Boy, that commute to work is becoming a headache, isn't it?
Well, not really. Although it has slipped from the nation's top spot, Grand Forks-East Grand Forks' average commute time to work still is only just longer than 15 minutes.
Only Great Falls, Mont., at 14.2 minutes, and Lewiston, Idaho, at 14.7 minutes, were shorter than Grand Forks for the 2009 year, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to the bureau's 2010 American Community Survey, the average time drivers spend going to work in the Grand Forks Metropolitan Statistical Area is 15.1 minutes. The Grand Forks MSA includes both Grand Fork and Polk counties.
That's an increase from two years ago, when the previous American Community Survey, conducted from 2006-2008, pegged the commute at less than 15 minutes, making it the shortest in the nation.
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For 2009, New York City had the longest commute time at 34.6 minutes. Washington D.C. was close behind with a 33.4 minute commute.
The ACS only listed the 10-shortest and 10-longest commutes in the report. More information can be found at www.census.gov.
Commute times were found to differ by gender, the report said. The survey found men took an average of 26.7 minutes to get to work compared with the 23.4 average for women. Though they may take longer to get to work, men left for worker earlier than woman. About 40 percent of men left for work before 7 a.m. compared to 25 percent of women.
The survey also found Americans love to drive their own vehicles. More than 86 percent of people over the age of 16 drove to work by car, truck or van. Of that number, 75 percent drove to work alone.
The average commute time for all Americans, whether driving or taking public transportation, was 25.7 minutes.
