Gothamist: No Shock Here: NYC Commutes Suck

Anya

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 01:41:36 -0500

The SI statistic makes sense because so many people who commute from there live within reasonble walking or driving distance from the ferry terminal -- and so many SI residents who work in Manhattan work in lower Manhattan. 5 to 10-min walk (or drive) to ferry 25-min ferry 5 to 10-min walk to office I would also guess that SI has the lowest working population per capita of the 5 boroughs. (Because I would guess that there are more married couples on SI in which only one of the spouses works outside the home -- lower cost of living and generally more traditional statistically, according to voting/politics.)

Spike

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:25:56 -0500

My commute from the Lower East Side to Upper East Side is an hour. Bad on paper, but in truth, doable because 1/2 is a pleasant enough walk and the other half is a subway line where i get a seat 75% of the time. So I walk an hour a day, which makes my MD proud, and I read the New Yorker and the Times & whatever novel I'm into at the moment. It was the same hour length to the UES when I lived in Park Slope, but it was all train & horribly crowded.

door two door

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:06:23 -0500

all lies, Door to door commuting time is ONE hour on average, unless you walk to work where it may range from mins to half and hr. anything longer than that, take public transportation. My last commute was 5 mins, I work 4 blocks away from my apartment. My longest was city hall to 96th street. door to door 45 mins by subway, one hour by bus. And, for those riding in on a motorcycle, do you count the time getting that thing warmed up, look for parking spot, locking the thing to a pole then putting a cover on it. Or, do you go straight into a parking lot? Those things are too easy to steal when you're at work 8 hours a day. Thieves just clip the lock and throw it into a van.

Ace

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:59:27 -0500

I read at least 90 minutes every week day. Books!

Barry Popik

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:51:36 -0500

This wouldn't happen is Iris Weinshall (Mrs. Chuck) was DOT Commissioner! (Irony of the Day)

Grant Barrett

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:48:28 -0500

Bah. I don't buy it. Those numbers for other cities are too low. Are these numbers self-reported? I ask because people do not know how to measure time spent in their automobiles. (Making them like NYC real estate agents--"minutes to Midtown!" or "steps away!", two of the biggest lies in NYC real estate). Every time someone in a car-culture state says something is "thirty minutes" away, I find it isn't when I quiz them about it or take the trip myself. They've got some kind of mental boundary set up around their work and their home districts, an area of known things and known landmarks, and they count from when they leave the one zone and enter the other, not from the moment they close the door to their house to the moment they enter the door to their office.

Beez$

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:44:35 -0500

Simply New York should be doing what London has done essentially tax you if you want drive in the city during the work day. private cars- especially thoose only transporting 1 person should be basically banned. for congestion sake and more importantly for the enviroment.

JC Mafia

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:23:57 -0500

It takes me 25 minutes to get to midtown from Journal Square in Jersey City and 10 minutes to WTC by the PATH train.

Brouhaha

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:22:38 -0500

Get a scooter! I commute on my Vespa from Brooklyn to lower Manhattan every day and it takes me 10-15 minutes. I just leave the traffic behind!

Fact_Check

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 12:17:36 -0500

This "new batch" of information looks to me to be more than a year old. If you look on the Census Bureau's website, you'll see that the numbers in the article match those from a March 2005 press release. Here's the link: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/american_community_survey_acs/004489.html

i'm lucky

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:36:33 -0500

my commute is at most 20-30 min, and i get to sit the whole way. i moved to a new place specifically because i suffered through a 1.5 hour commute EACH WAY for two years. it almost killed me. i will never do that kind of commute again. one of my friends has a 12 min commute. he walks to work. i hate him.

mr. downing

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:04:32 -0500

Doing the simple math, which surely the census bureau didn't do, that would make the Manhattan commute 7.5 minutes, if looking only at the five boroughs and not NYC MSA. If one were to weight the average and assume, just for assumption's sake, that there are four times as many jobs in Manhattan, the commute would be 24.2 minutes, which still seems a little unrealistic. Hm.

Kay

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:50:49 -0500

I live in Brooklyn. I take the train to work and school. It takes me an hour to get to work in downtown Manhattan, and over an hour to school near Columbus Circle. And it can take 45 minutes or more to get from work to school!

Samantha T

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:39:44 -0500

"And they are willing to make the commute because people who work in Manhattan make so much money." I suspect the city workers, underpaid administrative assistants, fast food workers, etc. who commute into Manhattan every morning would beg to differ. My commute is about 45 minutes and is bad not only because of the time, but because it is standing room only the entire time about 75% of the time. Commuting in from a residential n'hood in Brooklyn to midtown is terrible because there's not all that many big stopoffs en route to clear up seats. By the time there are seats (34th Street or beyond), it's too late.

Squirrel

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:14:20 -0500

This is exactly why I live in STUYVESANT TOWN, so I can walk to work! haHA!

Larry Littlefield

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:13:03 -0500

The data is misleading because it is reported by place of residence. The people who have the longest commutes aren't those who live in New York City. They are those who work in Manhattan. And they are willing to make the commute because people who work in Manhattan make so much money. Those who, for example, both live and work in Brooklyn or Queens do not have such long commutes. And Brooklyn and Queens each have as many people as many major metro areas.

Jesse

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:07:16 -0500

Yeah, why do you think that "commuting" doesn't include public transportation? My ride from Astoria to Wall Street takes 45-50 minutes.

Meredith

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:56:29 -0500

Doesn't "commute" include commuters on the subway, too? If so, I'm hardly surprised.

g

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:54:19 -0500

I'd rather have 40 minutes on the subway (reading the paper, listening to an ipod) than 30 minutes stuck in traffic. Having lived in Atlanta and New York City, I've experienced both types of commutes. A delayed subway sucks, but it's nothing like a five-mile backup.

MT

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:50:46 -0500

41.3 minutes from Staten Island? Ar ethey counting the time fro when you physically set foot off the shore of Staten Island and then set foot on the shore of Manhattan island? It takes more than 41.3 minutes to get anywhere in Manhattan from Staten Island at 5 a.m. on Christmas morning when you are literally the only person on the road. That's total nonsense.

Jeff

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:50:01 -0500

I'm shocked!

Jeebus

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:45:42 -0500

Ohh it doesn’t matter how long your commute may be. What matters is if it’s a relaxing one. I sleep the whole way through. My one hour commute is perfect even if its an hour or so. If the train is late, that means 10 minutes more sleep!