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Extreme Commutes Up in SoCal, Not as Fun as Extreme Sports
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Does it feel recently as though your commute has gotten...longer? If so, you may be experiencing sympathy pains for your fellow travelers; according to the Huffington Post, new estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the amount of time Southern Californians spend getting to work is on the rise.
The information comes from the 2005-09 American Community Survey. Of 15 million Californians who commute, the majority -- about 2.2 million -- reported that they spend between 20 and 24 minutes getting to their job. Just over 380,000 spend less than five minutes, and nearly 475,000 travel for over 90 minutes.
According to HuffPo, the largest concentrations of the latter are in L.A. and Riverside counties. They add that:
The commute time "includes time spent waiting for public transportation, picking up passengers in carpools, and time spent in other activities related to getting to work," according to the Census Bureau.
An hour-plus commute is considered extreme by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, notes the Wall Street Journal.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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