Posted on 04/07/2018 7:57:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
View the high resolution version of today’s graphic by clicking here.
The average person is awake for 15.5 hours per day, but once you subtract hours committed to work, eating, chores, personal care, and errands, there’s only so little much free time leftover.
That’s why the amount of time spent commuting, either in a car or via transit, can be a massive difference maker towards a person’s quality of life.
Throughout the United States, the average commute time works out to about 26 minutes one-way.
However, as today’s infographic from TitleMax shows, the average commute varies considerably between individual states, and also between major cities as well.
In South Dakota, a state with fewer than one million people, congestion is not a problem for most. The state is home to the shortest average commute in the country at just 16.6 minutes one-way.
Meanwhile, as you may imagine, New York is the polar opposite of South Dakota for getting to work. The Empire State has the longest average commute in the country, which is double the length at 33.6 minutes.
Every city is different, which means that data can have high amounts of variability within each state.
New York again is a great example for this: NYC has the longest average commute in the nation at 34.7 minutes, but go upstate and Buffalo actually has the shortest average commute for all major cities at 20.3 minutes per trip.
Here are the 10 shortest commutes in the country, for major cities:
| Rank | City | State or District | Avg. Commute (Mins) |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Buffalo | NY | 20.3 |
| #2 | Columbus | OH | 21.8 |
| #3 | Hartford | CT | 22.3 |
| #4 | Milwaukee | WI | 22.3 |
| #5 | Las Vegas | NV | 22.5 |
| #6 | Memphis | TN | 22.5 |
| #7 | Virginia Beach | VA | 22.6 |
| #8 | San Diego | CA | 23.0 |
| #9 | West Palm Beach | FL | 23.0 |
| #10 | Cincinnati | OH | 23.2 |
Many people living in places like Buffalo or San Diego are able to hop to their place of the work in 20 minutes or less, giving them a little extra flexibility with their free time in comparison to bigger cities in the country.
Here are the 10 longest commutes in the country, for major cities:
| Rank | City | State or District | Avg. Commute (Mins) |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | New York City | NY | 34.7 |
| #2 | Long Island | NY | 33.3 |
| #3 | Washington | DC | 32.8 |
| #4 | Newark | NJ | 31.1 |
| #5 | Chicago | IL | 30.8 |
| #6 | Boston | MA | 30.4 |
| #7 | Oakland | CA | 29.9 |
| #8 | Riverside-San Bernardino | CA | 29.8 |
| #9 | Baltimore | MD | 29.4 |
| #10 | Atlanta | GA | 29.2 |
While it’s surprising to see that Los Angeles didn’t make it onto the list of cities with ultra-long commutes, the largest city in California does have the distinction of being the most congested city in the world.
It’s there that citizens spend an unfortunate 104 hours each year stuck in traffic jams.
I have a great commute. About 50 steps to my basement office. Unless I’m going to see a customer, then it can be 1-5 hours each way.
LOL, my husband works out of an office in our basement well. But it’s the travel almost 50% of the time that has him planning an early retirement next year.
So the difference between the 10th best and the 10th worst is only 6 minutes? And only 14 minutes from top to bottom of the list?
Looks like there isn’t really much difference among the major cities.
San Diego has a lot of rear enders but I remember 30 years ago it was pretty intricate. NAFTA brought the accidents.
in Seattle I leave the house at 6:15 to arrive downtown at my desk at 8. This is taking the train and then the bus. Then the whole thing repeats at end of day. And this is faster than driving and way cheaper.
When did Long Island,NY become a city?
It is also 100 miles long-——how could they figure commute time?
Dreadful “study”.
.
I have a long drive, but thanks to a podcast player I’m actually learning something on the way.
Blunt Force Truth, for example, is a great podcast for conservatives.
I like Chuck Woolery and have listened a few times. The Dan Bongino Show is another good one
Atlanta at 29 minutes is a joke. It used to take me 1 hour and if it rained 1.5 hours in the evening. That’s why there is so much road rage in Atlanta. Friday is really bad.
You can eliminate commute time by doing work in your home office and submitting it via e-mail to your boss.
Unless you have to do demanding physical work on site, commuting to work will eventually becoming a thing of the past.
I had a great job with a short commute. And then a vengeful SOB of a boss reassigned me to a different position in another city. I went from a 10 mile (ea way) commute to a 60 mile (ea way) commute. Over the worst route in Washington state.
I would leave before 05:00 and it would still take me on average 35 minutes each morning. The afternoons were pure hell with an average commute time of 2 hours. If there was an accident that time could easily stretch out to 5-6 hours because there was only one route north-south.
My sympathies to commuters everywhere!
I survived 2 and a half years of that duty before an ultimatum - and another change of bosses - saved me.
25mins one way
L.A. not high on the list, less than 30 mins? I guess the homeless who work their own street corners lowered the curve?
Where is Houston? Takes an hour to get downtown on a good day.
You know what will improve commute times and reduce pollution and resource utilization?
Importing millions of people
“Where is Houston? Takes an hour to get downtown on a good day.”
Houston is a large urban sprawl with incredibly long commutes. There has to be an error in the research methodology used in this study.
Probably need to use the metropolitan areas defined in census data, rather than city proper (such as “Houston”). The Houston metro includes Katy, Conroe, and all the way down to Galveston. And there are people who commute between extreme parts.
I’ve known people with commutes that lasted from one to two hours here (in the Houston area) depending on the traffic. And I’ve had regular commutes in the hour range myself.
Atlanta Georgia has got to be in the 3 top worst?
What I find even funnier than this is the average commute time on public transportation in Wyoming at just over 20 minutes. WHERE is there public transportation in Wyoming? Do they have a putt-putt bus in Cheyenne? Or maybe they are counting the ski lifts in Jackson?
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