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I'm more surprised the average American only commutes 1 hr (total?) each day to work. Considering most cities during rush hour seem like they take 30 minutes to

I'm more surprised the average American only commutes 1 hr (total?) each day to work. Considering most cities during rush hour seem like they take 30 minutes to go 5 miles, and most Americans cannot afford to live near prosperous jobs.

bobthepanda 6y ago
Most Americans do not work in city center and can avoid driving the super congested trips into downtown. And most job growth in the US over the past years has been eds and meds, which are more dispersed and local.
- Cthulhu_ 6y ago
  Most Americans still spend a ton of time in their car though, thanks to sprawl, lack of public transit and urban design geared towards cars.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Even in engineering/tech, most people are probably commuting from suburban houses/apartments to suburban office parks. And while that can still involve congested traffic, most people would consider an hour each way a pretty long commute.
- thatfrenchguy 6y ago
  And now there is traffic everywhere and it’s impossible to do any sort of planning for having good public transit! Isn’t it awesome?
  - bobthepanda 6y ago
    An observation of reality is not an endorsement of it. That being said, a fair amount of transit cities are also multipolar and with generally long commutes; Paris and Tokyo come to mind.
- danans 6y ago
  > Most Americans do not work in city center and can avoid driving the super congested trips into downtown They often can't avoid very congested trips to the neighboring suburb where their job is located. Even if many jobs aren't located downtown, they are located in suburban industrial or office clusters that severely lack in public transit, and are subject to severe traffic congestion. Furthermore, the effect of this increasing dispersal of jobs has been to increase average commute times, not decrease them [1]. Anecdotally, over my career, I've experienced this sort of long suburb-to-suburb commute in states as varied as Michigan, Texas, Washington and California. 1. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Srvy_JobsProximity.pdf https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Srvy_Jo...

bobthepanda 6y ago

Most Americans do not work in city center and can avoid driving the super congested trips into downtown. And most job growth in the US over the past years has been eds and meds, which are more dispersed and local.

Cthulhu_ 6y ago
Most Americans still spend a ton of time in their car though, thanks to sprawl, lack of public transit and urban design geared towards cars.
ghaff 6y ago
Even in engineering/tech, most people are probably commuting from suburban houses/apartments to suburban office parks. And while that can still involve congested traffic, most people would consider an hour each way a pretty long commute.
thatfrenchguy 6y ago
And now there is traffic everywhere and it’s impossible to do any sort of planning for having good public transit! Isn’t it awesome?
- bobthepanda 6y ago
  An observation of reality is not an endorsement of it. That being said, a fair amount of transit cities are also multipolar and with generally long commutes; Paris and Tokyo come to mind.
danans 6y ago
> Most Americans do not work in city center and can avoid driving the super congested trips into downtown They often can't avoid very congested trips to the neighboring suburb where their job is located. Even if many jobs aren't located downtown, they are located in suburban industrial or office clusters that severely lack in public transit, and are subject to severe traffic congestion. Furthermore, the effect of this increasing dispersal of jobs has been to increase average commute times, not decrease them [1]. Anecdotally, over my career, I've experienced this sort of long suburb-to-suburb commute in states as varied as Michigan, Texas, Washington and California. 1. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Srvy_JobsProximity.pdf https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Srvy_Jo...