About six-and-a-half minutes has been shaved off travel time for Bay Area commuters between 2019 and 2021, according to a report by the US Census.
SF Gate reportsthat an analysis of data by Axios attributes the reduced commuting times to the widespread use of remote work prompted by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Surveyshowed that the number of people working from home during the first years of the pandemic more than tripled from nine million people to more than 27 million.
Among metropolitan areas, the Bay Area – San Francisco-Oakland and Berkeley to San Jose, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara – had more than a third of its workforce working remotely. That’s the highest percentage of remote workers in the nation.
Altogether, the Census study showed 15 million fewer people who commuted to work alone by private vehicle. The number of people who used public transportation to commute also fell by roughly half.
