Our friends over Portland Transport posted a pithy article, entitled "Get Married, Have a Short Commute."  Why?  Because those, my friends, are the keys to happiness.

The Front Cortex, a sort of brain science-meets-economics blog, cited a bunch of research about the connection between commuting and that all-encompassing category "quality of life."  It's a great article for guys like us because its got enough one-liners to make even a transportation wonk smile:

• "The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting."

• "The best way to make yourself happy is to have a short commute..."

• "A person with a one-hour commute has to earn 40 percent more money to be as satisfied with life as someone who walks to the office." (my bold)

• "Driving in traffic is a different kind of hell every day."

That all makes sense to me, but I think the next step in this type of research should look at the quality of the commute.  For example, 45 minutes on a bike with a little Oregon sunshine raining down doesn't equal 45 minutes in stop-and-go on the Sunset.