A Look at Commuting Using the Latest Census Data

bigstock-Light-Trails-5595177.jpg

Continuing my exploration of the 2011 data from the American Community Survey, I want to look now at some aspects of commuting.

Public Transit

Public transit commuting remains overwhelmingly dominated by New York City, with a metro commute mode share for transit of 31.1%. There are an estimated 2,686,406 transit commuters in New York City. All other large metro areas (1M+ population) put together add up to 3,530,932 transit commuters. New York City metro accounts for 39% of all transit commuters in the United States.

If one were to guess the #2 city for transit commuting, another older, pre-auto, centralized city on the lines of New York (say Chicago) might be the obvious guess. It would also be wrong. It’s actually Washington, DC that has the second highest transit commute share among large metros at 14.8%. Here’s the complete top ten:

Rank

Metro Area

2011

1

New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA

2,686,406 (31.1%)

2

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

439,194 (14.8%)

3

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA

299,204 (14.6%)

4

Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI

503,535 (11.6%)

5

Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH

267,568 (11.6%)

6

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD

251,285 (9.3%)

7

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

137,858 (8.1%)

8

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

66,619 (6.3%)

9

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA

355,811 (6.2%)

10

Baltimore-Towson, MD

80,472 (6.1%)

 

Not only are New York and Washington top two cities for public transit commuting, they are also the two cities that have been dominant in increasing transit’s market share. Both cities showed material share gains since 2000, over three and a half percentage points each, for transit. Among large cities, Seattle was the only one that managed to post a share gain of even one percent.

Rank

Metro Area

2000

2011

Change in % of Workers Age 16 and Over

1

New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA

2,181,093 (27.4%)

2,686,406 (31.1%)

3.74%

2

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

278,842 (11.2%)

439,194 (14.8%)

3.61%

3

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

106,784 (7.0%)

137,858 (8.1%)

1.17%

4

Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL

12,601 (1.6%)

24,901 (2.5%)

0.91%

5

Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT

15,755 (2.8%)

21,794 (3.7%)

0.91%

6

Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC

9,532 (1.4%)

19,227 (2.3%)

0.91%

7

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA

278,207 (13.8%)

299,204 (14.6%)

0.81%

8

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA

287,392 (5.6%)

355,811 (6.2%)

0.67%

9

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL

67,685 (3.2%)

95,536 (3.8%)

0.61%

10

Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN

5,574 (0.8%)

10,705 (1.4%)

0.55%

 

Vaunted Portland only managed to eke out a share gain of 0.07%, which could be entirely statistical noise. Its performance lagged even auto-centric cities like Charlotte and Nashville.

Bicycling

Every city out there seems to be vying to be the bike friendliest city in the world. Yet bicycling has yet to make much of an impact on commuting. Only 7 out of 51 large metros even post 1% mode share for cycling:

Row

Geography

2011

1

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

23,941 (2.3%)

2

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA

38,419 (1.9%)

3

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

16,013 (1.9%)

4

Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA

15,804 (1.8%)

5

Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX

8,847 (1.0%)

6

New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA

5,307 (1.0%)

7

Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ

18,007 (1.0%)

8

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

15,949 (0.9%)

9

Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO

12,052 (0.9%)

10

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA

50,080 (0.9%)

 

Portland grew bicycle mode share by 1.51% Perhaps this explains its poor transit performance. Cycling is canabalizing transit growth.

Walking

The low level of bicycling can perhaps best be illustrated by comparing it to walking. Even in Portland more people walk to work than ride bikes.


Rank

Metro Area

2011

1

New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA

540,733 (6.3%)

2

Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH

121,537 (5.3%)

3

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA

87,409 (4.3%)

4

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD

101,107 (3.7%)

5

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

62,238 (3.7%)

6

Pittsburgh, PA

36,857 (3.4%)

7

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

35,242 (3.4%)

8

Rochester, NY

15,573 (3.2%)

9

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

94,698 (3.2%)

10

Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI

134,399 (3.1%)

 

Working from Home

Looking at telecommuting gives a much different list of top cities, this one dominated by “wired” metros like Austin and Raleigh. The share of telecommuters in these cities is bigger than walking or biking, or even transit in many cities. This is an oft-overlooked part of the green transport agenda. The most green commute possible is the one you never have to make.

