‘Super commuting’ is on the rise — and that spells big trouble for mid-size cities

Mon, 10/30/2023 - 06:00

A businessman in a tan suit with a green rolling suit case stands in front of the silhouette of tall buildings with yellow illuminated windows. There is a red car on his left and a subway train on his right. A white and orange plane soars over his head. — Thank to the flexibility of hybrid work, some Americans are commuting 7.5 hours to work — one way.
Arantza Pena Popo

In America, the average commute to work takes 26 minutes. Lee Robinson's is 17 times that.

To get to the office, Robinson gets up at 5 in the morning, drives to the airport near his home in Des Moines, Iowa, whips through security, hops on a 6 a.m. flight to Denver, waits for his connection at the airport, boards a second flight to San Francisco, and takes an Uber to the city's financial district, where he works as a VP of developer experience at the tech startup Vercel. Door to door, the trip takes seven and a half hours — on a good day.