It’s because that’s when a good percentage of the workforce in urban areas is leaving home for the office.
The American Community Survey 2005-2007 found that about 30 percent of workers get in their cars and head to work between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. daily in Bell County. That’s close to 32,000 cars.
About 10 percent are on the road between 5:30 a.m. and 6 a.m. Then, about 22,000 hit the streets at some point in the next hour after that.
The numbers show that people, regardless of where they live, tend to wait until after 6:30 a.m. to get on the road, with thousands in highly urbanized areas waiting until after 7 a.m.
Commute times reported by the ACS reflect the traffic situation.
The average commute in heavily populated Williamson County is 27 minutes. In Bell County, it’s 18 minutes, possibly because of construction on main arteries.
But in rural counties, a lot of workers have to travel to urban centers for work, making their commute times long, too.
In Coryell County, for example, the average commute is 21 minutes. The average in Milam County is 24 minutes.
Editor’s note: This is another in a series based on the American Community Survey, 2005-2007, a product of the Census Bureau.
