A recent study found that poor or rich, people travel about 78 minutes per day on average. Researchers examined trip-to-work and overall trip data for personal versus work travel across 43 countries. When listed together, these countries make up over 50 percent of the world’s population. These results continue to show that total daily travel time has an incredible consistency regardless of societal changes.
William Fajzel, a Ph.D. student at McGill University, is a central part of the research study. He goes on to explain that the average commute is 66-90 minutes round trip at most. He notes, “Since total travel time is nearly constant,” suggesting that people tend to spend about the same amount of time traveling each day, regardless of their circumstances or mode of transportation.
The justification for travel is extremely diverse. People travel to go to work, do business and be entertained. As the study notes, daily travel times can dramatically differ from person to person, as well as one day to another. On average, this variability is a little less than 0.2 hours, or 12 minutes.
The study highlights an important societal trend toward optimizing the day-to-day variability of travel time at about 1.3 hours. This consistency holds up when looking at different geographic regions as well. It is true across all modes of transport – cars, transit and walking. Eric Galbraith, the corresponding author of the study, elaborates on the implications of these findings: “The most important finding is that people don’t travel less when speed or efficiency increases; instead, they travel farther.” As this quote illustrates, gains in transportation efficiency don’t lead to shorter travel times. Rather, they open up the possibility of faster, longer trips.
The research goes a step further and explores energy use related to different built environments. Cities that slap nature in the face by overcommitting to combustion-engine vehicles use as much as 100 times more energy per person. Conversely, pedestrian friendly built environments encourage significantly less energy consumption. A city that only invests in light rail systems can use nearly five times more energy than a city where everybody walks. This just accentuates the total energy footprint of our transportation decisions.
These findings illuminate the deeper drivers of human mobility and energy consumption in modern civilizations. As cities rapidly change, navigating these complex dynamics might make all the difference in progressing towards a smart, connected transportation future.