Cairo commuting

Commuting in Cairo! 

image source blog.eces.org.eg

If you are reading this you are probably one of the ones suffering from commuting in Cairo, Egypt. That means you live on one side and working on the other. Living around Nasr City, Masr elGedida or 5th Settlement and working on the other side of town, Smart Village or 6th October city. Or of course the other way around.

Oh I hear you, my heart is with you, there's a fair chance you've been through the following:

1. You get up really early in the morning to avoid traffic, waking up a few minutes later or use your alarm snooze button, and you're toast!
2. You know that if you're not on 6th October bridge by 7:30, or if you're just a tiny bit late, even by 5~10 minutes, that means you'll probably get stuck on October bridge and/or Lebanon square (ميدان لبنان)
3. You arrive at work tired, because you woke up really early and went to sleep late the day before, or you were a little late this morning and you got stuck in traffic for quite a long time...or both!
4. You start your day going through your emails, around mid/end of day you push yourself to get work done, doing your best hoping to finish just a tiny bit earlier so you can catch the roads before rush hour @ 5:00PM. Usually, you don't.
5. You leave work either by bus/car, probably just a few minutes after 5:00 (if you're lucky) but you almost already know that you'll be going through all the traffic. 
6. If you're using the bus, you're set for a roller coaster ride, where the driver tries to dodge rush hour at every known, and also unknown subway! "Take the da2ery" phone call, "don't take mehwar", "waslet el maryoterya mashya"...etc.
7. If you have your car, oh dear, you're probably alone, set upon the mercy of whatever is being aired on the radio (you finish at least a couple of 1~2 hours radio programs on your way home) or have your audio player set with a gazillion song playing on random mode. 
8. You eventually arrive home (hopefully in one piece!) tired and need to rest. Social life? Are you kidding? you don't get to ask these questions, you just hope to get a decent meal with your family before you run to bed so you can get enough sleep before you wake up the next day!
9. On Weekends, you may have had a few first days of the weekend spent sleeping! After all you need to have some rest after all those sleep deprived week days.

It is such hustle, you're supposed to perform, over perform, achieve, work for your next target... but sometimes you're just really too tired. 

You already know you'l have to choose, family and friends or work? social life or career path? Work life balance they call it. But rarely who admit this question, and if they do, only a few dare to answer and actually decide. But why you may ask should one go through all this. Well the quick answer is: it's the safe job in a big company, a good salary or package, a better career path. Whether you think this is best for you or not is up to you. But don't take too long to answer the question for your self. Do not waste your time.

A quick calculation (see below) shows the commuting time through a whole year for someone who commutes daily, 5 days a week with an average single trip time of 1.5 hours. 

If you do not wish to go through the calculation, well, it basically says that in a year (365 days) you spend a whole month, (24 hours a day, 7 days a week of that month) completely on the road! between your home and your work on the other end of town!

How much time (in full days!) is spent commuting in a year

So yes, traffic is time consuming in Cairo in that case. So how can you avoid that? Well there are a few things that you can consider. Some of the points below are tips and tricks, others are decision that you may want to think them through before you commit to them:

1. Avoid rush hours! Yes it sounds trivial, but it is actually true, you can check if your line of work and duties do not necessarily require that you be on premises with your colleagues for the entire working hours. I.e. Instead of going to your work from 9:00 to 5:00 or 8:00 to 4:00 consider going 7:00 and leaving at 3:00, this can save you up to a little more that an hour per day.
2. Work from home! If your boss is flexible, your work policy allows it, and you are fully committed to give 100% focus working from home as you work from your office, go for it!
3. Only go in the core hours! again, requires that your boss is flexible enough that you're only on premises for the meeting times, or planning time where everyone has to be there, after that you can continue from home.
4. Consider moving from your current home to a place near your work, this is a great time saver, but if you have your family with you, you need to collectively take the decision. Note: consider your family commitments and social life in general before taking the decision.
5. Finally, consider moving to another job closer to your home (duh!) yeah, it is hard I know, but keep trying, persistence pays off isA ;).

Good luck!