I live in Atlanta, and yes, our transit system here is horrible. You have a north-south line and an east-west line for the train, which makes it impossible to use to go quite a few places. As far as buses go, there are too many different bus operators here that don't connect in the right places. I used the transit calculator on MARTA's website, and it said I could get to work in 3 and a half hours - one way - after all the different connections between one bus operator to another, etc. I have no intention of spending 7 hours commuting each day just to not have to drive.

What about those of us who do a mixture? I tend to walk in, bus home and drive now and again if I have to go to site out of the city during the day...

54% (currently) say you drive to work? Thought yall are supposed to be tree huggers?

My office is in my apartment. Job site visits, however, require a car :-(

I would love riding my bike to work. Unfortunately, it would require riding through one of the most notorious ghettos in the South, if not all of the USA. Most days I have my computer, iPod, phone, and many other valuable items, including the bike. I would not last a week. I have even looked at the bus, but it would take 90 minutes to cover a 15 minute drive.

My employer is one of the largest in the city (4,000+), it seems there would be a more convenient way to get here than just by car. It does not help that it is surrounded by this ghetto. Although the direct area around my work is nice, there are no homes until you get to the bad parts. Moving would not help me.

I use a mix so I don't know how to answer. I bike 9 to 10 months out of the year. I drive most of the other two months though I take the bus as often as I can.

I wonder what it would be for London? we have a huge system to use and really congested roads, plus of course the congestion charge.
All of North America has design to blame for its transit problems. since after the war cities where designed to spreed people out and have the car as the main for of transport. this makes putting buses and trans in very difficult because there aren't as many high density areas to go to to pick everyone up. the only way to improve public transport and personal propulsion (walking, bike) is to make everyone live in higher density areas. the problem with this is that people don't want to do this and its also been shown to increase crime levels and lead to depression and lower life expectancy. the problem of the age is not to stop car use but to stop petrol car use!

Aaargghhh! Pressed 'walk' too quickly. Can you put me down for a shedworking 'other' please?

I live near Detroit, and was surprised at the high value of 2% that the Motor City got. One major thing that the study didn't account for was the penetration of non-bus public transportation. Here's my reasoning for why this is important: bus systems rely on the same roads that cars and trucks rely on (save for a very small handful of cities worldwide). Therefore, riding on a bus doesn't provide as much of a time-savings (especially when commuting through traffic) as riding the rails. Further, if the primary public transport is a bus system, there is less incentive to not own a car (especially if that system doesn't really provide good coverage throughout the city). However, if there is a dense non-bus public transport system (or a bus system operating on exclusive roadways), there is little reason to drive in order to live in your city.

Therefore, to return to Detroit - a city with a very limited non-bus transport system - I was surprised with the number of 2%. The only non-bus system in D-town is the People Mover - a one-way automated elevated tramway loop of only 2.9 miles through the downtown area - and with its limited service area, it's surprising that it has a reported 7,300 riders per day (quite possibly from parking garages).

Telecommute.

A couple of things... I, like other commenters, use a combination. The combination of my bike and mass transit (train or bus) is unbelievably efficient in 90% of cases.

You should also add carpool to the list. If you carpool with 4 people in, say, a Honda Civic (30mpg) you're getting 120 passenger-miles/gallon. That's pretty good in the grand scheme of things. Take a bus with 50 people on it and you're getting roughly 200 passenger-miles/gallon. (at 5mpg on the bus)

What I'm trying to get at is that carpooling is one way to decrease fuel usage drastically and can be nearly as good as public transit systems on the basis of passenger-miles/gallon which is the way transit companies calculate things anyway.

So, for those of you that voted "Drive" please do everything you can to begin carpooling with someone. If you find only one other person to carpool with, you will have immediately cut your fuel usage in half. That's way better than buying any hybrid or diesel car (which would still be a good option in addition to carpooling though)

I live in the deep south (West Central Louisiana) and there is no public transportation in my area. Biking is not a reasonable option because if it's not raining, it's humid like you wouldn't believe and the act would be more akin to swimming. Plus, I don't think my toddler would like the ride. It takes 30 minutes for me to drive to daycare in a car. I just do the best that I can for my situation.

