US Census Data on Non-Car Commuting

 

0.7 percent of Cedar Rapids residents reported 
commuting to work by bus

The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey annually asks respondents how they get to work. Nationwide in 2022, 68.7 percent of people drove to work alone, while 9.6 percent carpooled, for a total of 78.3 percent in private cars. Among the rest, 3.1 percent took public transit, 2.4 percent walked to work, 0.5 percent biked to work, and 1.5 percent got there by some other means, such as taxi or motorcycle. 15.2 percent of respondents worked from home, nearly three percentage points down from 2021.

I have to say I was surprised how many people walked, particularly relative to cycling. State data yields some surprises. While New York (21.5 percent), New Jersey (8.0), and Massachusetts (6.2) unsurprisingly lead on public transit, Hawaii comes in at #6 (3.5 percent). The state with the highest proportion of people walking to work is... Alaska, with 7.3 percent, followed by New York (5.6), Hawaii again (4.5), and... Montana (4.4). Oregon has the highest proportion of commuter cyclists (1.3 percent), followed by Colorado and Montana again (both at 1.0 percent). Right behind them are Hawaii and... Wyoming (both at 0.9 percent).

PUBLIC TRANSIT		WALKING		CYCLING
1. New York	21.5	1. Alaska	7.3	1. Oregon	1.3
2. New Jersey	8	2. New York	5.6	2. Colorado	1
3. Massachusetts	6.2	3. Hawaii	4.5	2. Montana	1
4. Illinois	5.6	4. Montana	4.4	4. Hawaii	0.9
5. Maryland	4	5. Vermont	4.2	4. Wyoming	0.9
* * *		* * *		* * *
45. Alabama	0.3	46. Florida	1.4	45. Alabama	0.1
45. Arkansas	0.3	46. Nevada	1.4	45. Arkansas	0.1
45. Mississippi	0.3	48. Georgia	1.3	45. Kentucky	0.1
45. New Hampshire	0.3	49. Alabama	1.2	45. Mississippi	0.1
45. North Dakota	0.3	49. Tennessee	1.2	45. Tennessee	0.1
45. Oklahoma	0.3			45. West Virginia	0.1

These are obviously small magnitudes, which can be easily over-interpreted, even without considering that random sampling error is going to invalidate any attempt at precise ranking. But what if we added those three percentages to get an overall sense of how many people were taking urbanist alternatives to private cars? 

Alternative commuting is found most in the West and Northeast,

 least in the South

 

The Census data on commuting are also available for towns, although only a few large cities in each state. Six Iowa places were included in the 2022 survey. While Iowa is in the middle of the pack of American states, these six cities demonstrate the wide variety of places and experiences in any state. [Where incidence among men is significantly higher than for women, I indicate with "m," with "f" where more female respondents chose that mode.]

MODE	IOWA	SIOUX CITY	AMES	CEDAR RAPIDS	DAVENPORT	DES MOINES	IOWA CITY
Drove alone	76.1	82.7	66.3	76.3	70.6	71.2	54.3
Carpooled	8	10.5	6.8	6.2	11.3	9.7	8.8
Transit	0.8	0.7	5.6	0.7	1.5	1.2	5.1f
Walked	2.9	1.1	9.5m	2.2	2	3	16.3f
Bicycle	0.4	0	2.9m	0.1	0.2	0.8	3.7m
Cab, motorcycle, &c.	0.9	0.3	0.8	0.6	1.7	0.6	0
WFH	11	4.7	8.1	13.8	12.8	13.4	11.8

Ames and Iowa City, home to the two flagship state universities, have percentages for all urbanist alternative modes of 18.0 and 25.1, respectively, both far higher than the statewide figure of 4.1 percent. Des Moines (5.0) and Davenport (3.7) are around the statewide number, with Cedar Rapids (3.0) and particularly Sioux City (1.8) coming in under that. In Sioux City, 93.2 percent of respondents reported commuting to work by private car, compared to 79.3 percent nationwide.

People choose how to get to work for personal reasons, but their choice is shaped by city design, weather, and culture. Given that the lowest number of non-drivers is found in the southeast with its relatively clement winters but newly-sprawled metros, maybe weather is the least important of the three. Culture is a hard phenomenon to specify, but it's worth noting that Joe Biden won the vast number of 2020 electoral votes in the top one-third of states in urbanist alternative percentage, while Donald Trump won the vast number of electoral votes in the bottom one-third. Which came first, the culture or the transportation choices? Which shaped which?

Beyond this, I can only say that my city of Cedar Rapids can be doing a lot better at facilitating alternative means of commuting. Completing our trails network will help. Is there more we should do?