The average commute on Long Island is getting worse
Commuting longer, and longer
Long Islanders are spending more and more time commuting. One in five Long Islanders spend an hour or more commuting to work each way in 2017.
Over the last eight years, people commuting more than 30 minutes has increased by nearly 4 percent.
Is an overall increase in commuting time due to traffic congestion? Perhaps Long Islanders are moving further away from their workplaces? Or is the LIRR on-time performance worsening?
The average commute time in the United States is 26.9 minutes, while the Long Island average is 35.4 minutes.
Simplified into hours, Long Islanders spend an average of 73.6 hours more out of the year in traffic, if they work five days a week.
(We could have watched nearly all of the 2019 Oscar-nominated movies instead.)
Data from ACS5 2013-2017, Table B08303