VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR Commute Time (T4)

FULL MEASURE NAME Commute time by employment location

LAST UPDATED April 2020

DESCRIPTION Commute time refers to the average number of minutes a commuter spends traveling to work on a typical day. The dataset includes metropolitan area, county, city, and census tract tables by place of residence.

DATA SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau: Decennial Census (1980-2000) - via MTC/ABAG Bay Area Census http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/transportation.htm

U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey Table B08536 (2018 only; by place of employment) Table B08601 (2018 only; by place of employment) www.api.census.gov

CONTACT INFORMATION vitalsigns.info@bayareametro.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator) For the decennial Census datasets, breakdown of commute times was unavailable by mode; only overall data could be provided on a historical basis.

For the American Community Survey datasets, 1-year rolling average data was used for all metros, region, and county geographic levels, while 5-year rolling average data was used for cities and tracts. This is due to the fact that more localized data is not included in the 1-year dataset across all Bay Area cities. Similarly, modal data is not available for every Bay Area city or census tract, even when the 5-year data is used for those localized geographies.

Regional commute times were calculated by summing aggregate county travel times and dividing by the relevant population; similarly, modal commute time were calculated using aggregate times and dividing by the number of communities choosing that mode for the given geography. Census tract data is not available for tracts with insufficient numbers of residents.

The metropolitan area comparison was performed for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area in addition to the primary MSAs for the nine other major metropolitan areas.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR Commute Time (T3)

FULL MEASURE NAME Commute time by residential location

LAST UPDATED April 2020

DESCRIPTION Commute time refers to the average number of minutes a commuter spends traveling to work on a typical day. The dataset includes metropolitan area, county, city, and census tract tables by place of residence.

DATA SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau: Decennial Census (1980-2000) - via MTC/ABAG Bay Area Census http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/transportation.htm

U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey Form B08013 (2006-2018; place of residence; overall time) Form C08136 (2006-2018; place of residence; time by mode) Form B08301 (2006-2018; place of residence) www.api.census.gov

CONTACT INFORMATION vitalsigns.info@bayareametro.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator) For the decennial Census datasets, breakdown of commute times was unavailable by mode; only overall data could be provided on a historical basis.

For the American Community Survey datasets, 1-year rolling average data was used for all metros, region, and county geographic levels, while 5-year rolling average data was used for cities and tracts. This is due to the fact that more localized data is not included in the 1-year dataset across all Bay Area cities. Similarly, modal data is not available for every Bay Area city or census tract, even when the 5-year data is used for those localized geographies.

Regional commute times were calculated by summing aggregate county travel times and dividing by the relevant population; similarly, modal commute time were calculated using aggregate times and dividing by the number of communities choosing that mode for the given geography. Census tract data is not available for tracts with insufficient numbers of residents.

The metropolitan area comparison was performed for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area in addition to the primary MSAs for the nine other major metropolitan areas.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR
Commute Time (T3)

FULL MEASURE NAME
Commute time by residential location

LAST UPDATED
January 2023

DESCRIPTION
Commute time refers to the average number of minutes a commuter spends traveling to work on a typical day. The dataset includes metropolitan area, county, city, and census tract tables by place of residence.

DATA SOURCE
U.S. Census Bureau: Decennial Census (1980-2000) - via MTC/ABAG Bay Area Census - http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/transportation.htm

U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey - https://data.census.gov/
2006-2021
Form C08136
Form C08536
Form B08301
Form B08301
Form B08301

CONTACT INFORMATION
vitalsigns.info@bayareametro.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator)
For the decennial Census datasets, breakdown of commute times was unavailable by mode; only overall data could be provided on a historical basis.

For the American Community Survey (ACS) datasets, 1-year rolling average data was used for all metros, region and county geographic levels, while 5-year rolling average data was used for cities and tracts. This is due to the fact that more localized data is not included in the 1-year dataset across all Bay Area cities. Similarly, modal data is not available for every Bay Area city or census tract, even when the 5-year data is used for those localized geographies.

Regional commute times were calculated by summing aggregate county travel times and dividing by the relevant population; similarly, modal commute times were calculated using aggregate times and dividing by the number of communities choosing that mode for the given geography.

Census tract data is not available for tracts with insufficient numbers of residents. The metropolitan area comparison was performed for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area in addition to the primary metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) for the nine other major metropolitan areas.

VITAL SIGNS INDICATOR
Commute Mode Choice (T1)

FULL MEASURE NAME
Commute mode share by residential location

LAST UPDATED
January 2023

DESCRIPTION
Commute mode choice, also known as commute mode share, refers to the mode of transportation that a commuter usually uses to travel to work, such as driving alone, biking, carpooling or taking transit. The dataset includes metropolitan area, regional, county, city and census tract tables by place of residence.

DATA SOURCE
U.S. Census Bureau: Decennial Census (1960, 1970) - via MTC/ABAG Bay Area Census - http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/transportation/Means19602000.htm

U.S. Census Bureau: Decennial Census (1980-2000) - via MTC/ABAG Bay Area Census - http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/transportation/Means19802000.htm

U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey - https://data.census.gov/
2006-2021
Form B08301 (1-year and 5-year)

CONTACT INFORMATION
vitalsigns.info@bayareametro.gov

METHODOLOGY NOTES (across all datasets for this indicator)
Commute mode choice, also known as commute mode share, refers to the mode of transportation that a commuter usually uses to travel to work, such as driving alone, biking, carpooling or taking transit. For the decennial Census datasets, the breakdown of auto commuters between drive alone and carpool is not available before 1980. American Community Survey 1-year data is used for larger geographies – Bay counties and most metropolitan area counties – while smaller geographies rely upon 5-year rolling average data due to their smaller sample sizes. This will result in discrepancies in cases like San Francisco where it is both a city and a county. Note that 2020 data uses the 5-year estimates because the ACS did not collect 1-year data for 2020. Additionally, for the County by place of residence breakdown, Napa was missing ACS 1-Year commute mode choice data for all modes for 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2021. 5-Year estimates were used to fill the missing data for 2011 and 2021, but not 2007 or 2008 since the 5-Year estimates start in 2009.

Regional mode shares are population-weighted averages of the nine counties' modal shares. "Auto" includes drive alone and carpool for the simple data tables and is broken out in the detailed data tables accordingly, as it was not available before 1980. "Transit" includes public operators (Muni, BART, etc.) and employer-provided shuttles (e.g., Google shuttle buses). "Other" includes motorcycle, taxi, and other modes of transportation; bicycle mode share was broken out separately for the first time in the 2006 data and is shown in the detailed data tables. Census tract data is not available for tracts with insufficient numbers of residents or workers.

The metropolitan area comparison was performed for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area in addition to the primary metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) for other major metropolitan areas.