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Massachusetts commuting patterns

Boston Magazine takes a look at some data on how we get to work:

While many Boston metro area commuters are near the national average of 25.4 minutes, some take far longer: Workers in Scituate and Norwell, for example, average more than 35 minutes, as do those living in Mattapan. Some neighborhoods in the Back Bay, Cambridge, and the Financial District, meanwhile, are looking at commutes around 20 minutes or under.

Neighborhoods: 


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Comments

10 minute bike ride to work. Feel bad for people paying gas and all the car expenses to go to work and home. Plus all that time adds up that you’re not getting paid sitting in your car. Like an hour a day is 200 hours a year of not getting paid to go to work back. We are talking thousends of dollars here!

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I used to come into downtown from Mission Hill, which was a good 15-20 minute ride. Now I'm out near Oak Square and its closer to 35-40 minutes and I love it.

Best part of timing my rides is the app I used, Cyclemeter, tracks a whole bunch of data, including ride time and stopped time. Turns out that in a 35 minute commute, I spend about 10 minutes total time stopped at reds and stop signs. Now clearly this is false data, as I've been told that bicycles don't stop at reds/stop signs.

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My bike commute is 30-45 minutes depending on traffic and which job I'm going to. It's one of the better parts of the day. I wouldn't mind if I lived further away.

I stop at all red lights and ride kindly and I still make it to and from work faster then people who drive during rush hour. I think that's where all the cyclist hate comes from -- drivers are jealous seeing people enjoy actually their commute and not have to be paying for gas/parking at the same time.

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Some people live in places like Wellesley and Dover and drive or take the Commuter Rail to work. Their commute is longer but to them, it's worth it. That is their dream.

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So I feel bad for you!

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You are a special flower. Let's all pay attention to you and how riding a bicycle somehow makes you a better person than those of us who drive, take the T or walk. Yay for you!

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The missing maps would show that bicycling is somewhere between zero and 4 percent in popularity, while carpooling many times that.

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that everyone works downtown? Because I've lived in Allston-Brighton, and the shortest I've ever allowed for a commute to the Fenway-Kenmore area was 45 minutes (including walking, waiting, taking the T, and walking to work.)

I know the B line is slow, but c'mon.

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curious that 2 out of the 3 areas most reliant on public transportation are underserved by rapid transit

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No. It's census data that includes everyone's commute, not just people heading downtown.

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Commute to work survey just asks "how long is your commute to work?" for this particular question.

You could walk to Fenway/Kenmore in less than 45 minutes from Allston. So I'm guessing you mean something like Oak Square?

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Is in the Boston Police Academy right now in Hyde Park and he lives in Charlestown. Same city, but probably a worse commute than half of the surburbanites have out there that work in the city.

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I lived towards the middle-end of the B line, but had to work near Northeastern/Symphony Hall. The fastest way was B line to Hynes (30 minutes) and walk the 15 minutes.

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Walking to reservoir and taking D line?

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I've always been flummoxed by these Census average commuting times, they seem way too short. I can guarantee you that if you live in Salem, you ain't getting to work in 28.9 mintues, ha! It's pretty much 1-1.5 hours to get to Cambridge, Boston, Waltham, Woburn, etc. from practically anywhere on the North Shore. Hell, it takes half and hour to get to the highway from downtown Salem! Same with Arlington heights, it takes half an hour to get from that area to Porter Sq.

JP is a good 35 minutes to downtown unless you live directly on top of the Orange Line. Roslindale is 40-45 minutes, sheesh. If you add 10 minutes or more to all the city times, and 30 minutes or more to all the suburban times, it would be pretty accurate I think.

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You are assuming that everyone works in downtown Boston or immediately adjoining areas. I would imagine that a good number of people who live in Salem also work in and around Salem. Of course, many of these people are probably blue collar/service industry workers, so the length of their commute is not particularly relevant to professionals who work in the city and commute from the suburbs. However, the data we are looking at here does not make that distinction, and is simply concerned with how long it takes for the average person to get to their average job.

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I also included the 128 belt as a major area of employment. That's where all of the warehousing, retail and manufacturing is these days. Not much is made, shipped, or bought in the smaller urban centers outside of Boston anymore. Besides, the numbers are completely skewed across the boards, every town is off.

Look at towns where you can be almost positive 75% or more of the residents work in the city or along 128. For example, let's take a bedroom community like Duxbury. I would be shocked if most people living in Duxbury could get to Boston, or their highway office park in 37 minutes at 7:30 in the morning, no way.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I doubt it.

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Thank you for your post. I am a Boston resident but people seem to forget there is a world outside the city too! You made an excellent point: there are my employers outside of the city in the 128 corridor. I would love to work in downtown Boston. However for my industry (manufacturing) my job is in a lifeless office park in the burbs, far from any mass transit.

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JP is a good 35 minutes to downtown unless you live directly on top of the Orange Line. Roslindale is 40-45 minutes, sheesh. If you add 10 minutes or more to all the city times, and 30 minutes or more to all the suburban times, it would be pretty accurate I think.

