Living up to its reputation as one of the toughest metro regions for commuting to and from work, the San Francisco Bay Area has the highest percentage of “mega commuters” – defined as full-time workers traveling 90 or more minutes and 50 or more miles to work – according to the ‘Mega Commuters in the U.S.’ report using the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.
The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA metro area had the highest percent of “mega” commutes with both the highest mean travel time and highest mean distance – both 2.06 percent – for full-time working commuters. The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metro area had the second highest percent of “mega” commutes with the highest mean distance at 1.90 percent.
The first-of-its-kind report defined ‘Extreme Commuting’ as traveling 90 or more minutes to work, ‘Long-Distance Commuting’ as traveling 50 or more miles to work, and ‘Mega Commuting’ as traveling 90 or more minutes and 50 or more miles to work.
Of all reported commutes in the U.S. for full-time workers, the report found approximately 5 percent were considered to be “long”, while 95 percent made up other commutes. Of the long commutes, about 2.41 percent or 1,713,931 were categorized as “extreme,” 3.15 percent or 2,241,915 as “long-distance,” and 0.82 percent or 586,805 as “mega.”
This research showed that mega commuters in the U.S. were more likely to depart for work before 6 a.m., be male, older, married, make a higher salary, and have a spouse that did not work. Mega commuters were also more likely to travel to another metro or micro area for work, as opposed to the one in which they resided.
Metro Areas with Highest Percentage of Full-Time Working Mega Commuters by Highest Mean Travel Time:
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA – 2.06 percent
- New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA – 1.90 percent
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV – 1.89 percent
- Trenton-Ewing NJ Metropolitan Statistical Area – 1.40 percent
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA – 1.25 percent
- Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH – 1.17 percent
- Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA – 0.90 percent
- Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI – 0.81 percent
- Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD – 0.80 percent
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 0.57
Metro Areas with Highest Percentage of Full-Time Working Mega Commuters by Highest Mean Distance:
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA – 2.06 percent
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA – 1.90 percent
- Salinas, CA – 1.23 percent
- Gulfport-Biloxi, MS – 0.94 percent
- Hinesville-Fort Stewart, GA – 0.93 percent
- Lawton, OK – 0.82 percent
- Fayetteville, NC – 0.73 percent
- Brunswick, GA – 0.64 percent
- Anchorage, AK – 0.25 percent
- Honolulu, HI – 0.08 percent
The report ‘Mega Commuters in the U.S.: Time and Distance in Defining the Long Commute using the American Community Survey’ is available at www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/pdf/paper_mega_%20commuters_us.pdf.
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