It's pretty much impossible for a pilot on reserve to commute unless you live less than 100 miles from base and can drive it. If you have 90 to 120 minutes from the phone call until you must report, that doesn't leave you any time to catch a flight, esp if the flight from you home takes at least that much time! My call out is 2 hours and I live 114 miles from my base. Even when I had all my stuff in the car ready to go, I barely made it. (Los Angeles traffic at the wrong time of day would easily make my normal 1:45 minute drive into a 2:30 trip.)

Even on days off, you will only get a half day at home if you commute coast to coast on 2 days off. My reserve was a 5 on, two off w/ one block of 4 days off per month. It was almost impossible to go home on two day weekends as the commute was 7-8 hours from door to door. By the time you get home, you needed to leave the next morning to be back at work on time for your next reserve day. Waiting till the last flight isn't an option if loads are tight as you MUST get there. Once you are off probation, many carriers have a 'commuter policy' that allows you X number of missed assignments per year due to full flights preventing you from getting to base, but as a newbie on reserve you won't have that luxury!