The American commute is shifting in increasingly novel ways, especially at the metropolitan level. Going back to 2000, many workers are opting out of traditional modes of transport like cars and switching to other modes.
The continued surge in remote working offers perhaps the most widespread evidence of these changing commute patterns, helping lower costs and take cars off the road. From 2000 to 2014, nearly 2.4 million more people – or 13% of all new commuters – are working at home to bring their national total to 6.5 million. Moreover, the share of workers at home has risen from 3.2% to 4.5%, surpassing the rate of growth in all other commuting categories and building off a series of emerging work patterns in the public and private sector.
This pattern is nearly universal across the country. With the exception of Omaha, all metro areas experienced a gain since 2000 in the share of people working from home, topped by Raleigh, Boise, and Austin, which each realized a jump of 3 percentage points or more. There’s a bit of a regional pattern to the growth, too, with the largest gainers primarily in the South or West.
In addition to working at home, many commuters are also seeking alternate transportation options in the form of transit and biking, in particular.
