Is Your Commute Wasting Your Life?

COMMUTE IS YOUR WASTING YOUR LIFE? Everyone likes to complain about their awful commute, but who actually has it the worst? Tom Tom, a company that sells GPS systems, crunched their user data and came up with how many hours per year the average person with a 30-minute commute spends stuck in traffic. Unsuprisingly, Los Angeles commuters spend a lot of extra time in their cars – about 6 more hours a year than commuters in any other U.S. city. Cities by hours of delay per year, with a 30 minute commute 80-90 hours O 70-79 hours 60-69 hours Seattle: 83 O 50-59 hours Los Angeles is the most congested city in the U.S., with an average 39 minute delay per hour driven during peak period. Drivers there with a 30 minute commute ● Portland: 71 Providence: 53 Hartford: 55 Boston: 69 O Minneapolis: 59 New York City: 71 - spend about 90 hours every year stuck in traffic. Detroit: 50 Milwaukee: 50 -San Francisco: 83 Chicago: 69 O Pittsburgh: 57 O Philadelphia: 63 O Sacramento: 59 Columbus: 55 O -Baltimore: 59 San Jose: 84 O Denver: 63 Cincinatti: 55 O O Las Vegas: 53 Washington, D.C.: 73 Virginia Beach: 57 Riverside: 59 Nashville: 69 ● Charlotte: 61 O Phoenix: 50 O Atlanta: 76 Birmingham: 50 O San Diego: 67 O Tucson: 55 Dallas-Fort Worth: 59 O Jacksonville: 53 Austin: 76 O O New Orleans: 67 O Orlando: 59 San Antonio: 59 O Tampa: 65 O · Houston: 78 Honolulu: 83 C Miami: 71 More Drivers Means More Hours Stuck In Traffic Yearly average hours of delay per U.S. commuter, 1982–2011 - Number of workers by means of transportation to work, in millions 70 140 I Private automobile 60 120 I All other means 50 100 38 40 80 30 60 20 40 15.5 10 20 Congestion Costs A Lot And Means Lower Air Quality, And It Will Only Get Worse Yearly value of delay time and fuel cost due to congestion to each auto commuter $1,200 $1,010 $1,000 380 lbs of CO2 are produced per auto commuter each year during congestion* $795 $810 $800 $600 $400 $200 $0 *Does not include CO2 production from auto commuters when roads are not congested 2000 2010 2020 (projected) Public Transportation Helps, If People Use It Most Americans Still Drive To Work Alone How workers who did not work at home got to work, 2011* 5.5 billion hours Public transporation also saved $20.8B Drove alone: 79.9% in congestion costs in 2011 Carpooled: 10.1% Public transportation: 5.3% 865 million hours Biked, walked, or other: 4.8% Yearly national travel delay, 2011 Travel delay saved by public transportation, 2011 *Numbers may not add to 100 due to rounding. Sources: TomTom, Census Bureau, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Van designed by Mourad Mokrane from the Noun Project, Train designed by Anton Håkanson from the Noun Project THE HUFFINGTON POST