The New York metro transportation hub is the largest interregional transit network in the United States, with more than 4.7 million commuters traveling to work in New York City every day. In fact, 80 percent of the 4.7 million live within the five boroughs; the other 20 percent live within the NYC metro region, which comprises of Long Island, Hudson Valley, southwest Connecticut and north New Jersey. Commuters living in these areas have several bus, train and ferry options to utilize from, including the: Long Island Railroad (LIRR), Metro-North, New Jersey Transit (NJT), and PATH. Commuting from a far distance is strenuous, annoying and sometimes unreliable. When I attended Stony Brook University, I commuted on the LIRR at least 3 times a week to the city. On a good day, the ride was 1.5 hours, but if there were delays it prolonged my trip to another hour—it once took me 6 hours to arrive back at my dorm after my rail line was cancelled completely out of the blue. The amount of people using these modes of transportation depend on them to be reliable and efficient. Having been a part of this group made me want to explore how commuters deal with such long times and distances in order to continue working far from home. What I hope to gain from this research is to see if the benefits of working in a high employment area outweighs the financial cost and health risks of commuting.
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Bram, Jason, and Alisdair McKay. “The Evolution of Commuting Patterns in the New York City Metro Area.” Current Issues in Economics and Finance, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Oct. 2005, Web. 21 Apr. 2020.
This report, like the 2019 official city report below, details the metro region’s commuting patterns from 1980 to 2000. At the time of this publication, the trend of longer commutes was unprecedented considering that population increases had been higher than they have ever been. There is a greater analysis on inbound commuters from key suburban areas in the region. Longer commutes are discussed at large; since predictions of the time stated that suburbs would have greater employment opportunity than cities, the data presented explores why residents in these far areas are willing to travel to the city for work. While this was published in 2005, it can serve as a comparison to the 2019 one in order to see how these patterns have fared over the years. Using this information will be instrumental in developing the significance of commuting in our region.
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Miller, Bryan. “Extreme Commuting.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 July 2017, Web. 17 Apr. 2020.
Miller gathered five extreme commuters living in the tri-state area to share their experiences traveling to Manhattan during the work week. This feature describes the day in the life of each person, many of whom live in suburbs beyond the traditional metro region. Miller identifies the different factors that contribute to the increasing trend of extreme commuting, such as employers becoming more flexible with work hours and technology making it easier to work from home. The cost of living in NYC has prompted many of the city’s workers to search for homes in suburbs where they can enjoy a better quality of life and greater financial stability. This article will be an invaluable source of information because it contains interviews from extreme commuters who believe that their commutes aren’t as bad as they seem. Exploring this perspective will help me gain an understanding of the positives of commuting.
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Schaefer, Annette. “Commuting Takes Its Toll.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 1 Oct. 2005, Web. 20 Apr. 2020
Schaefer questions in her article if commuting and the stresses involved are worth the mental strains in favor of keeping well-paying jobs and a suburban standard of living. Those with longer commutes are more at risk to develop psychological disorders compared to those with shorter ones. Extreme commuting takes an even greater toll on the body and those who partake daily complained of pain, dizziness, exhaustion and severe sleep deprivation. Long commuters also have less social downtime with their loved ones as they spend more time traveling than being at home. Several statistics in this article show a significant portion of commuters bearing the physical and mental strains of commuting. The researchers mentioned in the article also explain why some commuters are willing to go to the lengths they do despite being dissatisfied.
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“The Ins and Outs of NYC Commuting.” The Official Website of the City of New York, Nyc.gov, Sept. 2019, Web. 15 Apr. 2020
This comprehensive 87-page report on the city’s commuting patterns and data will be useful in understanding the types of commuters, their traveling patterns, and which destinations they flock to the most in the metro region. This data elaborates on, but is not limited to, the populations of each geographical area; differentiating between in and out bound commuters; what modes of transportation they utilize during the work week; the average commute times to Midtown Manhattan’s Penn and Grand Central Stations; employment trends in each geographical region; and which areas have the most economic opportunity. This report aims to display how commuting and employment have increased in the past decade and if they are in direct correlation with one another. Using this as a source would be ideal because it is full of statistics and trends, which would quantify commuting.
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Works Cited
Bram, Jason, and Alisdair McKay. “The Evolution of Commuting Patterns in the New York City
Metro Area.” Current Issues in Economics and Finance, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Oct. 2005, www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/current_issues/ci11-10.html.
Miller, Bryan. “Extreme Commuting.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 July
2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/realestate/extreme-commuting.html.
Schaefer, Annette. “Commuting Takes Its Toll.” Scientific American, Scientific American, 1 Oct.
2005, www.scientificamerican.com/article/commuting-takes-its-toll/.
“The Ins and Outs of NYC Commuting.” The Official Website of the City of New York, nyc.gov,
Sept. 2019, www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/planning-level/housing-economy/nyc-ins-and-out-of-commuting.pdf.
