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It has been my observation that a lot of young, unmarried people want to live in urban neighborhoods, but the companies they work for are located in the suburbs because of the greater land availability and lower property costs. When I lived in Chicago (despite it being known as a very "centralized" city) and also here in Seattle, I saw traffic on the highways leading out of downtown in morning rush hour hitting levels approaching the traffic into downtown, and I can only imagine this trend will continue.
Is there any data on the relative frequency of traditional vs. reverse commutes? What have your experiences been?
Over my working life so far, I have had the following commutes:
- Within the inner suburbs
- Within the inner suburbs
- Inner suburb to outer suburb
- Within the outer suburbs
- Inner city to outer suburb
- Inner city to inner suburb (now)
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Yes, with Microsoft on the Eastside the reverse has almost matched the traditional Seattle commute, now Amazon is moving thousands to Bellevue. There are also commutes from
South County to Issaquah (Siemens, Costco and others), and reverse with people going from Sammamish and Issaquah to Boeing Renton, Kent and Auburn.
In Chicago, the Edens, going north in the morning, is usually more backed up than into the city. Fortunately, reverse commute express trains have been added to the schedule. https://metrarail.com/about-metra/ne...begins-march-4
I think that to see a really big reverse commute you'd have to have two things: several desirable neighborhoods in the city itself where people really want to live, plus a lot of business/office activity in the "edge" cities.
So I'd guess that perhaps Washington DC has big reverse commutes, Chicago and Seattle (as noted), perhaps Boston and Atlanta, and maybe one day Detroit, where there is a lot of suburban economic activity but relatively few prime neighborhoods in the city itself.
I always felt like teleworking should be much more of a thing in a reverse commute - if the work can be done remotely - than a traditional one, especially if your client base and network outside of your immediate office isn't easily accessible like it is in a CBD. I did a reverse commute for a job once and wasn't fond of it, as I wasn't sure why I was paying to rent near the CBD in a nice area but had to wake up early to train to the suburbs M-F.
Here in Greater Vancouver BC, there is an express train that runs to the far edges of the outer metro limits, but it only services times that fit the normal commuter profile - from the edge suburbs to CBD between 6AM - 9AM, and CBD to edge suburbs between 3PM-7PM (IIRC, rough times). I live near the CBD and once had a reasonably lucrative job offer out there, but just didn't want to make the 1.5 hour drive and the train does not work in that direction so had to turn it down for commuting reasons.
Kind of a tangible example of how a reverse commute was absolutely not supported by transportation infrastructure.
I always felt like teleworking should be much more of a thing in a reverse commute - if the work can be done remotely - than a traditional one, especially if your client base and network outside of your immediate office isn't easily accessible like it is in a CBD. I did a reverse commute for a job once and wasn't fond of it, as I wasn't sure why I was paying to rent near the CBD in a nice area but had to wake up early to train to the suburbs M-F.
Here in Greater Vancouver BC, there is an express train that runs to the far edges of the outer metro limits, but it only services times that fit the normal commuter profile - from the edge suburbs to CBD between 6AM - 9AM, and CBD to edge suburbs between 3PM-7PM (IIRC, rough times). I live near the CBD and once had a reasonably lucrative job offer out there, but just didn't want to make the 1.5 hour drive and the train does not work in that direction so had to turn it down for commuting reasons.
Kind of a tangible example of how a reverse commute was absolutely not supported by transportation infrastructure.
Your transit system is really screwed up. Check the schedules of commuter trains across North America. They may have 8 trains going in and only one going out, but they almost always have some "reverse commute" service. Time to write a few letters to the Board, the Media and local politicians. The transit board isn't composed of Center City office landlords, is it?
If a reverse commute is the most common commute, it's no longer a reverse commute. And no I don't think city to suburb commutes have become more common than the suburb to city commute. They've just gone from being exceedingly rare to something that some people do.
1.) Outlying city neighborhood to outlying city neighborhood (by subway/trolley) 35-40 minutes
2.) Outlying city neighborhood to inner-ring suburb (by car) 30-35 minutes
3.) Outlying city neighborhood to central business district (by subway) 30 minutes
4.) Outlying city neighborhood to outlying city neighborhood (by subway) 55 minutes
I can't imagine someone paying Manhattan housing costs only to go off to work in Perth Amboy or Stamford or something, but outlying city neighbourhoods to inner suburbs seems more reasonable. That kind of stuff definitely happens in Toronto too. I don't think there's much commuting from downtown Toronto to the suburbs though. The highways going out of the city might be congested, but maybe some of that is just people from the east side going to the west side and passing through downtown on the way, as well as freight traffic, taxis/ubers and other non commuter traffic. Not to mention that around 80% of people commuting into downtown take transit, so even if there's almost as many driving in as driving out in the morning, looking at drivers is only a small part of the picture, and the trains headed back to the suburbs are almost completely empty.
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