Somerville Commuters Wait Longer Than Average

SOMERVILLE, MA – Think traffic in Somerville is getting worse? Now you've got the data to prove it. Numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau last week show Somerville residents had commute times to work of 30.8 minutes in 2016, up ever so slightly from 29.7 minutes in 2015 but a full two minutes above the average commute time in 2010.

That extra two minutes per day, both ways, five days a week, for 50 or so weeks a year means you're spending nearly 16 hours more in your car per year. And it's not just Somerville.

In Massachusetts, average commute times were 29 minutes in 2016, up 2.83 percent from 2015 and 4.88 percent 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.

Part of the problem in Somerville could be more commuters. According to census data, there were 54,559 people age 16 or older in the workforce in 2016, up almost 4,000 from the 50,762 reported six years ago. That's over 20,000 more than in nearby Malden, which is having its own traffic woes.

On the bright side, not all of those newly employed folks are driving to work. While the number of commuters on the road cracked 50 percent between 2012 and 2014, data shows the people who reported taking a "car, truck or van" to work dipped to 44.8 percent last year.

Do you think Somerville getting harder to drive through? Let us know in the comments below.

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash