Study clocks commuter drive times
Americans spend more than 100 hours commuting to work each year, according to American Community Survey data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. This exceeds the annual two weeks of vacation time (80 hours) frequently taken by workers. Nationally, the average daily commute to work lasted about 24.3 minutes in 2003.
Based on a ranking of states with the longest average commute-to-work times, the survey showed that New York (30.4 minutes) and Maryland (30.2 minutes) residents spent the most time traveling to their jobs. New Jersey (28.5 minutes), Illinois (27.0 minutes) and California (26.5 minutes) were also among states with some of the longest one-way commute times.
In a ranking of cities with populations of 250,000 or more, New York (38.3 minutes), Chicago (33.2 minutes), Newark, N.J. (31.5 minutes), Riverside (31.2 minutes) and Los Angeles (29.0 minutes) had among the highest average commute times.
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