I'm a commuter, and as such am concerned about potential commuting rules. I believe that it would actually be unconstitutional to impose such restrictions on people, because there is no guarantee that a pilot who lives in domicile would get any rest either. You would essentially have to require all pilots to report to company barracks 24 hours prior to duty for "supervised rest".

Also few other groups are required to live in any particular location, generally only military or law enforcement, who are essentially on call 24/7 or need to provide a physical presence in the community.

And I don't think the ATA/RAA is going to back any such rules either. Short-term it might not hurt them but they know that long-term they would have to pay people much more to actually live in high-cost areas. They would also lose the QOL crowd who want to live near mountains, beach, etc...those people tend to be willing to work for less to enable their lifestyle. take that away, and the airlines is just an crappy industry with low pay and no future. Might as well work at the ski lift and be home every night...

I have also asked several feds...sounds like the FAA does not think it is practical either mainly because their rule-making process cannot bleed over into non-aviation areas. Where you live and how you get to work has nothing to do with aviation, so it is beyond their jurisdiction. It would take an act of congress to do something like that.

Note that an employer CAN easily and legally require you to live within a certain distance and some do, for various reasons (most airlines don't for cost reasons). The legal issue come up when the GOVERNMENT attempts to do so. There are many, many safety-sensitive jobs other than pilots and if they don't treat them all the same way it would violate fair-and-equal protections of the constitution.

And I do think we will probably have another colgan-type accident. Whatever they to shut the barn door now will not correct the deficiencies and attitudes of all of those who have slipped into the system. If we have two or three more colgan accidents, the government will have to get draconian...new retroactive standards effective immediately, with a bloodbath of ATP revocations/suspensions.