Fun With Data: How US Workers Commute
WorldChanging Team, 12 Oct 09
By Mathew Katz
Bike Pittsburgh has posted some great, sortable data about how commuters get to work in major American cities, drawn from a Census Bureau report. As you'd expect, New York comes in as the city where the least amount of people commute solo by car -- only 23.3 percent, followed by 37.2 percent in Washington, D.C. and 38.4 percent in San Francisco. Wichita, Kansas ranks as the place with the highest percentage of drivers: 85.1 percent of commuters use a car to get to work. The unfortunate national median for commuting by car is 74.15 percent.
There's also an interesting chart on bike commuting trends by gender, in response to a Scientific American article which posits that cycling needs to be made more attractive to women in order to boost overall urban cycling numbers. The argument seems to check out: according to Bike Pittsburgh's data, even in cities with relatively high levels of bike commuters, men cycle to work significantly more than women.
Image: Census Bureau via Economix
This article originally appeared on Streetsblog New York City.
Interesting - my hypothesis is that cities with the best public transportation will outdraw young talent, if the habits of the talented teens I know are indicative.
They just don't have any eagerness to drive, at all.
Posted by: Jessica Margolin on 13 Oct 09
I want to leave the USA because I can see no change in the auto centric society with cars be given priority over people. I am heading off to Europe once I wrap up the last year of school and am in City Planning. I am needing a large city that values humans, gives them priority, and has great mass transit (and is walkable). I cannot see the USA being like this in the next 50 years personally.
Posted by: Nate G on 13 Oct 09
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