Average commute in Honolulu: 21 minutes

By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

Honolulu commuters spend less time in their cars, on average, than most of drivers in other big cities, according to Census Bureau figures released yesterday.

While many drivers here complain about the time it takes to get from home to work, the statistics show it could be worse. Honolulu is near the bottom — 21.2 minutes — in average urban commuting time.

The figures released yesterday come from the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey taken last year. They are billed as an advance, incomplete peek at the lifestyle data from the census long form scheduled to be released next year.

The statistics show the average travel time to work for all drivers 16 years and older in America's largest cities, those with more than 250,000 people. They do not measure the commuting times of those coming into large cities from outlying suburbs.

New York City residents have the longest commute, at 39 minutes. That far surpasses runner-up Chicago, where the average is 33.4 minutes. San Francisco drivers came in third at 29.6 minutes.

In all, more than 40 other cities had average drive times longer than Honolulu's, which compared favorably with other midsized urban areas such as Indianapolis (21.6 minutes); Sacramento, Calif. (21.3) and Fresno, Calif. (21.1).

The quickest commuting time reported was in Wichita City, Kan., where it takes the average commuter only 16.9 minutes to get to work.

In a separate release, the Census Bureau reported commuting times by state. Hawai'i's average commute was 24.2 minutes, almost exactly the national average. New York again had the longest average commute (31.2 minutes); South Dakota had the shortest (15.6 minutes).