It’s not your imagination: Massachusetts workers endure long commutes, and they are getting worse.
New data released by the US Census Bureau on Thursday showed that Massachusetts has the fourth-longest commute time among states, with the average worker’s trip to work clocking in right at 30 minutes.
That’s an increase of an average of 2.7 minutes from 2010, the last time such data was available. Massachusetts had the highest increase in commute time in the nation, except for California, which saw a 2.9-minute jump.
The new data, collected as part of the American Community Survey 5-year estimates, cover a time period of 2016 to 2020. The survey asked respondents how long it took them to travel to work from home and what sort of transportation they used, among other things.
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More facts from the data release:
The town with the longest commute? Monroe workers reported spending 47 minutes commuting to work, though the sample from the tiny Franklin County town was just 47 people. In the South Shore community of Cohasset, workers reported a commute time of 43 minutes, followed by Sherborn, Worthington, and Plainfield.
Who is using public transportation? Perhaps not surprisingly, Boston residents reported the highest rates of public transit use in Massachusetts, with 31 percent of workers reporting they used it to get to work. Boston was followed closely by Somerville at 30 percent, Malden at 28 percent, and Brookline at 27 percent.
How do Massachusetts workers’ commuting habits fare among states? Massachusetts workers take public transit at much higher rates than the country as a whole with only New Jersey and New York reporting higher rates of public transit commuting among states. Despite Boston’s notorious traffic and the availability of HOV lanes, Massachusetts ranks near the bottom of the list for workers who carpool. Just 7 percent of workers said they carpooled to work, compared with 13 percent who say they carpool in Hawaii, which reported the highest rate.
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Daigo Fujiwara can be reached at daigo.fujiwara@globe.com. Follow him @DaigoFuji. Christina Prignano can be reached at christina.prignano@globe.com. Follow her @cprignano.