In New York, there are 62 counties, all of which differ in commute times for their residents. This project explored commute times and commuting patterns across these counties using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). The average commute time is one-way, excludes remote workers, and includes all transportation types. The ACS collects and publishes detailed statistics each year on commuting behavior in the United States, which provides insights into how people travel to work and how these patterns vary by location. The USCB details that they collect this data to inform public policy, infrastructure planning, and economic analysis. They ask questions about where people work, how they get there, when they leave home, and how long it takes to create statistics. These commuting patterns and characteristics are crucial to plan for road and highway infrastructure improvements and develop transportation plans and services. Local, state, and federal transportation agencies will plan programs and services based on these statistics for disabled populations, bicycle commuters, carpools, and ride shares. The Department of Transportation uses these stats to ensure regulations are being adhered to so that they can understand current uses and predict future transportation needs (US Census Bureau, 2023). Employment planning, protection against employment discrimination, defining banking and housing markets, and planning emergency response are all influenced by the patterns behind commuting as well. Businesses also find it helpful when they are deciding where to locate themselves, such as a coffee shop being located where people work. Researchers also use these commuting estimates to study the effects of long commutes on health and the environment. Commute times are a crucial aspect of our daily lives that need to be studied for improvements to be made and for its effects on us to be known. 

In the state of New York, the central county to a major metro area is New York County (Manhattan). Roughly 1.45 million people commute into New York’s central county daily, with a significant portion coming from outside the city, including other boroughs within New York City and other states like New Jersey and Connecticut. Of those who work in Manhattan, 1,630,673 live outside the county, and hundreds of thousands commute in daily (US Census Bureau 2024a).  These five boroughs are home to 6.6 million people. In the map visualization of the average commute times by county, it is evident that the highest commute times occur in four of the five boroughs of New York: Bronx county (43.9 min), Queens county (43.1 min), Kings county (42.1 min), and Richmond county (43.5 min). In New York County, the commute time is only 31.4 minutes, only slightly higher than the national average of 25.5 minutes (US Census Bureau 2024a).

The boroughs have high commute times for a multitude of reasons: public transportation reliance, subway system design, traffic congestion, and job growth outside Manhattan. For those who rely on public transportation, which is 48% of households in New York, the volume of commuters leads to long wait times, crowded trains and subways, and frequent delays. The subway system in New York City was designed to bring people into Manhattan, not to move them between boroughs (RPA). If someone were to take a trip from outer boroughs to each other, it could take much longer than a trip into Manhattan, even if they are both similar distances, because there is a lack of direct and efficient transit options for this kind of travel. Transit improvements are largely focused on moving people in and out of Manhattan, even though more and more are commuting within the outer boroughs than into Manhattan. For those who drive themselves and do not take public transportation, traffic getting into New York City can be incredibly heavy; bridges and tunnels that connect boroughs are often incredibly congested and experience gridlock. Finally, in the last 10 years, more than 48% of job growth has occurred outside of Manhattan (DiNapoli). When residents outside of Manhattan are trying to get to their jobs in Queens, Brooklyn, or the Bronx, they have to travel through Manhattan, which adds much more travel time to their commutes. On the other hand, commute times within Manhattan tend to be shorter than in the counties surrounding it, at 31.4 minutes. Manhattan has 17 of the 20 NYC neighborhoods that have the shortest commute times. The reason for this is that many people who work in Manhattan also happen to live in Manhattan or somewhere close by, and the transportation infrastructure, as mentioned above, makes it very easy to travel within Manhattan. 

Commute times are one of the strongest factors that influence where people choose to live because they must decide how far they are willing to travel for work. Most metro areas in the US are seeing population gains, like these New York counties mentioned. People are moving to regions where the cost of living is more affordable relative to job opportunities. In Manhattan, the cost of living is much higher than in areas such as Brooklyn or Queens. The cost of living index (COLI) compiles six subcategories- housing, utilities, grocery items, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous goods and services- into a single value. The index values are relative to a national average value of 100. In Manhattan, the COLI is 204.1, whereas Brooklyn is 172.5, The Bronx is 141, Queens is 157.9, and Staten Island is 158.4 (PODS 2024). Although the price of living is still relatively high anywhere in the five boroughs relative to the national average, it is still cheaper in the other areas than it is in Manhattan. In the years when job growth has been growing outside of Manhattan, the population has been slowly increasing. In the five boroughs, the population total has grown from 8,008,278 to 8,478,072, and the largest increases were in the boroughs outside of Manhattan (US Census Bureau 2025). The tradeoffs that people are making in this move to the outer boroughs are that they are getting lower housing prices for longer commute times. This move is worth it to a lot of people because the cost of living is more affordable relative to job opportunities, and they are willing to take on a longer commute.

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Barone, R., Pichardo, A., & Roach, E. (2016, May). The Triboro. Regional Plan Association. https://rpa.org/work/reports/the-triboro 

DiNapoli, T. P. (2024, October 16). DiNapoli: NYC metro transportation costs rose 56% over past decade, slower than other major areas. Office of the New York State Comptroller. https://www.osc.ny.gov/press/releases/2024/09/draft-dinapoli-nyc-metro-transportation-costs-grew-slower-other-major-cities-still-rose-29-percent#:~:text=In%202023%2C%2048%25%20of%20New,10%20point%20drop%20from%2052%25. 

Rosinsky, A. (2023, January 11). The best -and worst- commute times in New York City. Metro Manhattan Office Space. https://www.metro-manhattan.com/blog/which-neighborhoods-have-the-best-and-worst-commute-times-in-new-york-city/#:~:text=Manhattan%20is%20home%20to%2017,one%20hour%20to%20the%20next 

US Census Bureau. (2023). New York population 2025. World Population Review. https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/new-york 

US Census Bureau. (2024a, May 1). Census Bureau reports 1.6 million workers commute into Manhattan each day. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/archives/2013-pr/cb13-r17.html#:~:text=Census%20Bureau%20Reports%201.6%20Million%20Workers%20Commute%20into%20Manhattan%20Each%20Day 

US Census Bureau. (2024b, July 1). USA: New York City Boroughs. New York City Boroughs (USA): Boroughs - Population Statistics, Charts and Map. http://www.citypopulation.de/en/usa/newyorkcity/ 

US Census Bureau. (2024c, August 13). Commuting / Journey to work. https://www.census.gov/acs/www/about/why-we-ask-each-question/commuting/

US Census Bureau. (2024d, October 9). About the American Community Survey. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/about.html