If you feel like you spend more time commuting each week than you do with your family at the dinner table, you probably do.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, it now takes the average worker over 26 minutes to travel (one-way) to work. That’s the longest it’s been since the Census started tracking American’s commutes in 1980. On a weekly basis, that’s roughly equivalent to five 50-minute family dinners or eight 30-minute workouts. Instead of going for a run, cooking a healthy dinner, or talking to our kids, many Americans are spending that time commuting – and it’s taking a toll on our health.
A growing body of research shows that sitting is detrimental to our well-being; longer commutes are associated with higher weight, higher blood pressure, and lower fitness levels.
While not all of us have lengthy commutes, approximately 20 percent of American workers have one-way commutes that are 45 minutes or longer. To determine which cities have the worst commutes, experts at ConsumersAdvocate.org pulled data from the American Community Survey's 2016 release and calculated the average commute time for every city.
Average Commute Time for each city was calculated by dividing the aggregate time spent commuting by the total working population (excluding those that work from home). In the event of a tie, the city with the larger Worker Population with Commutes over 60 Minutes served as a tiebreaker. In order to be considered, a city must have at least 100,000 people over the age of 16 working out of the house. The data was pulled on October 12, 2017.
Here are the top 10 cities with the worst commutes in America:
