In my first interview questionnaire that I sent out it went to Portland’s one and only Aaron B. Hockley;  Photographer Extraordinaire, Software Engineer, WordCamp Organizer, WordPress User, Dogcaught Writer & Photographer, a writer on OurPDX, and just another blogger!  Aaron often writes on these several blogs and takes awesome photos, like the one to the right.  One of his recent entries is even a video blog entry about Twitter usage.

After that mighty introduction, here’s the info on Aaron’s daily commute.

1. What is your occupation?  What exactly does the occupation entail?

I'm a software developer, working primarily with ASP.NET web applications and SQL Server.  I develop and support line of business applications for a local agency related to criminal justice.

2. How long have you been in the occupation?

I've been in the web/software industry for about 10 years, at my current employer for just over 2 years.

3. What city & state do you live in?

Live in Vancouver, WA and work in Portland, OR.

4. What mode (car, bike, foot, boat, airplane, train, airship, etc) of transport do you use for getting to and from work?   Airship? 

I wish.  A "typical" day involves driving from my house to a transit center (about 10 miles), then light rail train, then a bus for the last couple of miles.

2. How long does each leg of your commute take?  If you don't commute, how much time do you spend getting to and from your desk or place of work?

In the morning it's about 45 minutes from door to door, in the evening it's about an hour.

3. How do you pass the time while commuting or traveling?  Read, write, compute, chat, other?

Generally the time is spent listening to podcasts, and when I'm on the bus or train I'll catch up on RSS feeds or Twitter on my Blackberry.

4. If you had your choice, what mode would you take?

Ideally I'd live close enough to work that I could walk.

5. If there was one thing you could change about your commute, what would it be?

Other than making it shorter, I'd appreciate freeways with adequate capacity.  North of the Columbia River (in Vancouver), roads have for the most part kept pace with growth.  In Portland, massive population growth has led to zero new road capacity.

6. If gas went up to $5.00 a gallon, how would that change your commute?

Honestly, I doubt it would very much.  When it was over $4, we consolidated optional trips but it didn't affect my commute.

 

 

So in the next interview I’ll provide a tally, so we know where we are with types of commutes and other ideas that the answers provide.