Rank

Metro Area

2011

1

Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX

62,593 (7.1%)

2

Raleigh-Cary, NC

37,030 (6.6%)

3

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA

67,223 (6.4%)

4

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA

131,029 (6.4%)

5

San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA

89,547 (6.3%)

6

Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO

76,025 (5.9%)

7

Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ

105,570 (5.8%)

8

Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA

52,143 (5.8%)

9

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA

132,979 (5.5%)

10

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA

87,839 (5.2%)

 

Commute Times

Unsurprisingly, large cities – including New York and Washington again at the top – feature the longest average commute times. Larger cities tend to have worse congestion and feature longer commutes. As transit commutes are generally longer than driving, the high transit mode share helps to drive up commute times in those cities.

Rank

Metro Area

2011

1

New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA

34.9

2

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV

34.5

3

Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA

31.0

4

Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI

30.9

5

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA

30.6

6

Baltimore-Towson, MD

30.3

7

Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH

29.2

8

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA

29.2

9

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA

28.6

10

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD

28.5

 

Whether New York might prefer a more auto-oriented layout in order to reduce commute times is a different matter. There’s no precedent for such a huge region having anything less than terrible congestion and commute times. And clearly New York would not be New York with such a radical change. The same forces that drive up commute times in places like New York and Washington are some of the same forces that sustain them as centers of elite economic production.

Note: An early version of this piece contained an incorrect version of "Working from Home" table.

Aaron M. Renn is an independent writer on urban affairs and the creator of Telestrian, a data analysis and mapping tool. He writes at The Urbanophile.

Light trails photo by Bigstock.



















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Unsurprisingly, large cities

Unsurprisingly, large cities – including New York and Washington again at the top – feature the longest average commute times. Larger cities tend to have worse congestion and feature longer commutes. As transit commutes are generally longer than driving, the high transit mode share helps to drive up commute times in those cities. Adult

I've loved it since I was a

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Moreover, the Productivity

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With all the momentum behind

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NYC convert to auto-oriented transportation

This comment strikes me as quite absurd - "New York might prefer a more auto-oriented layout in order to reduce commute times". If you shifted commuting by transit to commuting by cars you would see an increase in congestion and a dramatic decrease in commute time. Transport by automobiles require 20 times more space per passenger than transit. Plus the additional space needed to store the cars while people are working, shopping or at home reduces the amount of real estate or building area that is available for use. Commute times in automobiles are probably faster right now because transit takes a huge burden off the road infrastructure.

Additionally, the cost to expand the road infrastructure and build parking garages for car storage would be astronomical and not feasible, as well as unsustainable. We are already seeing the effects of not being able to maintain an already too large automobile oriented road infrastructure in many cities and states across the nation.

Without highway users - transit stops - immediately - even in NY

ajfortna wrote:

Additionally, the cost to expand the road infrastructure and build parking garages for car storage would be astronomical and not feasible, as well as unsustainable. We are already seeing the effects of not being able to maintain an already too large automobile oriented road infrastructure in many cities and states across the nation.

Are you aware of the extent to which transit users in New York City are subsidized by highway users? Not only do highway users fund all or very nearly all of the federal capital subsidies for transit (including the Second Avenue Subway), while transit fare contribute nothing to the capital costs of the system they ride, without the rubber-tire traffic paying the tolls at the various NY MTA Bridge and Tunnel crossings, transit run by the NY MTA would come to an immediate halt, since the NY MTA would not be able to pay its transit workforce or its other bills.

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No Transportation Mode is Self Funded

Um, you do realize that if all those drivers suddenly started taking transit, that would create a large spike in income for the MTA. Also, you do realize that no transportation system is self funded, right? The gas tax comes nowhere near close to covering the costs of building and maintaining roads and highways in this country. And while a portion of it does go to transit capital costs, to declare that ALL of that funding comes from the gas tax is just flat out absurd.

Your notion that drivers somehow generously support transit users is also pretty absurd. We can play your silly game in the other direction, too. If transit users suddenly went away, the roads would be hopelessly clogged and we'd be facing traffic that would make Beijing's look light. But ya know what, neither the drivers nor the transit users are going away, and so the funding model we have is based on that paradigm that each ends up benefiting from the other in some way. So get off your high horse. Transit users owe you exactly nothing.

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