I make it from Roslindale in 15 minutes by commuter rail, 25 minutes by bike, and 30 minutes by bus/Orange Line combo. Driving in traffic, yeah, that might be 40-45 minutes. Fortunately, I don't ever have to use a car to get to work.

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The commuter rail ride from Rozzie to South Station is 15 minutes on the schedule, but it frequently takes longer. Also, you are saying that there is no walk to the Roslindale Village train stop? Then once you get to South Station there is no walk to your office?

When I lived on Sherman St. in Roslindale it would take me 10 minutes to walk to the commuter rail, then a 3-5 minute wait (sometimes a 20-30 minute wait during the winter), 20 minutes on the train, and then 10 more minutes walking to my place of work. Thats more like 45 minutes, in totality.

Also, a 25 minute bike ride from Roslindale Sq. to South Station during rush hour seems crazy fast. I'd believe 35 or 40 though.

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The American Fact Finder- http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/...

If you run a "Community Facts" search, the commuting data will be under "Income, Employment, Occupation, Commuting to Work." Roslindale (or specifically zip code 02131) clocks in at 32.9 minutes. And remember, Boston neighborhoods have to go by zip code.

Remember, they ask is a survey "how long does it take you to get to work? not "on a rainy day when the T breaks down, how long does it take you to get to work?"

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I work a block from BackBay, I live a block from the Rozzie station. I think I know how long it takes me to get to work.

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I thought you were taking the MBTA schedule times from Roslindale Sq. to S. Station as your basis. In your particular situation, I believe you. Pardon my previous reply.

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Definitely it takes longer to get to South Station, and longer still to get to somewhere like LMA or Kendal, both of which I'd consider to also be part of the downtown business cluster. Out of curiosity, I timed things yesterday taking the Orange Line and a bus down Washington. It took 28 minutes door to door, although I was lucky in that a bus was about to leave right when I got to Forest Hills.

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I drive from my house in Roslindale to work in the Back Bay two to three times a week during rush hour(my whole family rides in together) and it takes me 25 minutes. On a really horrible day it can take up to 50 minutes. I also take the commuter rail in pretty regularly. It is normally a 20-25 minute ride to Back Bay Station. Again, on a horrible day it can take up to 40 minutes. I would gladly ride the train in every day but taking two kids to school makes that a non-starter.

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... for my ClarendonHill -> Harvard Square commute, including waiting for busses/subway and trudging around; about an hour when I had to work downtown, and about 20 minutes when I had to drive out to 128. I commuted to Kendall or Central nearly as often, and it was basically add about 2 minutes per T stop (since the walking around at each end was comparable).

Since moving to Watertown, it's a little more complicated since the local to Harvard Square takes about 20 minutes (plus waits), but I'd have to walk 20 minutes to catch it, or park in the lot behind CVS. The local to Boston takes approximately forever; the express is only blocked by the Allston-Brighton tolls. It's still about 20 minutes drive out to Lexington, but only 12 or so to Auburndale.

Of course, Boston Magazine isn't going to take note that people are just as likely to be commuting to Cambridge or 128. Sigh.

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Isn't BoMag just tinkering with the census data? As far as I can see, these maps are simply breaking down means of commuting - car, public transportation (not even splitting out modes of transport), walking, and working at home. There's no information about differences in average commute time according to the type of commute, even.

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I didn't even know Boston Magazine still existed.

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Comes out about 40-50 minutes no matter how I go about it.

Medford to LMA/Huntington Ave? That was 50 minutes by bike, sometimes as much as 2 hours by T (never less than an hour), and an hour by car unless it was 5:30am.

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The Boston Indicators Project looked at some of this same data a short time back, and mapped out how long average commutes were by community.

There's a link in the post that takes you to more maps, as well.

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A link in which post, where?

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Here's the link... I'll try again.

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Well - go to Boston Indicators dot org / blog and it's one of the January posts. My HTML gets stripped out. http://www.bostonindicators.org/blog/2013/january/travel-time-1613

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Maybe I'm just not working the maps right, but I'm not finding the Boston ones at all useable - neighborhoods aren't identified at all, for one thing. And I'm puzzled why there doesn't seem to be a map for commutes between 30 and 60 minutes.

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They want Boston Magazine back.

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I see some blips in the % Walker Commute map. I can understand a high % in Devens and Hanscom, but what's up with the 25% of walker commuters in zip code 01561? What's in Princeton, MA?

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Only 4 people.

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Looks like there is a college there. Must be a lot of on campus jobs and the like.

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Are some of the arguments here, concerning perceived time differences, not taking into account the stay-at-home non-commuters? From what I read in the article, those who work from home were included in the averages.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

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is very misleading.

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20 minutes? To where?
Takes me five, to downtown, basically.
I mean, it's 20 if I walk.
If it were 20 by car, I'd move to the suburbs. Might as well have a lawn.

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