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86% of all working Americans drive a car or carpool to work
5% use public transportation (trains, subway, buses, etc.)
5% walk, bicycle, motorcycle, taxi or other means
4% work from home
NYC population=8.4M X 55% who take transit = 4.6M
US population=316M. X 5% who take transit = 15M
So almost a third of all transit commuters in the US are in New York! But this mainly reflects the superior level of service in NYC.
What you may want to consider is this: what percentage of Americans have access to public transportation as a viable means of commuting to work (say, a travel time no longer than 1.5 times the peak-hour drive time with frequent service)? Now what percentage of these people commute via mass transit--that's a statistic I'd like to see.
Atlanta's public transit seriously sucks. All one can do effectively with Marta is Airport to City. I challenge you, try taking PT from Alpharetta to Peachtree center for a Sunday afternoon game.
86% of all working Americans drive a car or carpool to work
5% use public transportation (trains, subway, buses, etc.)
5% walk, bicycle, motorcycle, taxi or other means
4% work from home
Thoughts?
Many people don't have a choice, public transport services aren't available from where they live to where their jobs are. For public transportation to really be efficient, you have to have high concentrations of people's residences and the destinations that they want to go to. America doesn't have that in very many places.
Further, private transportation provides the traveler with the ability to choose their own route and schedule even when public transport is available. That's the convenience factor.
I am honestly surprised at how high the percentage of car commuters is, at 86%....wow! I thought it would be closer to 75% or something. But I guess even in metro areas like NYC, Boston and DC, many people choose to drive.
I am honestly surprised at how high the percentage of car commuters is, at 86%....wow! I thought it would be closer to 75% or something. But I guess even in metro areas like NYC, Boston and DC, many people choose to drive.
Once you get outside of more dense parts of cities, the transit and walkability drops dramatically in most cases. With the invention of the car, our country moved as far away from being a transit focused country.
This is journey-to-work data and JTW trips only account for about 25% of all trips.
This sort of data doesn't say much other than the places where people work aren't connected by transit to the places where they live. Doing something because there is no alternative isn't indicative of a preference.
We already know that people who live in sprawling, suburban places drive everywhere. The only value in the data is in how it's been changing from year-to-year and in how communities stack up against each other when it comes to mode share and what the reasons are for it.
This is journey-to-work data and JTW trips only account for about 25% of all trips.
This sort of data doesn't say much other than the places where people work aren't connected by transit to the places where they live. Doing something because there is no alternative isn't indicative of a preference.
We already know that people who live in sprawling, suburban places drive everywhere. The only value in the data is in how it's been changing from year-to-year and in how communities stack up against each other when it comes to mode share and what the reasons are for it.
I don't imagine the other 75% would look much different seeing the commute to and from work is probably going to be where most people use transit.
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