Cities with the farthest commutes

[iheartthed]

According to Streetlight data, these American metropolises commute the farthest:

1. Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington, TX
2. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX
3. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI
4. St. Louis, MO-IL
5. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
6. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
7. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
8. Kansas City, MO-KS
9. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
10. Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN

A little surprised to see Chicago so high, and also surprised that L.A. didn't make the top 10.

In the same study they show the cities ranked by density. Interestingly, Chicago and Detroit are the only cities that ranked in the top 10 on the farthest commutes and densest regions:

1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
2. New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA
3. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
4. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
5. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
6. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
7. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
8. New Haven-Milford, CT
9. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI
10. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL

Link: https://www.streetlightdata.com/2020...dex-minilists/

[LA21st]

DC as well.

[dave8721]

In Chicago, all those suburban residents are commuting into downtown for jobs as opposed to many sunbelt cities where suburban residents can work in their local office park. Chicagoans may be taking commuter or heavy rail but they cover a lot of distance.

[dave8721]

This one suprised me:
Most commuting pedestrian miles traveled
1.New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA
2.Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
3.Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL
4.Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC
5.San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
6.Knoxville, TN
7.Columbia, SC
8.Jackson, MS
9.Tulsa, OK
10.Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL

[dave8721]

How is Detroit denser than Boston, Chicago or Miami? What are they measuring here?:
Highest (best) population density
1.Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
2.New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA
3.San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
4.Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
5.Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
6.Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
7.Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
8.New Haven-Milford, CT
9.Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI
10.Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL

[badrunner]

This list is highly suspect. How is LA - land of the supercommuter - not in the top ten?

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by dave8721

How is Detroit denser than Boston, Chicago or Miami? What are they measuring here?:
Highest (best) population density
1.Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
2.New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA
3.San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA
4.Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD
5.Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
6.Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
7.Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH
8.New Haven-Milford, CT
9.Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI
10.Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL

I think they are using either the urban OR metro density, not the core city density. But it seems like they nit-picked the parameters of square mileage because depending on how much land they considered, the LA Metro can on average be denser than NY or vice-versa depending on the territory extent.

I don't like the list. I think its suspect as well.

On a side note, where is DC in these rankings?

[mrnyc]

well aside from commuter railers, dc and boston are also fairly common air commutes for ny. for driving, off the top of my head i work with people i can think of who drive from the poconos, danbury, bridgeport and red bank. seems crazy to me that people do this every day. work from home is cutting down on some of that luckily, but it depends.

[JManc]

I commuted 2 and half to 3 hours (60-70 miles) round trip for my last job so not surprised for Houston. My wife current commutes around 2 hours round trip.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by badrunner

This list is highly suspect. How is LA - land of the supercommuter - not in the top ten?

Because it really isn't the land of super commuters. There are so many employment nodes here that most people live relatively close to their jobs. People that live in Pasadena or Glendale usually work in that area, same with valley people and west siders

[hipster duck]

St. Louis?

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

Because it really isn't the land of super commuters. There are so many employment nodes here that most people live relatively close to their jobs. People that live in Pasadena or Glendale usually work in that area, same with valley people and west siders

True about the multiple employment nodes. But there's quite a number of people who commute into the city from the Antelope Valley and IE. Maybe the IE commuters don't count in this study because they're in another MSA? If they're using MSA and don't count cross MSA commuters that could be a major flaw in the methodology. It would also explain why SF doesn't appear in the top ten. I still say this list is highly suspect.

[GlassCity]

To build off the comment about commuter rail, I think shes numbers would be interesting separate out by auto and transit commute. To me, a 3 hour round-trip car commute sounds rough, but I did 3 hour round-trip transit commutes for a few years and it was pretty bearable. Long auto commutes have more shock value to me, even just because of the longer physical distance it represents.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by badrunner

True about the multiple employment nodes. But there's quite a number of people who commute into the city from the Antelope Valley and IE. Maybe the IE commuters don't count in this study because they're in another MSA? If they're using MSA and don't count cross MSA commuters that could be a major flaw in the methodology. It would also explain why SF doesn't appear in the top ten. I still say this list is highly suspect.

Possibly, but I'm assuming it's based on percentage of commuters. Of course there are super commuters in LA, but they make up a smaller portion of the total compared to other metros

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

St. Louis?

sounds weird. the metro is lopsided to the west though and hour commutes are normal here for some reason. the edge of contiguous suburbia is 45-hour to downtown and then a huge area of exurbia/horse properties/etc begins.

[SLO]

Originally Posted by badrunner

This list is highly suspect. How is LA - land of the supercommuter - not in the top ten?

I don't think there is any possibility LA is not number one, let alone top ten!?

In fact it seems the criteria is odd and not necessarily commuters. It talks about vehicle trips per device.

You have massive traffic jambs at 4:30-5:00am from the IE in to LA.

[Austin55]

Miles traveled might be much higher than time spend traveling.

[chris08876]

Originally Posted by JManc

I commuted 2 and half to 3 hours (60-70 miles) round trip for my last job so not surprised for Houston. My wife current commutes around 2 hours round trip.

I think thats the limit of comfortable. 1 hour each way. I did that for a while, 2 hours round trip (really due to traffic), but on a good day, much less. Now I have the ability to sometimes work from home, which is a massive perk.

You must of been hitting some traffic those days to be getting 3 hours for that distance or some back roads encompassed your commute.

For my neck of the woods, there's actually folks that drive from PA into Manhattan. IDK how the heck they do it, but that is a masochist commute. Or anybody lives in NJ, but works in Queens, and drives through the GWB, Cross Bronx, and through the Whitestone.

Those folks do exist, and its just bad. Not really the distance, because when the roads are good, most do 15-20 mph over (in NJ) but the traffic.

I know some folks complain about 30 minute commutes each way, but an hour or 60 minutes... its not too bad. I guess you just get use to it where it becomes comfortable.

Train wise, it can sometimes be bad. I know folks who take NJ Transit right up to Newark Penn for an hour or with express, like 45 minutes, and than take the PATH and than subway. It winds up being like 3+ hours wasted every day. That is a shit commute IMO. And if you miss the train, no fun.

[The Chemist]

Within the borders of Shanghai municipality it's possible to have a >80km rail commute each way (e.g. live in Qingpu, work in Pudong; live in Jinshan and work in Jiading, etc) which would result in a 2 hour commute in each direction.