of weekly exercise," says Heimer.

But physical health isn't the only concern. Long commutes can be hard on the family unit as well.

"Unfortunately it seems that for many families the time that you lose to a long commute can counteract the benefits of having that nicer, bigger house that's further from the center of town," says Heimer.



Commuting also takes a toll on the environment, especially when cars idle around busy metro thoroughfares like the Capital Beltway. According to Heimer, about 20 percent of all greenhouse gases are estimated to come from personal transportation -- and a high percentage of car commuters aren't carpooling.

"That has a cost, you know, not only to people's health in the immediate area from exhaust and things like that, but it's pretty much a well-established fact now that there's also a greenhouse gas factor that may be contributing to climate change," says Heimer.

WTOP's David Burd and Dimitri Sotis contributed to this report.

Follow @DavidBurdWTOP, @DSotisWTOP and @WTOP on Twitter.

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