Regional Snapshot: County Level Congestion Trends

On average, commuters in the 20-county region spend 127 hours traveling to work each year, which translates into more than three work-weeks. This Regional Snapshot explores county-level travel trends from the American Community Survey to show in which areas of the region commuters spend the most time traveling to work.
It also looks at small area trends that show, in general, that the areas around the region’s biggest employment centers have the shortest commute times. But this isn’t always the case. A future Regional Snapshot will explore worker flows and characteristics for specific employment centers.

Hours Per Year Traveling from Home to Work
This map shows how much time commuters spend traveling to work at the sub-county area (ARC Superdistricts*). The black dots represent the 10 largest employment centers in the region in terms of total employment. The areas where resident commuters spend the least amount of time traveling to work are close to the cluster of employment centers north of the urban core.
Commuters living in some areas that are relatively close to the large employment centers, however, spend among the most amount of time traveling to work, notably Southeast DeKalb and West Cobb. While relatively close, commuters in these areas generally lack good east-west options to reach the cluster of employment centers.

Superdistrict Hours Travel

Top 10 Employment Centers
– Top 10 Employment Centers
Superdistricts are sub-county areas developed by ARC to mirror “market” areas where possible and to provide a consistent sub-county geography for planning and analysis purposes.