Harris County travel longer than the national average
It’s no surprise that your drive to work can take a while and the recent numbers from the Census Bureau back that up.
You've all heard the complaints about traffic here in Houston. People are always looking for quicker ways to get to work. And Robert Kaminsky of the Census Bureau says there's a good reason for that.
“The average commute takes 26.8 minutes, which is a little longer than the national average of 25.5 minutes,” Kaminsky told KTRH.
But Jennifer Reyna of our television partner Local 2 says the number from the Census Bureau might be underestimating it just a bit.
“I report drive times on average from people who drive in from the suburbs at 40-45 minutes to get downtown. And that’s not including any major accidents or issues,” Reyna explained.
Kaminsky says the number hasn't really changed over the years.
“If you look at commuting trends over the last decade or so things are relatively constant. There isn’t a lot of movement,” Kaminsky said.
Some other numbers from the Census show that a lot of people in Harris County are mega commuters. That means commutes of over 50 miles each way to get to work. Harris County has twice the national average of mega commuters.
And not many of you are using Metro; only 2.9% use mass transit to get to work. That doesn't surprise Reyna.
“We are not the mass transit type, although we are trying to become more so,” Reyna stated.
The national average using mass transit is just about 5%, according to Kaminsky.
