World of Commuters

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

Americans have some of the shortest commuting times in the developed world, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Dollars to doughnuts.

According to organization’s time use data, the average commuting time in the United States is about 28 minutes (similar to a separate measure from the United States Census Bureau). That is 10 minutes shorter than the average commuting time for all member countries, of 38 minutes, and longer than the time spent traveling to work in only three rich countries (Israel, Denmark and Sweden).

The O.E.C.D. member country with the longest average commuting time is South Africa, where the typical time spent traveling to work is 56 minutes.

To the extent that public policy is intended to enhance not only economic growth but also total happiness, these figures are important. A study from Alan Krueger, Daniel Kahneman and others found that commuting to work was the daily activity that gave the least enjoyment.

Commuter Nation

The average time it takes Americans to commute to work is 25.1 minutes, according to a new report based on Census data from 2009. Of all metropolitan areas, New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island area has the longest average commute time in the country, at 34.6 minutes, and has the highest share of its workers using public transportation to get to work.

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

Here’s a look at the distribution of commute lengths across the country:

Dollars to doughnuts.

Interestingly, while the average commute is 25.1 minutes, there are actually relatively few Americans who have a commute of exactly that length. There are just a lot of Americans with commutes shorter than that, and a bunch with commutes much longer than that. A plurality of workers have a commute in the 15-to-19-minute range.

The report also found that the median American leaves for work between 7:30 a.m. and 7:59 a.m.

Here’s a chart showing what percent of workers leave home at a given time:

Over time, American commutes have gotten somewhat less environmentally friendly, as you can see in the chart below. Over three-quarters of the nation’s workers drove alone to work in 2009, with another 10 percent commuting by carpool:

Across the country, only 3.5 percent of American workers had zero carbon footprint because they walked or bicycled to work. The metro area with the highest share of its workers commuting by bicycle is Corvallis, Ore., at 9.3 percent. The area with the highest share commuting by walking is Ithaca, N.Y., at 15.1 percent.