Wendell Cox has laid his hands on some U.S. Census commuting data that I cannot find on the Census Bureau website. In a recent column, he disseminated what he deems to be key findings. Solo automobile commuting reached an all-time record high in the United States in 2010, he says, increasing by 7.8 million commuters. Solo driving came partly at the expense of carpooling, which lost 2.4 million riders.
Working at home (telecommuting) also gave a strong showing, gaining 1.7 million workers over the decade. Mass transit enjoyed its first 10-year gain since the Census Bureau began collecting data 50 years ago — picking up 900,000 daily commuters. Washington, D.C. was the third-largest transit commuting market in the country, following New York and San Francisco, picking up 130,000 commuters.
It strikes me that traditional carpooling and van pooling — workers sharing the same vehicle between home to work — is doomed to continue declining. The practice requires participants to drive to work and back, with no stops along the way, at the same time every day. Fewer and fewer people have jobs that allow them to punch the clock like that. The nature of work is changing — hours and schedules are becoming more flexible as people juggle work-life balance, run errands and chauffeur kids around town. Carpooling doesn’t match social and economic realities anymore.
Technology may come to the rescue, however. Now that half the population has smart phones, it’s possible to wake up in the morning, check your phone and find someone nearby who is going the same place you are at the same time. The more people who participate, the more choices there will be, and the more attractive the car/van pooling will prove to be as a commuting alternative. It will be interesting to see how that pans out.
Cox is an outspoken foe of Smart Growth, so the spin he put on the Census Bureau numbers may not be the same spin I would use. I’ll report the data first hand as soon as I come across it.
— JAB