Where people live and where they work often comes down to a series of tradeoffs, whether for time, money, or proximity to significant others.
Factor in the madness of rush hour and it's easy to see how the chaos of everybody's arrangements chews up clock over the course of a work week.
According to a
report by New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, Philadelphia ranks 13th in the United States with an average commute time of 5 hours and 1 minute per week. Stringer determined his ranking of 30 cities by combining the average commute time of each city with the average time its workers spend at their jobs, including overtime.
Topping the list is New York City, with a weekly commute time of 6 hours and 18 minutes, along with 42.50 of time spent at work. San Francisco, despite its 4.57 hours of weekly commute time, ranks second because of its 44.01-hour average workweek. Rounding out the top five are Washington D.C., Houston, and Fort Worth.
Apart from New York City, only Philadelphia and Chicago have average commute times above 5 hours. Philadelphia's average workweek is 42.01 hours, which explains the city's lower ranking despite the commute time.
While the report does not break down the most commonly used modes of transportation in cities outside New York, the following analysis from
FiveThirtyEight offers general tips for the frantic dilemma of getting to and from the airport in a timely fashion.
As for those 5 hours spent traveling to work, let's let the number soothe our collective nerves and accept it as a plight shared by all.
