Sneak Peek: Wed Jan 17, 2024 (Patreon)

Today's upload is really about suburbs, but a big piece of it is digging into the US census' 2022 American Community Survey data to understand the current (or recent) state of commute travel as things continue to normalize post-pandemic (whatever "normal" is).

I use the graphic above to kind of set the table for how work-related travel (or non-travel) has shifted overall over the span 2010-2022. You'd probably have to zoom in to see the numbers, but the general story is, all work-related travel is down, and work from home has basically quadrupled from 4% to over 15%.

Is this good or bad? Feel free to opine below, but I think it's really hard to say. Remember, these are only commute numbers, but it's fair to say transit ridership is still down overall from where it was pre-pandemic, and significantly so in a lot of regions. Keep in mind this shift was even more extreme in the 2021 1-year data, and the census didn't even make the 2020 1-year data available because it is SO janky. It'll be interesting to see what the 2023 ACS has to say when it becomes available.

What do you all think at this point? Is work from home, or hybrid, a permanent arrangement for 10, 20, 30% of the US work force? And if so, what's the verdict? Good because it's less impactful to our transportation system, bad because there's less support for restaurants, shops, and services in employment areas? Tough on transit agency budgets? Social good because people are away from home less? (Maybe being away from home is a plus sometimes, though, haha.) You'll see in the video that the impact is much more apparent in...certain metro areas that are dominated by...certain industries. I learn so much when I make these videos.

Happy Wednesday!