Today’s Washington Post brings the ground-breaking revelation that D.C. area residents have a really long commute to work every day:
Residents of Washington’s outer suburbs endure some of the nation’s longest commutes, according to a U.S. Census survey released yesterday that also showed clogged roads and high gasoline prices are pushing a growing number of people onto mass transit.
The region’s average commute is more than 33 minutes one way, ranking second to the New York area’s 34 minutes among large metropolitan regions. In Calvert, Prince William and Stafford counties, however, the average journey to work takes 40 minutes or more, according to the 2005 American Community Survey of households.
These long commutes are fueled by new housing popping up rapidly in the region’s outer fringes, where most residents travel to counties closer to the District to work, transportation experts say. Pushing up the numbers is the region’s high employment level, which includes the parents of the vast majority of the region’s preschoolers. The region also ranks high in the share of people who commute outside their home county, as more than half do.
I’m probably a rarity among my neighbors. My commute to work is about 15 miles one-way and the only time I hit traffic is if there’s an accident, which rarely happens. Nonetheless, news that the Washington, D.C. has a rough commute ranks right up their in obviousness with the Pope being Catholic.
