Commuting

U.S. Commuting

Americans are spending more time commuting than they did 40 years ago. Based on the 2006–10 American Community Survey, the average one-way commute time was 21.7 minutes in 1980, the first time the census collected commute data. Since then, average one-way commute time increased from 22.4 minutes in 1990 to 25.5 minutes in 2000, and declined only slightly to 25.1 minutes in 2009. Today the average American commutes a little less than 26 minutes and 16 miles each way.

Compared to many European countries, average commutes for U.S. workers are shorter (see Table 1) because of the dominant use of the private automobile for travel. The average travel time for workers who commute by public transportation is higher than that of workers who use other modes. However, the share of “long commuters,” those who commute 60 minutes or longer each way, is on the rise. In 2011, 10.8 million or 8.1 percent of U.S. workers were long commuters, up from 8 percent in 2000. Of all long commuters, “extreme commuters” who commute 90 minutes or more to work each way are also on the rise.

The U.S. 2000 census identified 2.8 percent of commuters as extreme commuters, which is up from 1.5 percent extreme commuters in 1990. However, this proportion has fluctuated since then, and it reached 2.5 percent in 2011. The recent census also classified 3.3 million (3.15 percent) U.S. workers as “stretch commuters” or “long-distance commuters,” who commute 50 miles each way; and 600,000 U.S. workers (0.82 percent) as “mega-commuters,” traveling 90 minutes or more and at least 50 miles to work each way. Moreover, the number of people who start a commuting trip very early (5 a.m. to 6 a.m.) to avoid traffic jams on highways that typically occur during peak commuting hours (6 a.m.–10 a.m.) rose significantly from 6.4 percent in 1990 to 7.6 percent in 2000 and up to 8.6 percent in 2009.

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