Good times for petroleum companies, morning zoo radio shows, and drive-through coffee shops. Bad times for people who just want to get to work.
According to the Washington Post, the average American commute ticked up to 26 minutes and 36 seconds in 2016, 12 seconds longer than the year before and more than four minutes longer than in 1980.
All together, people spent nine full days getting to and from work last year.
For some, the commute is even more brutal. The share of workers with commutes between 60 and 89 minutes rose 2.8 percent from 2015. More than 13 million workers have hour-plus commutes, and 4 million have commutes of 90 minutes or more.
Longer commutes are linked with increased risks for obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, back and neck pain, divorce, depression and death. … At the societal level, people who commute more are less likely to vote. They're more likely to be absent from work. They're less likely to escape poverty.
There is a silver lining for the road weary: Telecommuting is on the rise. Roughly 7.6 million Americans primarily worked from home last year, a 5 percent share of all workers.
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