Key Citations:
1. American Community Survey (ACS), 2011. U.S. Census Bureau.
2. An, Jane, et al. “Issue Brief #9 Exploring the Social Determinants of Health; Work, Workplaces and Health” (2011). Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
3. Cervero, Robert and Michael Duncan. “Which Reduces Vehicle Travel More: Jobs-Housing Balance or Retail-Housing Mixing?” (2008). Journal of the American Planning Association.
4. Christian, Thomas J. “Trade-offs Between Commuting Time and Health-Related Activities” (2012). Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine.
5. McConnell, Rob, et al. “Asthma and School Commuting Time” (2010). Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
6. National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), 2009. U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.
7. Redmond, Lothlorien S. and Patricia L. Mokhtarian. “The positive utility of the commute: modeling ideal commute time and relative desired commute amount” (2001) Transportation, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Travel Time to Work
The Travel Time to Work indicator measures the average amount of time, in minutes, it takes for an individual to commute to work. Long commute times are often associated with an increase incidence in absence from work and decreased leisure time. Long commute times are also associated with health-related behaviors such as lack of physical activity, unhealthy diets, and sleep deprivation; and health outcomes such obesity, asthma, stress, exhaustion, low self-rated health, and physical ailments. Long commutes also contributes to traffic congestion and air pollution. Urban design and planning can affect commuting patterns, by promoting efficient traffic networks and public transportation to mitigate the negative effects of long commute times. Though featured under the Employment Opportunities domain, the Travel Time to Work indicator is also linked to the Transportation Services, Housing, Employment Opportunities, Economic Health, Health Systems and Public Safety, Social Cohesion, and Neighborhood Characteristics domains. The Travel Time to Work indicator is considered an “inverse” measure, i.e., the higher the commute time, the more negative the impact is on the neighborhood. The Travel Time to Work indicator data is available from the U.S. Census.