Americans drove almost 1.5 percent more miles in March of 2024 than in the March before the pandemic, according to data released yesterday by the Federal Highway Administration. Miles of driving have been at least 100 percent of 2019 numbers in six of the last eight months and at least 99 percent in 28 of the last 36 months.
Rural driving was 9.1 percent greater than in 2019 while urban driving was 1.8 percent less. The states with the biggest growth in driving are Indiana (33.8%), Montana (25.2%), Louisiana (23.0%), Arizona (17.0%), Idaho (16.6%), and Rhode Island (13.7%). The District of Columbia also saw 16.2 percent more driving in March 2024 than in 2019.
States where driving is still well short of 2019 levels include West Virginia (-28.6%), North Dakota (-19.2%), New York (-10.5%), Massachusetts (-10.2%), and California (-10.1%). Much of these differences is due to people moving from urban to rural areas or from some states to others.
Driving first reached 100 percent of pre-pandemic levels 29 months before transit reached 75 percent. This is due to the major differences in long-term impacts of the pandemic on transit vs. driving.
A new study published last week found that companies that attempt to get their remote-working employees to return to offices experience “an outflow of senior employees” to “firms that are direct competitors.” This poses “a potential threat to the productivity, innovation, and competitiveness of the wider firm.”
It is pretty clear that remote working has minimal effect on total driving, but it does have an effect on when people drive as people who work at home avoid rush-hour traffic. That means a reduction in congestion. However, remote working has a double effect on transit ridership, first because the downtown workers who were best served by transit are most likely to be working remotely and second because downtown workers who were taking transit to avoid congestion may now be driving to work due to the decreased traffic. This is why the effect of the pandemic on transit has been much more persistent than on other forms of travel.
It is pretty clear that remote working has minimal effect on total driving, but it does have an effect on when people drive as people who work at home avoid rush-hour traffic.”
I predicted that. I said it’d have no long term effect in fact made it worse. Working from home, means instead of you going out to get things, multiple people Now come to YOU.
I remarked rise in biking/traffic accidents in cities. If 15 minute cities are such a great idea…. we have an army of barristas/delivery people on bikes/scooters who’re delivering everything you’re afraid to go out and get.
Your groceries, your fast food, your slow food, your Organic food, your coffees, now your supplies….. have to be delivered to you and You have to store it. I remember a show by Ed Begley Jr, the actor/environmentalist, basically said it “Paperless Office” computer would revolutionize office conduct, Instead it grew paper consumption 10 fold since 1970. More so, internet now uses 10% worlds electric consumption and has a Carbon profile twice that Global aviation. The chemical, metal and Waste legacy of 2 Billion computers, printers, fax machines, word processors, various electronic equipment. And you’re worried about paper?
In ones mind my apartment/home is a place to decompress from work. Not a place to get work done. Having a separate environment outside of my home to get work done allows you to relax at home. With WFH all the stress of work stay with you. Even with computers, document and work storage eats up significant space. So a lot of bedrooms or living rooms became offices. Places where you relax and have fun became places where you also stressed and worked. This impacted ones ability to relax. Dog barking, kids screaming, outdoor noise.
Office culture other than ringing phones is So quiet.
another aspect, to have a decent home office; internet speed must be considerably faster to accommodate work flow, compared to average wifi, professional/high speed wireless internet is 3x more energy intensive. In California residential electricity consumption rose 15%.
Remote work is also miserably depressing and everyone knows it. Before moving back to central work location with dozens daily co-workers. I worked in a home office with 4-6 people in bosses converted basement. That social connection BETTER than alone.
Working from home, communicating sporadically with colleagues across vast distances, can leave you feeling isolated and depressed. That’s exactly what happened during pandemic even for those gainfully employed; Morale collapsed. Motivation crashed and procrastination became only friend.
On the medical side. Pew survey poll and university Health research show.
– Half Remote workers get no exercise
– one in three suffer skeletal/muscular problems before age 30. My step-brother suffered this problem, he has undergone spinal surgery to decompress disc and replace another.
– Chronic sleep problems
– Alcohol consumption increased… like it did during pandemic
https://covid19.nih.gov/news-and-stories/risky-drinking-alcohol-use-epidemic-inside-covid-19-pandemic
working from home sucks, except for the top tier bosses who enjoy the autonomy. It’s miserable, depressing, it puts entire workload into your own home and keeps it there indefinitely
Work from home helps for working moms
Results of a small sample (n=2) of people whose jobs moved from “downtown” to suburban locations less than two miles from home.
It was Great!
Results of a different small sample (n=2) of people who moved their jobs from a large US midwestern city to a small midwestern US semi-rural city.
It was Great!
Your mileage may vary.
The irony of AP having anything to say about working-from-home is that you need fast internet to work from home, and yet he complains about how Joe Biden is the reason he has terrible internet:
https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=21447
Apparently he doesn’t realize he lives too far away from cities to have the necessary infrastructure for fast internet service. Kind of like feeling entitled to taxpayer funded roads, electricity and water to every tiny town in the country while asking people in the cities to pay for them.
You know, janehavisham, you really should read the Antiplanner article you reference. The Antiplanner explains how the technology exists to bring good quality internet access to areas like his at a reasonable price but a private firms efforts to do this in his area have stalled because it is now clear that they can get federal subsidies for doing this so they are waiting for the federal money. He also states that he knows living in a rural area like he does involves trade offs and he has chosen to make those trade offs.
Builder, nope, as usual, he blamed Big Government (who invented and built the Internet):
https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=21447#comment-567501
Jane Havisham, nope. The AntiPlanner rebutted your accusation in the very post that you linked to. Petulantly repeating something doesn’t make it true.
What urbanists fail consider Rise driving in Japan. True Japan’s unique geography makes rail a favorable technology had it been allowed remain typical speed rail (75-125mph) it’d profitable and easier to maintain. Shinkansen now loses 2 Billion a year.
Just 9 years after first Shinkansen opening…. In 1973, JNR labor unions, fighting to restore their right to strike, held slowdowns and walkouts freezing the Tokyo commute. Enraged and stranded commuters on two occasions rampaged and destroyed more than 20 train stations and attacked staff.
In 1965 Rail accounted 67% transportation market share. By 1970, declined to 50% & by 1980 down to 40%. That labor strike had consequences. Holding Public commodity hostage, users will seek out substitutes.