Fewer Americans Are Driving To Work

In many major European cities, excellent public transportation systems and well-developed bike paths have seen commuters ditch their cars in favor or metros, buses and bicycles. Eurostat reported that in 2015, the share of workers commuting by bicycle stood at 39 percent in Antwerp, 24 percent in Berlin and 22 percent in Zurich. Website TriplePundit claims that in Germany and Sweden, the share commuting by bike at least once a week is 40 percent. In the U.S. by contrast, the automobile remains the king of the morning commute, though things are slowly starting to change. In 2007, a Gallup poll found that 85 percent of Americans drove by themselves to work while 6 percent took a ride with somebody else.

Just over ten years later, most Americans still depend on their car to get to the office but the share is falling. In the 2018 edition of the poll, the share driving alone to work fell to 77 percent while the share riding with someone else remained unchanged. Between 2007 and 2018, the share of U.S. workers using mass transportation increased from 4 to 6 percent. Walking also went from 3 percent ot five percent while cycling grew from 0 to 1 percent.