Get To Work! America's Commuting Habits

Get to Work! America's Commuting Habits The average American commute is 24 minutes long. But how do we get to work? We've crunched the numbers to find out who is driving, biking, walking or riding to the office. How does your commute compare to the rest of the country? Commute By Car More than 96% of workers drive in Motor City, USA. Compare that to New York City, where just over 50% of commuters rely on their cars HIGHEST PERCENTAGE LOWEST PERCENTAGE 96.39% 1. Detroit, MI 2. Birmingham, AL 3. Oklahoma City, OK 4. Kansas City, KS 5. Louisville, KY 1. New York, NY 2. San Francisc, CA 3. Chicago, IL 4. Washington, DC 5. Seattle, WA 50.36% 96.09% 62.79% 95.98% 72.77% 95.85% 74.09% 95.73% 75.63% Top 5 Biking Metros The Pacific Northwest dominates the list of cities where more people pedal to work. 4. Seattle, WA 1.32% 2. San Francisco, CA 1.84% 5. Washington, DC 0.98% 3. Sacramento, CA 1.73% 1. Portland, OR 2.78% Top 5 Carpool Metros Traffic is less terrible when you have friends to ride with. LEFT LANE 4. Portland. OR 1.59% CARPOOLS 1. Seattle, WA 2.45% 2 OR MORE ONLY 2. San Jose, CA 2.07% 3. Salt Lake, UT 1.63% 5. Phoenix, AZ 1.57% Commuting Habits for the 10 Largest Metros Wherever you live, the car is still the king of the road. But some cities make better use of public transportation than others. Here is how the 10 biggest US metros stack up: Own Car Subway Train / Rail Walking Bus Other Bike Carpool New York, NY 24% of NY Commuters use the subway Los Angeles, CA 91% of LA Commuters drive their cars Chicago, IL 13% of Chicago Commuters ride the train Dallas, TX 94% of Dallas Commuters drive their cars Philadelphia, PA 7% of Philly Commuters ride the train Houston, TX 93% of Houston Commuters drive their cars Washington, DC 10% of DC Commuters use the subway Miami, FL 93% of Miami Commuters drive their cars Atlanta, GA 92% of Atlanta Commuters drive their cars Boston, MA 9% of Boston Commuters use the subway Methodology: Data provided by online salary database PayScale.com. Metropolitan Statistical Area: Large combined metropolitan areas defined by the US census. Exact definitions can be found here: http://www.census.gov/population/metro/. The MSA names are preceded by their size rank, with New York being the largest (by population), followed by Los Angeles, etc. Ratio to National Average: A comparison to the national average rate for each commute type. For example, the value of 5.2 for Portland and biking means that workers in Portland are 5.2 times as likely to commute by bike as the average US worker. PayScale HUMAN. CAPITAL.