Houston's slightly shrinking commute times
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The share of Houstonians who have a commute under 45 minutes grew during the pandemic.
By the numbers: 78.5% of workers in the Houston metro area in 2022 had commutes shorter than 45 minutes, 50.5% of whom had a commute time shorter than 30 minutes, per a new Axios analysis of census data, Alex Fitzpatrick and Alice Feng report.
- In 2019, 76.6% of workers had a commute time of less than 45 minutes, 49.2% of whom commuted less than 30 minutes.
Worth noting: The share of Houstonians working remotely fell last year to 13%, below the national average.
The big picture: Nationally, 36.8% of workers had a commute of 15 to 29 minutes in 2022, up from 35.6% in 2019.
Of note: These findings don't include employees who work from home and thus have a commute time of zero — or maybe a minute or two, if you stop to pour a cup of coffee on your way to your home office setup.
- Instead, the results are based on the approximately 136.2 million Americans ages 16 and older with non-WFH jobs in 2022.
Driving the shift: There are a handful of potential factors at play here.
- The "Great Reshuffling" led many Americans to move and/or find new jobs, and some of those who enjoyed the benefits of pandemic-era remote work decided to prioritize shorter commutes in favor of more personal or family time.
- Meanwhile, some degree of remote and hybrid work is persisting post-pandemic, leading to fewer cars on the road and thus less traffic and faster commutes.
The bottom line: This data may not jibe with your personal experience, as construction and other factors can mess with particular routes — but in the broad sense, more Americans are enjoying faster trips to work.