The average time it takes Americans to commute to work is 25.1 minutes, according to a new report based on Census data from 2009. Of all metropolitan areas, New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island area has the longest average commute time in the country, at 34.6 minutes, and has the highest share of its workers using public transportation to get to work.

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

Here’s a look at the distribution of commute lengths across the country:

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2009Note that the time intervals are not all of equal length.

Interestingly, while the average commute is 25.1 minutes, there are actually relatively few Americans who have a commute of exactly that length. There are just a lot of Americans with commutes shorter than that, and a bunch with commutes much longer than that. A plurality of workers have a commute in the 15-to-19-minute range.

The report also found that the median American leaves for work between 7:30 a.m. and 7:59 a.m.

Here’s a chart showing what percent of workers leave home at a given time:

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2009Note that the time intervals are not all of equal length.

Over time, American commutes have gotten somewhat less environmentally friendly, as you can see in the chart below. Over three-quarters of the nation’s workers drove alone to work in 2009, with another 10 percent commuting by carpool:

Across the country, only 3.5 percent of American workers had zero carbon footprint because they walked or bicycled to work. The metro area with the highest share of its workers commuting by bicycle is Corvallis, Ore., at 9.3 percent. The area with the highest share commuting by walking is Ithaca, N.Y., at 15.1 percent.

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