Decatur Average Commute Time is 20-30 Minutes According to U.S. Census
Decatur Metro | April 25, 2016 | 2:30 pm
There are few things that make us more excited than transportation maps! And HERE’S an apt, good one.
The U.S. Census has mapped the self-reported commute times of respondents from its 2013 American Community survey. Above is a look at the Atlanta metro with a skew to the east side of the city.
Decatur averages between a 20-30 minute commute throughout all the census districts.
Downtown Atlanta, parts of Midtown and Buckhead have average commutes below 20 minutes. If you zoom in closer, you may also note that Druid Hills also registers an average commute below 20 minutes, likely due to the very close proximity to Emory.
In the Atlanta metro area, only Fulton and Clayton have average commute times below 30 minutes. (The whole of Clarke County, where Athens, GA and UGA is located, has an average community below 20 minutes.)
And just for kicks, above is the average Atlanta commute times way back in 1990. 🙂
Take a look and tell us what interesting trends you noticed!
Ok, this is not directly related, but — if you drove down Pinetree Dr yesterday in an effort to cut your commute time, you may be the person whose spare tire & wheel is lying in front of our house at 815 Pinetree. It appears to have fallen off someone’s vehicle.
Tomorrow is trash day, and I think the city will pick it up, so don’t delay.
This was in 2013. Traffic in and around Decatur has become much much much (etc.) worse. Does anyone in charge of the flow of traffic ever get out and drive around town between 4:30 and 6:00? Adding more people and reducing / reconfiguring the lanes on Commerce = nonsense.
I think the official city line is ” don’t drive anywhere, any more” and you will be fine.
Why drive around when you can sit at a desk and see the streets go red on Google maps?
Who needs a moat when a road diet will suffice.
At least drivers can now join old white men and Christians in their quest to show how those with the most power and command over the culture are somehow victims under siege. 😉
What they don’t say is that 20 of those minutes are spent waiting at stoplights in the city limits of Decatur itself
Am I missing something? The headlines says, “20 to 30 minutes” while the body says “30 to 40 minutes”? My experience is much closer to the second one during my regular commute, which is slightly later than peak periods to Buckhead (but can be 25 minutes). Coming back during peak commute from Buckhead can take 75 minutes.
Other than the @#$%^ traffic buildup at Scott and Clairemont that stretches down past Westchester Elementary, morning commute times have remained similar over the last 5 years for me. But the afternoon has become awful. What is a 20-30 minute drive in the morning becomes a 40-60 minute drive any time between 4:00 and 6:30 PM.
Lord I’ve gotten sloppy. Thanks.
From the colors on the “census tract” map, it looks like the original headline was right and the body text was off. Or maybe headline came from data by census tract and body text came from data by county?
Ha, you’re right. I’ve corrected myself even into more error. Well, that’s a first. Maybe. 😉
The median commute time would be more informative. The average could be skewed by people who work at home and therefore have no commute. Working remotely has become much more common in the past 26 years.
Medians and ranges are way underused IMHO. I’m not sure why medians scare folks so much. Maybe because you can’t calculate them on the simple calculators that come with most computer and phone operating systems?
I am pretty sure Census commute times only include commuters. That is, if you work at home, you aren’t included. Also, assuming this is all commuters, it will include mass transit, and since more folks in Decatur than many other places take MARTA, that will skew numbers higher, as transit commutes tend to take longer, especially because they include total commute time (including travel to and from the MARTA station).
I live on N Decatur and have to traverse both the intersection at Scott blvd and Clairemont. I work in Buckhead. Please send prayers and thoughts.
Would just like to remind everyone:
You are not stuck in traffic.
You ARE traffic.
What could CDC and Emory do to encourage folks who live close to walk or bike in to work? As two of the main employers in the area, perhaps they could work on encouraging active transportation, which has numerous individual- and community-level benefits.
They have for years, even running their own shuttle service and building apartments. But many Emory employees don’t live near work, and MARTA coverage for the Clifton corridor is poor. It’s bus only, and you can’t rely on buses at all during rush hours because of the traffic.
I think DeKalb voters will have opportunity to approve 1/2 cent sales tax to fund light rail from Lindbergh to Avondale. It will take a while but will give Emory/CDC commuters another option.
Interesting to see Avondale at 46 minutes – i wonder how many need to work their way through Decatur?
Also, it’s interesting that GA 400 expansion has extended an easy commute all the way through Forsyth, for those close to the highway.