‘Super Commuting’ Hits Ten-Year Low

The number of Americans who travel more than 90 minutes each way to work, known as super commuters, has fallen to the lowest level in over 10 years, writes Chris Salviati for Apartment List. In 2021, just 3.1 million Americans were super commuters, down from a peak of 4.6 million in 2019. 

“The number of remote workers more than tripled from 2019 to 2021. In 2019, just 5.7 percent of Americans worked primarily from home, but by 2021, that share jumped to 17.9 percent.” This led to shorter commutes overall, but “super commuters have seen the sharpest dropoff.” 

According to the article, “Workers who rely on public transit to get to work are more than three times as likely to be super commuters as those who commute by car; 6.8 percent of all transit riders were super commuters in 2021, compared to 2.1 percent of drivers.”

Salviati also notes that “there is very likely a sizeable population of ‘part-time super commuters’ who we are not able to cleanly identify in this report” who don’t commute every day. The availability of hybrid arrangements may make super commuting more attractive, with workers only having to make the trip two or three times a week rather than daily.