WFH Can’t Stop the Growing Numbers of Super Commuters

Despite the rise of remote work, the era of super commuting⁠—defined as traveling more than 90 minutes one way for work⁠—is likely here to stay. 

A new report from Apartment List reveals that 4.6 million workers in the US commute more than an hour and a half each day, accounting for 3.1% of the American workforce. Between 2010 and 2019, the number of super commuters increased by 45%, and they’re concentrated in the nation’s most expensive real estate markets: New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

But research from Apartment List estimates that one in three super commuters work in jobs that are ‘fully compatible’ with remote work.  And since the beginning of the pandemic, the fastest rent growth has been in further suburbs and exurbs of large metro areas⁠—so even hybrid remote work could create a so-called ‘new class of part-time super commuters.’

“The current evidence suggests that remote work alone is unlikely to meaningfully alleviate the problem of super commuting, and there are plausible scenarios in which remote work could actually exacerbate the problem,” the report notes.

A partial solution to this problem could lie in greater investments in transit-focused housing development. While the Biden Administration’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill includes $49 billion for public transit and an additional $66 billion for passenger and freight rail, the largest allocation of transportation spending will go toward roads and bridges.  And that could have the effect of ‘increasing vehicle travel, and can even lead to worsening congestion,” according to the report.

“Super commuting is largely borne of necessity in the nation’s most expensive housing markets, which have been rapidly adding jobs but severely underbuilding new housing for decades,” the report states. “Few would likely choose to super commute if they could afford to live in a more convenient location. With massive infrastructure investments currently top of mind for policymakers, the rapid expansion of super commuting highlights the need to rethink America’s urban areas in a way that prioritizes plentiful new housing developed around robust public transit.”