The data on travel time to work were derived from answers to long-form questionnaire Item 24b, 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 and who reported in Question 23a that they worked outside their home. Travel time to work refers to the total number of minutes that it usually took the person to get from home to work each day during the reference week. The elapsed time includes time spent waiting for public transportation, picking up passengers in carpools, and time spent in other activities related to getting to work. (For more information, see "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.
Aggregate travel time to work (minutes)
Aggregate travel time to work (minutes) is calculated by adding together all the number of minutes each worker traveled to work (one way) for specified travel times and/or means of transportation. Aggregate travel time to work is zero if the aggregate is zero, is rounded to 4 minutes if the actual aggregate is 1 to 7 minutes, and is rounded to the nearest multiple of 5 minutes for all other values (if the aggregate is not already evenly divisible by 5). (For more information, see "Aggregate" under "Derived Measures".)
Mean travel time to work (minutes)
Mean travel time to work is the average travel time in minutes that workers usually took to get from home to work (one way) during the reference week. This measure is obtained by dividing the total number of minutes taken to get from home to work by the number of workers 16 years old and over who did not work at home. The travel time includes time spent waiting for public transportation, picking up passengers in carpools, and time spent in other activities related to getting to work. Mean travel times of workers having specific characteristics also are computed. For example, the mean travel time of workers traveling 45 or more minutes is computed by dividing the aggregate travel time of workers whose travel time was 45 or more minutes by the number of workers whose travel time was 45 or more minutes. Mean travel time to work is rounded to the nearest tenth. (For more information on means, see "Derived Measures".)