Cities That Have the Best and Worst Commutes

If you think that all the commuters around you are making your drive to work longer, you could be honking at the wrong target. You could even be in the wrong city.

According to a new analysis by the coworking space management platform Yardi Kube, traffic is one factor. But the real key to how long your commute takes is the number of people in the town where you live.

Such data is of great use to both employers as well as anyone else interested in an office building’s performance. Not only is time spent commuting itself a taxing experience for workers, affecting their willingness to come to work in an office, but according to a recent study by Moody’s Analytics, office vacancy rates rose more in metros where it takes workers longer to get to work. 

“The 10 best metros for commuters are neither the most nor the least commuter populated, but they are the ones that have the smallest population overall,” the report states. “They are also the ones where the mean travel time to and from work is the shortest.”

By this measure, Buffalo, NY is the best metro for commuters. Even though 40% of the population commute, the average time it takes to get to work is just 20.3 minutes, and only 2.3% spend more than 60 minutes driving to or from work. The short drive also means minimal maintenance and fuel costs, or 1.8% of the average $56,670 income, totaling $1,034 a year.

Other cities with the shortest driving times are Milwaukee, San Jose, CA, Salt Lake City, Hartford, CT, and Midwestern cities like Minneapolis, Kansas City, MO, and St. Louis. All have a similar percentage of commuters, average driving times of less than 24 minutes, and annual maintenance costs below 2% of income. 

The worst metro to live in if you hate commuting is Riverside, CA. A one-way commute to work takes an average 34 minutes, and 16.4% of drivers spend more than 60 minutes heading to the office or home. It is also much more expensive — $600 more than in Buffalo and takes a larger slice of earnings: 3.4% of the average $46, 891 annual income. 

Not much of a surprise in the fact that the next two worst commutes are also in California.  Los Angeles, where the one-way drive to or from work takes 28.2 minutes and 9.3% of commuters spend more than an hour on the road, takes second place, and San Francisco comes in third. Two Florida metros, Miami and Orlando, followed close behind. 

Indeed, the South is blasted as “the least friendly region for commuters.” Houston, Birmingham, Atlanta and Nashville rounded out the worst 10 metros in the nation. The only Northern metro in the mix was New York, with one-way 30-minute commutes and 11.5% of drivers facing rides of more than one hour. It takes $1,088 in maintenance and fuel costs, or 1.6% of the average $67,100 annual income, to commute.

Commutes also have environmental costs. Even in the nation’s most eco-friendly city, Virginia Beach, the drive to work generates an average 2,403 of carbon dioxide a year, which could be offset by planting 50 mature trees for each commuter. Working remote one day a week would cut that pollution by 20%. 

Ironically, California, with some of the highest anti-pollution standards in the country, also has three metro areas with the worst carbon dioxide levels: San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. New York comes in second, generating 2,683 lbs. of carbon dioxide, that would need 55 trees to offset.