U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Vehicle Technologies Program

Fact #260: March 24, 2003
Commuting to Work, 1960-2000

The share of workers who commute to work in private vehicles rose from 64% in 1960 to 87.9% in 2000. The number of people who worked at home increased in 2000 to 3.3%.

Graph: Share of commuters

Supporting Information

Commuting to Work, 1960–2000
  1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Private Vehicle  64.0%   77.7%  84.1%   86.5%  87.9%
Public Transportation  12.1%     8.9%    6.4%    5.3%   4.7%
Walked    9.9%    7.4%    5.6%    3.9%   2.9%
Other Means    6.8%    2.5%    1.6%    1.3%   1.2%
Worked at Home    7.2%    3.5%     2.3%    3.0%   3.3%
  100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Decennial Census, Journey to Work data

 

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