The data on means of transportation to work were derived from answers to long-form questionnaire Item 23a, which was asked of a sample of the population 15 years old and over. This question was asked of people who indicated in Question 21 that they worked at some time during the reference week. (For more information, see "Reference Week.") Means of transportation to work refers to the principal mode of travel or type of conveyance that the worker usually used to get from home to work during the reference week. Data were tabulated for workers 16 years old and over; that is, members of the armed forces and civilians who were at work during the reference week.

People who used different means of transportation on different days of the week were asked to specify the one they used most often, that is, the greatest number of days. People who used more than one means of transportation to get to work each day were asked to report the one used for the longest distance during the work trip. The category "Car, truck, or van - drove alone" includes people who usually drove alone to work, as well as people who were driven to work by someone who then drove back home or to a nonwork destination during the reference week. The category "Car, truck, or van - carpooled" includes workers who reported that two or more people usually rode to work in the vehicle during the reference week. The category "Public transportation" includes workers who usually used a bus or trolley bus, streetcar or trolley car, subway or elevated, railroad, ferryboat, or taxicab during the reference week. Público is included in the "Public transportation" category in Puerto Rico. The category "Other means" includes workers who used a mode of travel that is not identified separately. The category "Other means" may vary from table to table, depending on the amount of detail shown in a particular distribution.

The means of transportation data for some areas may show workers using modes of public transportation that are not available in those areas (for example, subway or elevated riders in a metropolitan area where there actually is no subway or elevated service). This result is largely due to people who worked during the reference week at a location that was different from their usual place of work (such as people away from home on business in an area where subway service was available) and people who used more than one means of transportation each day but whose principal means was unavailable where they lived (for example, residents of nonmetropolitan areas who drove to the fringe of a metropolitan area and took the commuter railroad most of the distance to work).