Commute times indicate whether people using different modes of transportation can access jobs in a reasonable amount of time.

A third of commuters in our region using public transportation had a commute of an hour or more in 2017-21, compared to 3% of those who drove alone. By contrast, just 30% of those using transit got to work in less than 30 minutes compared to 75% of those who drove alone. The largest group with very short commutes (less than 10 minutes) was cyclists, walkers, motorcyclists and those using cabs or other means - 40% of whom got to work within 10 minutes. These trends were similar for the City of Rochester, individual counties, the state and nation.

The multiyear figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The bureau combined five years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results, especially in small geographic areas. CGR has noted on data tables the estimates with relatively large margins of error. Estimates with three asterisks have the largest margins, plus or minus 50% or more of the estimate. Two asterisks mean plus or minus 35%-50%, and one asterisk means plus or minus 20%-35%. For all estimates, the confidence level is 90%, meaning there is 90% probability the true value (if the whole population were surveyed) would be within the margin of error (or confidence interval). The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census. Data for this indicator are released annually in December.