I drive, though I try to carpool when possible, usually 2 days days a week. I live in Minneapolis and work in Plymouth, and suburb about 11 miles west. My options are:
1. Move to the burbs - Pedestrian unfriendly, where no amenities are walkable. If I cared at all about purchasing local/organic food and goods etc, I'd have to drive back into the city. But at least I can walk/bike to work.
2. Take the bus - From my house, it would involve 3 transfers and take over an hour each way.
3. Bike - I'm considering this, but it would likely take me an hour and half in each direction, and would include crossing over at least 3 major highways.
4. Get a closer job - I'm looking, but I'm lucky to have this one, and the market sucks.

What do you guys think, what's the most viable option? To add another element in the mix, my wife works in Bloomington, which is directly South of Minneapolis.

I carpool 90% of the time, drive by myself 9% and bike 1% (more for fitness than the environment because it is a 20-mile trip).

I drive every day and I hate it. My wife's and my worksites are 50 miles apart (we live in DFW) so we split the difference with where we live. I carpool with a co-worker 2-3 days per week and my wife and I both drive Hondas, but it still is horible.

We are planning on moving close to my work and my wife getting a new job. If we can move w/ in 5 miles of my office, I'll bike to work. Or, if we position ourselves correctly, DART might be a possibility.

(Typing this comment - I feel like I'm in confession!)

"Other" refers to work a t home for me but I drive on the rare occasion for work related errands.

Wish I could walk to work. Wish I could bike to work. Wish I could take the train to work. But I do love the carpool.

Those numbers are for entire metropolitan areas. Something over 80% of folks who work in lower & midtown Manhattan take transit/don't drive. In downtown Boston it's over 60% on transit.

Lots of folks have jobs where there's no other way to get there except by car, they live too far away, etc. Takes time for this to change.

work from bedroom. very short commute.

Adam W I hear ya. My wife and I work in oppisite directions. We both have great jobs that we had before we met. From where we live, shes 10 miles from work (suburb to suburb) and I'm 25 miles through Chicago. I don't work in the "loop" otherwise I would take the train but instead work south west a few miles. To get here it's drive or Metra train, walk to EL (stations in Chicago are not connected which is dumb), walk 10 min to work in a not so good neighborhood. 1hour 30 to 2 hours one way.

So I drive, usually 45min each way. I don't find it horrible except if it snows and turns the evening commute into a 2 hour plus trip. I see a Volt like vehicle in my future since the only alternative is leaving a job I love.

My Wife and I are in transition as we move. This means that we have a very long daily drive together. It's both hard on my eco-concious and my wallet.

Before that I was fortunate enough to have my old company change locations. At the new location employees had to pay for parking. The company gave employees a subsidy that could be applied to pay for part of the parking(it didn't cover the entire bill) or towards a bus pass. I thought this was great as it removed any excuse I had for not taking the bus.

Once we move I plan on riding my bike and taking the bus (free bus pass for state employees!).

Where's the telecommute / work from home option?

Some of us live in areas where public transportation is pitiful and walking/biking could get you killed just because drivers do not respect you. I have tried walking/biking/ making sense of our horrible transit system in the past. Walking was fine when I lived in the back yard of my university (though I nearly lost my life to people cutting through the parking lots at 50 mph), biking was just flat out scary because drivers in the south do not acknowledge your presence and will actually run you over or off the road ( same experience happened with a Vespa). Finally, if you live on the university bus line then public transport is the way to go. Now that I live 5 mins down the road from the university in a house I have to use the city line to connect to the university line. Lets just say the city line takes you into some places one would rather not go given the choice. So I have no choice but to drive in, park in the middle of HUGE parking lot (30,000+students) and then high tail it to my classes. Would I rather walk, yes. Will this city ever build proper sidewalks and intersection cross walks? Probably not. Once again, leave it to the south to be the slow one of the group.

I'm in Los Angeles County. So my transit options generally suck.

When/if the LACMTA builds the Foothill expansion to the Gold Line (at least as far as Claremont) then I will ride light rail (using a bike to/from the station) but I don't expect that to happen for another 10 years.

Until then I have to drive. (Or spend 2.5 hours each way using multiple buses from two different transit agencies, which is a crappy way to go 25 miles.)