(June 14, 2023) -- Apartment List is reporting the number of American workers who bear through commute times of 90 minutes or more each way grew by 32% from 2005 to 2017. This is more than triple the 9% growth rate for workers with commutes shorter than 90 minutes. In a new report, we present county-level data on these “super commuters” in an interactive map to shed new light on this fast-growing population. This map has data for every county in the country including Pima County.
The report shows 1.7% of Pima County workers are super commuters, defined as traveling more than 90 minutes to work..
Recent increases in super commuting are often attributed to middle-class workers in superstar cities being priced out to far-flung exurbs. However, county-level data shows that super commuting is also common among low-income workers who rely on public transit, as well as blue-collar workers in certain pockets of rural America.
Some key takeaways:
- Among those who get to work by public transit, 13.4% are super commuters, compared to just 2.4% of those who commute by car. Transit use is also disproportionately common among low-income workers.
- 11.2% of workers in drilling and mining occupations are super commuters, the highest rate among all occupation categories. The nation’s oil drilling and coal mining regions show up as clear hot spots in our map.
The full report is now available here, including an interactive map with which you can explore detailed data for every county in the country. The complete dataset can be found here.