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Walking to Work: Trends in the United States, 2005–2014

RESEARCH BRIEF — Volume 13 — September 22, 2016

PEER REVIEWED

The percentage of travel to work by private vehicle increased steadily from approximately 72% in 1960 to more than 90% in 2000, while at the same time the percentage of travel to work by public transportation and by walking decreased abruptly, from more than 13% in 1960 to approximately 5% in 2000 for public transportation and from 11% in 1960 to 3% in 2000 for walking. However, during the period from 2005 through 2014, the percentage of 3 travel modes remained stable, with a slight decrease in private vehicle travel and a slight increase in walking.

Figure 1. Percentage of travel to work by private vehicle, public transportation, and walking from 1960 through 2000, by decade, and from 2005 through 2014, by year, American Community Survey, United States.

Year Private Vehicle Public Transportation Walking
1960 72.32 13.67 11.19
1970 80.52 9.22 7.67
1980 86.08 6.55 5.73
1990 89.18 5.46 4.02
2000 90.88 4.89 3.03
2005 90.93 4.83 2.57
2006 90.25 5.03 2.97
2007 90.16 5.09 2.96
2008 89.92 5.22 2.94
2009 89.99 5.22 2.99
2010 90.16 5.17 2.9
2011 89.98 5.26 2.94
2012 89.92 5.24 2.95
2013 89.71 5.41 2.93
2014 89.92 5.3 2.91

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Figure 2. The β values of decay functions for the distribution of walking trips to work, by duration, American Community Survey, United States, 2005–2014. The figure also includes a trend line to show the change pattern over years. The trend line is negative, that is, it shows a decreasing pattern for the β value of decay functions over years. The R 2 value of 0.83 is the fitness of the trend line for the β values from 2005 through 2014.

Year 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Decay function β 0.113 0.117 0.114 0.106 0.108 0.107 0.103 0.102 0.101 0.102
R2 0.946 0.947 0.951 0.962 0.958 0.962 0.966 0.968 0.966 0.966

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