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10 Best and Worst Commuter Cities

By
Mortgage and Lending with Guild Mortgage Company NMLS 264607, NMLS 3274

According to the Census Bureau, 2.8 million people commute to work 90 minutes or more each day, in each direction.

Now, your daily commute may not be as long, but time spent in cars, trains and buses is time away from work and from family. Drive-time can affect a person's Quality of Life and it's one reason why Forbes Magazine's Best and Worst Commutes is worth reviewing.

Measuring travel time, road congestion and travel delays in the 60 largest metropolitan areas, Forbes ranks city commutes from best-to-worst with Salt Lake City topping the list and Tampa-St. Petersburg finishing it.

The Top 5 Commutes, as compiled by Forbes:

  1. Salt Lake City, Utah
  2. Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York
  3. Rochester, New York
  4. Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, Wisconsin
  5. Albany-Schenectady-Troy, New York

The bottom 5 are Tampa-St. Petersburg, Detroit, Atlanta, Orlando, and Dallas-Forth Worth.

Long commutes shouldn't deter you from moving to a particular city, but the potential commute should be consideration. Before making an offer on your next home, make a rush-hour commute to work from your potential new neighborhood.  Then imagine doing it every day.

You can read the complete Forbes list of Best and Worst Cities for Commuters on its website.

Comments (5)

Home Design
Alpharetta, GA
Home Design and Real Estate

I'll have to agree with Atlanta being pretty bad.  3 hour round trip commutes are not uncommon.

Feb 17, 2010 10:57 PM
Alix Pinzon
Open Mortgage, LLC NMLS # 2975 - Downey, CA
(562)743-6086

3 hours?  That's nuts.  The only lane of cars in Detroit should be the one going out of town.

Feb 17, 2010 11:07 PM
Bob Harris
BHG Real Estate III - Charlottesville, VA
Charlottesville VA Real Estate

Here in beautiful, safe, clean Charlottesville, VA if any commute is going to be over twenty minutes it's probably not worth the effort. I can remember a former life of two to three hours a day in a my car. I can also remember needing not wanting, but needing to buy a new car every two years, because the other car was worn out.

Feb 17, 2010 11:14 PM
Craig Richardson
National Realty - McLean, VA

Frank, interesting list.  Certainly the Metropolitan D.C. area has it's struggles with traffic.

Feb 17, 2010 11:24 PM