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City of Misanthropes?: How Commuting is Changing in LA County

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The Source checks in on some more data from the 2010 American Community Survey (which is conducted by the Census Bureau) relating to commuting patterns. We've already seen the numbers showing that LA's commute times aren't so bad compared to cities like New York--it took the average resident of the LA Metro area 28 minutes to get to work. (To reiterate, the survey looked only at how long it takes people to get to work, not how pissed off they were when they get there, because, say, it took a half hour to travel two and a half miles on Sunset.) The Source's Steve Hymon reminds readers to take all these commuting/traffic reports with a grain of salt, as one seems to come out every week (results from another congestion survey are due tomorrow), but there may be something to glean from changes that took place between 2000 and 2010. More people drove solo, which Hymon thinks may have to do with people abandoning carpool lanes once they got congested (not just with carpoolers, but also with hybrid drivers); the number of people carpooling dropped precipitously. But more people biked to work and a growing number of people took transit as additional subway, light rail, and busway options opened up in the 2000s. Maybe Angelenos just hate people--even on a bus or a train you don't have to talk to anyone, but you do have to make small talk in the carpool.
· Another Look at Commuting Times [The Source]