Richard Florida Explains "The Geography of How We Get to Work"

Richard Florida begins the article by describing America as "[overwhelmingly] a nation of drivers." This characterization, he writes, is based on the fact that 86 percent of Americans drive to work and 76 percent drive to work alone. Next, Florida explains that some cities are less car-dependent and rely more on public transit and extensive bike and pedestrian commuting (e.g NYC, Portland, Ft. Collins).

Florida then looked at factors like density, rainfall, average temperatures, housing types, and occupations of residents to determine which factors shaped commuting patterns.

His findings are as follows:

" - Population density increases public transportation usage, but has no effect on walking and biking.

- Weather and climate do play a role, but not necessarily what you'd think. People are more likely to drive to work where the weather is warm and/or wet. Public transit use as well as walking and biking are more common in drier climes but also in places with colder January temperatures.

- The longer the commute (based on the average commute time), the more likely people are to use public transit, but--not surprisingly--the less likely they are to bike or walk.

- The type of housing development matters. The share of housing units built between 2000 and 2006 is negatively associated with the percentage of people who bike, walk or take public transit to work. Rapidly growing cities of sprawl - those which built the most houses during the height of the bubble - remain much more car-dependent than other places.

- Finally, and perhaps most interesting, the way we get to work is associated with the kinds of work we do. The share of workers in the creative class--scientists, engineers, techies, innovators, and researchers, as well as artists, designers, writers, musicians and professionals in health care, business and finance, the legal sector, and education--is positively associated with the percentages of people who take public transit or walk or bike to work. In fact this creative class variable was the largest of all. "