For decades, American professionals have been struggling with a trade-off. To advance their careers, they typically work in big cities, where corporations are headquartered and jobs are plentiful. However, to enjoy a high quality of life, they live in the suburbs, where the houses are large, the yards are big, and the neighbors are friendly.
In their quest to “have it all,” American workers are sacrificing more and more of their most precious resource: time. Ironically, they have less time to spend in their big suburban houses because they’re spending more time in their cars. According to the U.S. Census, the average commute, measured just one way from home to work, increased by roughly 20 percent from 1980 to 2000, from 21.7 minutes to 25.5 minutes.1
And most of that traveling is done by car. The Census found that 76 percent of American workers drive to work alone.
Looking more closely at the Census research, it’s clear that marathon commuting is becoming increasingly common. From 1990 to 2000, the number of American workers who commute from 60 to 89 minutes between home and work jumped 30 percent, from 5 million to
6.5 million people. Those who commute 90 minutes or longer doubled, from 1.7 million to 3.4 million.
If we count the increases in all of the commuting categories over 40 minutes, there are now 6.1 million more American workers who travel at least 40 minutes between home and work than there were in 1990, or 23.2 million in all.
We can’t account for the increases as simply a matter of a larger working population. In fact, the Census found declines in the proportion of people who have the shortest commuting times that it measures – that is, a smaller percentage of the workforce than 10 years earlier commutes less than 5 minutes, 5 to 9 minutes, 10 to 14 minutes, 15 to 19 minutes, and 20 to 24 minutes.
The 23 million workers with commutes of 40 minutes or longer from home to work are spending at least 6 hours and 40 minutes a week in their cars. And remember, 3.4 million people spend at least 90 minutes each way, for a minimum of 15 hours a week, just to get to work and back.
Now consider the trend we discussed in the April 2004 issue of Trends: “The 40-Hour Work Week Becomes Obsolete.” As we explained, “In most developed nations . . . total work...
