The usual number of minutes spent in traveling from home to work (one way) during the reference week, ascertained for persons at work last week and tabulated for persons 16 years old and over. (See the discussion of the reference week under Labor Force Status.) Travel time includes time spent waiting for public transportation, picking up passengers in carpools, etc. Time taken occasionally to stop for meals, shopping, appointments, taking children to school, etc. was not included. This item was asked on a sample basis.
This item was coded in census processing offices from the respondent's write-in entry and is recorded on census basic records and public-use microdata in minutes. In some reports, travel time to work is reported in terms of categories: less than 10 minutes, 10 to 19 minutes, 20 to 29 minutes, 30 to 44 minutes, and 45 or more minutes. More frequently the data are presented as an average: mean travel time to work, reported in minutes.
Since travel time to work was coded only for a sample of one-half of all long-form questionnaires, along with place of work and residence in 1975. The estimated number of workers 16 years and over who did not work at home as derived from travel time figures will differ somewhat from the corresponding figure derived from a tabulation of means of transportation to work, a full-sample item. Further, any cross-tabulation of travel time to work with other items is necessarily based only on the half sample.
Travel time to work is a new item for 1980.
See also: "Place of Work;" "Transportation to Work, Means Of;" "Vehicle Occupancy".
