Do these people have Ottawa's worst commute?

Every day in Ottawa, thousands of people jump in their cars, hop on their bikes, and squeeze themselves on buses in an effort to get to work.

But these four commuters say their daily travelsare among the worst.

They've shared their tales of woe withCBC Ottawa as part of Nowhere Fast, our forthcoming series on how and why people commute in the capital.

In March, we'll be hearing personal storiesfrom the streets and highways, taking a peek inside Ottawa'straffic headquarters, andoffering up adata-driven look at how people get around the city.

For now, however, we're starting off with an ambitious goal: finding the worst commute in the National Capital Region.

So if you've been trudging over snowbanks up to your armpits, arriving home after an hour in Queensway traffic, or wondering why yourOCTranspobusnever shows up, get in touch!

We'll be easingone lucky commuter's pain with a special prize: a chance to have CBC Ottawa traffic reporter Doug Hempsteadjoin you on your journey.

Want to enter?Send us an email or getin touch on Twitter or Facebookby midnight, Feb. 26.

YelenaKnight

Our first contender for the city's worst commute, Yelena Knight, spends at least three hours each day riding OC Transpo.

Knight lives with her mother in Kanata'sBridlewood community and commutes by bus to her job at Place du Portage in Gatineau.

On a good day, Knight says, it's 90 minutes each way.

But when things don't go according to plan her express route out of Kanata doesn't show up, or the timing's off for her Gatineau connection it can be even longer.

"It leaves me little time to do much else. By the time I get home, I'm so exhausted," she says.

Knight used to wake up at 5 a.m. to get a head start on all the traffic, but found such anearly startunbearable. Her three-hourcommute has placed restrictionson both her personal andprofessional life.

"I have to be very selective. It's like, OK, do I do this event and try to figure out a way home later? Or do I skip this? It has an effect in that way I can't be as flexible as I'd like to be," Knight says.

"It's so interesting how just a commute can have an impact on all of those other life decisions."

SarahReilly

Sarah Reilly says it's not the distance she travelsthat's so irritating,but the fact her relatively short commute shouldn't takeas long as it does.

For the past four years,Reillyhas been driving from her home in Gatineau's Hull district to downtown Ottawa and back. She says it's a breeze in the morning only eight to ten minutes or so but the return trip takesmore than four times as long.

"It's just jammed traffic. I cross at the Portage Bridge, usually, and that's always jammed up," says Reilly, who works in Centretown.

"Also, once you get across the bridge, across to Alexandre Tachthere, it's just crawling."

Reilly says she's tried other bridges, but there's always a "pinch point" that adds extra time to her commute. Riding the bus isn't much better, she adds.

"It's only about four-and-a-half kilometres, and it taking that long is just painful. Often in the summer, if it's a nice day not too hot I'll just walk in and back. Because it's quicker than driving."

Hendrik Pape

For music fan Hendrik Pape, the roughly 100-kilometre commute from Augusta Township strikes a sour note.

When Pape isn't driving three hoursto and from his high-tech job near Rideau Street and King Edward Avenue, he tries to eke out time to runhis own music website.

But wakingup each day at 4 a.m.just to get to workleaves him precious little time to actually see the acts he writes about.

"I've had to more or less stop doing the weeknight [shows]because you just can't do it," Pape says.

"I mean, you can, but you're a zombie the next day and you're just not productive. And non-productive people don't tend to keep their jobs very long."

Papesays he prefers the "country lifestyle," andgiven how few jobs in his field existin eastern Ontario's smaller communities, he accepts the trade-off.

Still, all that driving sometimes hashimsinging the blues.

"It's tedious. It takes four or so hours out of your day to do other things you enjoy."

Julia O'Grady

If it weren't for her family's commutes, Julia O'Gradysays she could own a second home.

O'Grady and her husband both regularly driveinto Ottawa from Kemptville, Ont. She says she spends about 2 hours each day behind the wheel, and roughly$1,000 a month on fuel.

"We could technically only own another home for the price that we pay for gas," O'Grady says.

"I don't know about you, but I can think of a million other things I'd rather be doing with a thousand dollars than putting it in my gas tank."

When she worked for the federal government, O'Grady used to drive into the city five days a week. Now that she runs an events planning company, she's been able to cut that back.

But while the frequency of her commute has slimmed down, the unpleasantness certainly hasn't.

"You can get up in the morning and be having a great day and then you spend an hour-and-a-half in the car, stuck in traffic, once you get to the 417," says O'Grady.

"It's probably the worst part of my day, and is actually a huge waste of my time."