New Yorkers Have Longest Commute in the U.S.

Workers in the five boroughs spend an average of 48 minutes en route

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Carlo Allegri / Reuters

Start up you iPods and Kindles, New Yorkers. It’s going to be a long trip. According the Partnership for New York City, the average New Yorker travels for 48 minutes to get to work — 13 minutes above the national average. Altogether, New Yorkers spend nearly two hours getting to and from their jobs.

Most commuters in New York City are making their way to Manhattan. Of the 1.5 million workers who commute there each day, 364,000 live in other states, the report said. And many of those who live in New York proper often can’t even rely on public transportation to get them to work: more than half of commuters between Brooklyn and Queens have to drive to work because of limited public transit options.

The report made a number of suggestions on ways the city could improve commute time, such as continuing to invest in the work on the Second Avenue subway line — a project that’s been in development for nine decades now. (Despite delays, the president of the M.T.A., Michael Horodniceanu, said recently that the project is now underway, on time and under budget. New Yorkers remain dubious.) The report also recommended improving bus service between Brooklyn and Queens and expanding the Staten Island Ferry Service to the South Shore.