CATHERINE RAMPELL
Dollars to doughnuts.
Americans have some of the shortest commuting times in the developed world, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
O.E.C.D. Time Use Survey database. Note: Data refer to 1998-99 for France; 1999 for Portugal and India; 1999-2000 for Estonia, Finland and Hungary; 2000 for South Africa; 2000-1 for Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom; 2001 for Denmark; 2001-2 for Germany; 2002-3 for Italy and Spain; 2003-4 for Poland; 2005 for Belgium, Canada and Ireland; 2006 for Japan and Turkey; 2008 for United States; 2008-9 for Austria; and 2009 for Korea. Data have been normalized to 1,440 minutes per day: in other words, for those countries for which the time use did not add up to 1,440 minutes, the missing or extra minutes (around 30 to 40 minutes usually) were equally distributed/subtracted across all activities. Employed refers to full-time employed except for Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Turkey and South Africa, for which they refer to all employed (e.g, part-time employed are included). Data refer to people 15 or older, except for Austria, where no limit of age is defined, and for Hungary (people ages 15 to 74 are considered).
According to organization’s time use data, the average commuting time in the United States is about 28 minutes (similar to a separate measure from the United States Census Bureau). That is 10 minutes shorter than the average commuting time for all member countries, of 38 minutes, and longer than the time spent traveling to work in only three rich countries (Israel, Denmark and Sweden).
The O.E.C.D. member country with the longest average commuting time is South Africa, where the typical time spent traveling to work is 56 minutes.
To the extent that public policy is intended to enhance not only economic growth but also total happiness, these figures are important. A study from Alan Krueger, Daniel Kahneman and others found that commuting to work was the daily activity that gave the least enjoyment.
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