However, I am not sure the analysis method used in this article is really the way to look at this issue. The fact that lots of people spend 15 minutes sitting on their rear is not a serious problem, despite the fact that you can multiply that 15 minutes by millions of people to get a large number.
The problem is that some people have very long commutes. 30 minutes or more is a problem. An hour or more is a serious problem. 90 minutes or more is, for most jobs, ridiculous.
Actually, I see rather more good news than bad news in the referenced statistics. According to the source ([1], see the table on page 2) only 2.3% of Americans have a one-way commute of 90 or more minutes. Only 7.5% have an hour or more. But 33.5% -- more than a third -- have 30 minutes or more; that is troubling.
By the way, the statistics in the source[1] strike me as a little suspect. In particular, the big bump at "30 to 34 minutes" suggests that a lot of people were thinking, "Oh, about 30 minutes." That kind of estimation is not mentioned among the possible sources of error. Someone was not thinking clearly enough when that Census Bureau report was written.
Hi. I'm the author of the post. The Census report you mention is cited by a lot of other posts out there re work habits. That definitely doesn't make it more credible - just wanted to mention that it's often cited.
I don't think there's any problem with citing an official Census Bureau report. Certainly they are the definitive source for statistics on the U.S. population. And I imagine the numbers in the report give a correct overall impression of commute times. However, I suspect the conclusions in the report as to the accuracy of the data are a bit overblown.
Multiplying minutes by millions of people does give a first approximation to how much energy use, pollution, and congestion you are causing. Commute times matter even if you don't care that people are sitting for 15 minutes (or 45, or 90).
I live 4 miles from midtown Manhattan. That's about a 30 minute bus ride during rush hour. An hour commute is probably the average commute from the suburbs to NYC.
Which suburbs? An hour sounds rather optimistic. It's at least an hour to midtown from Westchester, Long Island, and the NJ suburbs that aren't on the PATH.
However, I am not sure the analysis method used in this article is really the way to look at this issue. The fact that lots of people spend 15 minutes sitting on their rear is not a serious problem, despite the fact that you can multiply that 15 minutes by millions of people to get a large number.
The problem is that some people have very long commutes. 30 minutes or more is a problem. An hour or more is a serious problem. 90 minutes or more is, for most jobs, ridiculous.
Actually, I see rather more good news than bad news in the referenced statistics. According to the source ([1], see the table on page 2) only 2.3% of Americans have a one-way commute of 90 or more minutes. Only 7.5% have an hour or more. But 33.5% -- more than a third -- have 30 minutes or more; that is troubling.
By the way, the statistics in the source[1] strike me as a little suspect. In particular, the big bump at "30 to 34 minutes" suggests that a lot of people were thinking, "Oh, about 30 minutes." That kind of estimation is not mentioned among the possible sources of error. Someone was not thinking clearly enough when that Census Bureau report was written.
[1] https://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acs-15.pdf