How Do You Solve the Growing Commute?

I was watching one of the TV morning shows this morning (a rare event for me) and there was a piece on the growing problem with long commutes. The report showed singles and couples getting up earlier and earlier to spend more and more time in their cars getting to work.

There weren't really any suggestions made for how to solve this problem, and I'm not entirely sure what a solution would look like. I've worked in Dallas and made the hour long commute off and on for several years. I know a man who has a commute close to two hours. These commutes aren't unusual, if the traffic on freeways here is any indication. It appears that everyone lives in Fort Worth and commutes to Dallas for work.

This made me wonder a couple of things. First, why aren't there any jobs in Fort Worth? This is the western side of the fourth largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Surely, there have to be jobs here? And if not, why not?

The second thing I wondered was, when is the commute too much and how do we fix it? Ten years ago, I wouldn't have considered commuting an hour to work; now I've resigned myself to the idea of an hour or more. And don't bother suggesting public transport. Public transport is nearly non-existent in Texas and the costs of putting it in would be enormous. And even using public transport, the man I mentioned earlier has a 1 1/2 hour commute. In other words, he drives and leaves his car in one of those giant car parks, then sits on a train for an hour, then takes a bus for another 1/2 hour. Isn't public transport supposed to be quicker?

When I've visited England, public transportation was wonderful. In London, there were buses, trains, and subways that could take you nearly anywhere. Trains shot out from London to most of the countryside, and places not directly on a train line were accessible by bus.

The problem as I see it is that because our culture is car-dependent, it will be extremely difficult to change it now. There are, of course, parts of the country with much better public transportation than Dallas and Fort Worth, but as I avoid freeways and congested areas like the plague, I have to wonder what it will take to change the culture here in Texas.