Archives

Search Archives
In the Spotlight

Transforming Secondary Education: New $100 million initiative to improve education quality across the nation.
Learn More »

Recent Spotlights »

View all Archives - Environment and Development »

The American Energy Consumer







Table 5-21.Characteristics of the Commute to Work, by Income, 1973 (percent of employed household heads)
Means, miles, and minutes to work Poor Lower middle Upper middle Well off
All employed household heads 100 100 100 100
Means of transportation
Car 84 87 89 91
Alone 70 74 71 75
With others 13 13 16 15
Public transit 8 7 9 8
Walk or bicycle 10 6 5 1
Miles to work
Less than 10 63 61 59 48
10 to 19 15 23 22 32
20 or more 22 17 20 20
Minutes to work
Less than 16 54 49 50 46
16-30 27 34 31 32
31 or more 19 17 19 22
Source: Washington Center for Metropolitan Studies' Lifestyles and Energy Surveys.

closer to work so that less energy is needed to get there, whatever the means of transportation used.

The main reason why employed heads of household (whatever their income) use cars to go to work is because they report no other choice. Over 70 percent of all employed household heads commuting by car say public transit is not readily available either at home, at work, or both.

Footnotes
Footnote :

a Less than 0.5 percent.

Footnote :

b For all cars owned 12 months or more and for which mileage was reported.

Footnote :

a Does not add because some heads took a trip on more than one mode of transportation.

Footnote :

b One hundred miles or more one way.

Footnote :

a Results subject to substantial variation because of the small number of interviews in the group.

Footnote :

b Not reported because the number of interviews is too small for statistical stability.

Footnote :

a Excludes no answers. May not add due to rounding and because some people use more than one means of transportation.

LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL

Poor heads of households are much less likely than others to have taken any long distance trips during the previous year. This is true for all modes of travel taken together and for the two most common and most energy intensive means of travel—the airplane and the automobile. Poor heads of households are slightly more likely than others to have chosen to take a long trip by bus or train, the most energy conserving modes of travel (Table 5-19).

In long distance travel, as well as other activities discussed in this chapter, the poor use less energy. Their conservation is probably not voluntary. If low cost travel were more available, it seems likely that the poor, like the better off, might choose to spend a vacation away from home, to visit an ailing relative, or to enjoy a holiday with distant friends.