Community Corner

Map: Where Has Commuting Gotten Worse?

The map below shows a snapshot across town of how the average travel time to work from home changed between 2000-2011.

Newscruncher is a daily series that breaks down the characteristics of your area by the numbers. You can see more posts by clicking the Newscruncher link above the headline or by checking out our weekend roundups. If you see any technical issues with this map, or if you'd like to suggest ideas for future Newscruncher articles, please email data@patch.com.

The map above shows a snapshot across the area of how the average travel time to work from home changed between 2000-2011.

Fluctuations in the national average for commuting time have slowed down since the 1990s when extreme commutes rose close to 95 percent. The cause for that spike? Job growth and the rise of two-income families put a lot more of people on the road.

Nationwide today, about 8.1 percent of workers commute 60 minutes or longer in 2011. And nearly 600,000 full-time workers are megacommuters, those traveling at least 90 minutes and 50 miles to their jobs.

Long commutes have been linked to an increased risk of developing high blood sugar and cholesterol, depression, anxiety and a feeling of social isolation.

The data in this map is from the United States Census Bureau's 2011 American Community Survey. These values are an estimate for 2011 taking into account 60 months of collected data. You can learn more about the survey here.

Using your cursor, you can hover over any census tract – the geographic region defined by the U.S. Census – and see in the box in the upper right hand corner of the map how the average travel time to work from home changed between 2000-2011.

What do you think explains the local differences between 2000-2011? Tell us in a comment or a blog post.

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