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> Americans spend more time commuting to work than almost anyone on Earth. American commute times are actually the third lowest in the OECD.
by gok 7y ago
> Americans spend more time commuting to work than almost anyone on Earth.
American commute times are actually the third lowest in the OECD.
- morelisp 7y agoDo you have a citation for this which includes part-time jobs, and breaks out self-driven vs. public transit?
- robert_foss 7y agoCitation needed
- gok 7y agohttp://www.oecd.org/els/family/LMF2_6_Time_spent_travelling_to_and_from_work.pdf http://www.oecd.org/els/family/LMF2_6_Time_spent_travelling_...
- cscurmudgeon 7y agoBut let us not let data pollute a mildy disguised US hate fest.
- graeme 7y agoThat figure is debateable. Citylab raises three issues: 1. American commutes tend to be by car. Other countries have more walking, biking and transit commutes. (Note that foreign transit tends to be more relaxing than American transit). And a walk or bike commute is exercise, which americans have to go to the gym to do. 2. In cities, American commutes are much longer than average. The article was talking about urban centers where immigrants go, so it would be instructive to compare to foreign city commutes. 3. Other datasets show the US having longer relative commute times. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2011/10/american-commute-times-so-difficult-to-measure/307/ https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2011/10/american-comm...
- dchyrdvh 7y agoGyms are now closed. The thing about suburbs is that you can be anywhere anytime, thanks to your car and garage space to store bicycles and various recreational things. If I lived in the city, I'd likely have neither and would be bound to my city block (parking isn't cheap there).
- yazaddaruvala 7y agoI live in an apartment in downtown Seattle. I store two bikes easily, and use them often for exercise but also to visit farmers markets (when they are open).
- freeone3000 7y agoYou can definitely walk further than your city block! Here in Montreal, I walk a mile to work daily. In summer, I could bike, but there's no reason to. Another thing is in mixed-use developments, you might not have to go too far. My block is entirely condos, but the next block has a pharmacy and a grocery store, and the block the other way has a grocery store, a few fast food places, and across the street is a rather nice sushi place and a bar. Instead of going to the things, you just live where the things are.
- abalashov 7y agoI’m the author of the article, and agree that this figure was poorly chosen. I think “commute distance” and “commute distance by automobile” in particular would be a much more compelling metric to explore. Otherwise, we get mired in red herrings about heavy traffic that leads to even slower average travel speeds in some other global metropolises, or long train commutes that aren’t apples-to-apples to long car commutes.