Valet park at Roscoe's in Hollywood | Main | Stumbled upon in Silver Lake Missing Persons was wrong: walking in LA posted by Travis Koplow at 10:30 PM on July 07, 2007 Here's a confession: Before I moved to LA I didn't drive. I bought a car and learned to drive because everyone said--and I have always believed--you cannot live happily in this city as a non-driver. So how surprised was I to learn that LA is above the national average for public transportation use.
The US Census Bureau just released a data set that breaks down how people get to work city-by-city. (It's true: I am enough of a complete geek that I subscribe the US Census' feed. While I wasn't surprised to read that "about half of the nation's public transportation commuters can be found in 10 of the nation's 50 cities with the most workers age 16 or over," I didn't expect to see LA on that list.
On average 4.7% of United Statians take public transportation to work, while 10.3 of Los Angelenos do.
We rate higher than average on carpooling (11.7% versus 10.7% nationally), bicycling (.
6% versus .4% nationally), working from home (4.7% compared to 3.
6%), and even walking to work (3.2% in our fair city, 2.5% in the country as a whole).
I know living in Encino and working in Chatsworth, as I do, does not exactly grant one an accurate lens through which to view the city as a whole, but still...
.I'm pretty blown away by the fact that LA is above the mean in every category. I don't know whether to be proud of LA or distressed about the country as a whole.
Add to: Digg / Del.icio.us / Furl / Spurl / Blinklist / Reddit / Don Hosek at July 7, 2007 11:42 PM According to those charts, only 10% of Angelenos of working age use public transportation to get to work, and ranks #14 out of 50 cities surveyed.
But sheer numbers of people who use public transpo, there are a lot here in Los Angeles...
but Don is right about the big picture. Posted by: David Markland at July 8, 2007 12:16 AM Yes, I have lived in flyover territory, and I well know that most people in Kaukauna, Wisconsin aren't walking or bussing to work. Nonetheless, even an unspectacular #14 is better than I thought LA would rank.
And Josh, I can only speculate about "other means"--hang gliding? horseback? (I'll bet some of the Needles folks ride horses to work.
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