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America's Top 5 Best and Worst Commutes

Article

More than two-thirds of Americans commute to work alone every day. While few would call their daily slog to work pleasant, some commuters have it easier than others. Here are the best and worst commutes in the U.S.

More than two-thirds of Americans commute to work alone every day and another 5% use public transportation, according the latest U.S. Census data.

While few would call their daily slog to work and back pleasant, some commuters have it easier than others. A survey by personal-finance website Bundle.com ranked 90 regions across the U.S. to find which commutes were easiest and which were the toughest.

Not surprisingly, the Bundle survey found that commuters in major metropolitan areas had the worst commutes, particularly workers in Dallas, Miami and Los Angeles. Texas commuters were the big winners, with two of its towns -- Brownsville and Laredo -- making the list of best commutes.

More than half of all commuters leave for work every day between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., and of those who drive the average commute lasted 25.5 minutes one way. Roughly a third of drivers had a 10- to 19-minute average commute, and 8% had an hour-plus drive, Bundle reported.

But it’s not just the length of time spent behind the wheel that determined this year’s best and worst commutes. The Bundle survey also factored in costs associated with fueling and maintaining the vehicles. The average worker spends more than $6,000 a year in transportation costs, with commuters between ages 36 to 40 spending the most: $6,240 a year, according to data collected by Bundle. Commuters over the age of 65 spent the least, averaging $3,820 -- no doubt benefitting from discounts available to seniors.

Which workers had the easiest commutes -- and which suffered through the worst -- in 2010? Here are the cities that made the list of the Top 5 best and worst commutes:

Top 5 Cities With the Worst Commutes

Rank

Region

Avg. Daily One-Way Commute

Total Annual Delay

Monthy Gas Cost

Monthly Auto Expenses

1.

Dallas, Texas

25 minutes

53 hours

$193

$400

2.

San Jose, California

28 minutes

53 hours

$220

$401

3.

Houston, Texas

26 minutes

56 hours

$197

$292

4.

Miami, Florida

26 minutes

47 hours

$215

$276

5.

Los Angeles, California

29 minutes

53 hours

$182

$232

Rank

Region

Avg. Daily One-Way Commute

Total Annual Delay

Monthy Gas Cost

Monthly Auto Expenses

1.

Eugene, Oregon

17 minutes

11 hours

$119

$229

2.

Brownsville, Texas

20 minutes

8 hours

$145

$198

3.

Toledo, Ohio

19 minutes

14 hours

$113

$218

4.

Laredo, Texas

27 minutes

15 hours

$125

$224

5.

Anchorage, Alaska

28 minutes

10 hours

$146

$246

Top 5 Cities With the Best CommutesBundle’s rankings are based on average commute time in minutes, estimated number of commuters during peak hours in thousands, total miles traveled daily, annual hour of delay per commuter during peak hours, and spending on gas and auto expenses between June 2009 and June 2010.

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