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The Cities With The Worst Commutes

Posted by: Christian Madera

27 December 2006 - 6:00am

Summarizing the results from the 2006 Commuting in America report, Forbes profiles the top ten cities with the worst commute.

"As cities sprawl, commuting in America just keeps getting worse.

The average travel time to work in the U.S. is growing steadily. From 1980 to 1990, it increased 40 seconds, from 21.7 minutes to 22.4 minutes for a one-way trip. In the next decade it increased by about three minutes to 25.5, according to Commuting in America by Alan Pisarski, a 2006 study published by the Transportation Research Board.

Even more worrisome trends are emerging in major urban areas. Back in 1990, only in New York state did more than 10% of workers travel over 60 minutes to get to work. By 2000, New Jersey, Maryland and Illinois had acquired the same dubious distinction, and California was coming close."

Full Story: America's Worst Commutes
Source: Forbes, December 19, 2006
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Commuting Time

Submitted by pgriber on Wed, 12/27/2006 - 07:50.

This is a ridiculous article. Going to work always requires a commute, and people choose their jobs based on their professions, job opportunities, and other life-style issues. Commuting is usually not an issue when finding a job. The horror expressed in the article by an increase in commuting time in seconds and minutes is laughable. These people should get a life! Better yet, they should get a commute so they have something to do other than think about commuting. I have always commuted a half hour from home, ever since I started to work. So what! I like the drive, it goes really fast, and it gives me time to set up my day and plan my evening on the way home. Don't over-think it for me, okay? This reminds me of the environmentalists, whose real purpose is to try and run other people's lives by telling them where they cannot live. All of these people, get off my back!

commuting is the time to think about commuting

Submitted by cassiebrow@yahoo.com on Sun, 12/31/2006 - 01:43.

Dear friend, this article is NOT about the experience of the individual, but a comment on the state of the collective. For instance - blood pressure is not about the time it takes for one cell but the overall rate of blood movement. your right to argue that a few minutes are a mild impact on individuals - only about 10 hours a year, but it isn't about the individual experience but the collective average. Overall we've begun dedicating more time to getting to our destination.

As for your concern for your personal freedom and liberties - grow up. The real reason that you feel threatened by environmentalist is that you don't like being reminded that the world must make decision on a macro as well as micro level. If you are un willing to plug the macro world into your decision making, then we'll have to do everything from gently remind you to bloody well force you to do it. If you force us to force you than we'll have to make a solid rule and then it will be missing the whole point.

carry on friend but pick your head up and look around, so i can get off your back and walk beside you, as we'd both prefer.

"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion."
~Sir Francis Bacon

Self-regarding vs other-regarding.

Submitted by Dano on Wed, 12/27/2006 - 11:05.

This reminds me of the environmentalists, whose real purpose is to try and run other people's lives by telling them where they cannot live. All of these people, get off my back!

I, personally, appreciate the reminder that there is a certain percentage among those who we plan for who aren't interested in their effects on others. We must consider this type too when planning.

Best,

D

"So What! I Like The Drive"

Submitted by Charles Siegel on Wed, 12/27/2006 - 10:24.

I like the drive, and I love global warming. I don't see why those environmentalists want to ruin my life by saying that my car shouldn't emit 5 or 10 tons of CO2 a year. I am not hurting anyone except our children and grandchildren! (Well, maybe I am also hurting a few people in Africa who are suffering from drought because of global warming, but that's no reason for environmentalists to ruin my life.)

Seriously, the increase in commuting time is more significant than it seems. The amount of time that Americans spend commuting to work remained constant from the 1840s, when suburbanization began, through 1990, but it has increased since because higher housing prices have forced people to move to more remote suburbs. Realtors sometimes call this "driving until you qualify [for a mortgage loan]."

So it is not a matter of choosing your job based on commute time. It is a matter of being forced to choose housing that gives you a long commute, because that is the only housing you can afford.

The average commute time has gone up slightly, but the number of extremely long commutes has gone up rapidly. Almost 10 million Americans drive more than an hour to work, 50 percent more than in 1990, and over 3.4 million Americans drive more than an hour and a half to work, twice as many as in 1990. These "extreme commuters" with a round trip of over three hours a day are the fastest growing group of commuters.
[source: Keith Naughton, "The Long and Grinding Road: The rat race is turning into a marathon. Inside the lives of 'extreme commuters,'" Newsweek, April 23, 2006.]

Charles Siegel

anyone who says a commute isn't an issue...

Submitted by thehal on Wed, 12/27/2006 - 12:38.

Probably doesn't have kids.

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All of that only scratches the surface of what's wrong with this study. The idea that complex urban development patterns and human behavior can be meaningfully studied according to one primary criteria — density — is wrong from the start.
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