Commuting is the daily travel by a person between their residence and their place of work or study. It can be accomplished using any transportation mode, or combination of modes, including walking, bicycle, motorcycle, automobile, transit or even aircraft, and the distances and times for the trips can vary greatly, from just a few blocks or minutes to many kilometers or hours.
Commuting can be a major consumer of resources and impose a substantial burden on both an economy and the environmental. This is both because it increases aggregate travel and because it creates peak travel periods rather than spreading travel more evenly throughout the day. Peak travel periods can require greater capacity of urban transportation infrastructure and equipment, such as roads, buses and rail vehicles, than would otherwise exist and which lies idle for most of the day.
Commuting can also require additional gasoline, electricity and other forms of energy. Longer commuting distances and times can consume a substantial share of commuters' budgets and time, and they can have adverse effects on their mental health, physical health and productivity.
Recent advances in telecommunications technology and the resulting 'work from home' trend have been playing a major role in reducing commuting and its adverse effects. Another way that commuting could be made easier is by expanding housing opportunities and improving the quality of life in urban areas in order to allow workers to live closer to their jobs.