Salem Residents Spent 10 Days Getting To, From Work In 2016

SALEM, MA -- Your commute from Salem to work only seems like it's getting worse. Census data released last week shows that the average Salem resident spent 28.6 minutes getting to and from work in 2016. That's the same as it was in 2010 and actually down 30 seconds from 2015, when commuters spent 29.1 getting from home in Salem to work.

The new data comes as other Massachusetts communities have seen steady increases in commute times. In Massachusetts, average commute times were 29 minutes in 2016, up 2.83% from 2015 and 4.88% since 2010. Nationally, the average commute time was 26.6 minutes in 2016, up from 25.9 minutes in 2015 and 25.2 minutes in 2010.

But in Salem, the numbers have been mostly flat since 2010, hitting a high of 29.4 minutes in 2014 and a low of 28.4 in 2012. The reason may also lie in the data: between 2010 and 2016, the percentage of Salem residents who drove or carpooled to work decreased, while the percentage who took public transportation, worked from home or got to work by other means increased.

How Salem Residents Get To Work

That's not to say 28 minutes, 36 seconds is a short amount of time to get to work. Multiply that by two trips per day, five days per week and 50 work-weeks before, and the average Salem resident spends 238 hours and 20 minutes -- or close to 10 days -- getting to and from work each year. So when we asked Salem patch readers if traffic was getting worse in town, we weren't surprised that the anecdotal answer was a resounding yes:

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Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).