Commute times across the country are increasing, which means more and more people are spending longer times in their cars each day listening to music or an audio book, getting in some good, quality thinking time, or trying not to pop a blood vessel in their eye as they attempt to contain their anger after the latest bad driving maneuver the car in front of them just pulled. Regardless of how a person spends their commute, the fact is the same; the trip is growing longer.
There are still some cities across the country, however, that are far worse than the average when it comes totravel times. Likewise, there are cities offering much shorter commutes than average.
New York, Long Island, Washington, D.C., Newark, and Chicago offer longer commutes than any other of the country’s major cities with average commute times of 34.7 minutes, 33 minutes, 32.8 minutes, 31.1 minutes, and 30.8 minutes respectively, according to Trulia.
If you live in Buffalo, Columbus, Hartford, Milwaukee, or Las Vegas, however, you can expect to be treated to a much shorter commute. These five cities have commutes between 20.3 minutes and 22.5 minutes on average.
Additionally, in 43 of the 50 major metros, renters had shorter commutes then homeowners by an average of one-and-a-half minutes. This adds up to about 9 hours annually. But look on the bright side, if you are a homeowner with that extra nine hours a year in the car, that’s enough time to listen to the entire audio book of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, so there’s that.
