You’ll Be Surprised By the Amount of Time We Spend Commuting in Minnesota
Even though the pandemic and working from home has changed many of our routines, we still spend a surprising amount of time commuting here in Minnesota.
While many of us had our commutes shortened or eliminated by the work from home phenomenon that took hold two years ago when the pandemic first hit, a fair percentage of Minnesotans have been headed back to the office-- and are also spending a fair amount of time commuting.
That's the word from the 2021 TomTom Traffic Index. While it only rated Minnesota's largest city of Minneapolis, it found that traffic congestion DID increase in 2021, compared to 2020. And, overall, those Minnesotans who live and/or work in the Twin Cities spent nearly a full day-- 23 hours-- commuting to and from their place of work last year.
Meanwhile, here in southeast Minnesota, our commute time is less, of course. And it's not just less than in the Twin Cities, but it's also less compared to the national average commute time.
According to BestPlaces, Rochester's average commute time in 2021 was 16.2 minutes, which is just 10 minutes less than the national average commute time of 26.4 minutes. And, it's still less than the Twin Cities average commute time of 22.9 minutes.
And, no surprise here, the greatest amount of commuters here in southeast Minnesota are in alone in their own car (71%). Carpooling is second at 11.7%, followed by mass transit (6.7%), walking (4.3%) and biking (1.1%).
As gas prices head higher, will more Minnesotans try other forms of commuting? Because gas prices ARE high right now, certainly higher than they were when we started driving. Keep scrolling to see the price of gas the year you got your driver's license!
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LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving
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