OK, forget Halloween for a second. You want to know what’s scary in Seattle these days? Try on this new report about how long and stressful the daily commute is for a lot of people.
The staffing firm Robert Half revealed the results of its latest survey of workers in 27 major U.S. cities and found that Seattle ranks No. 6 in terms of average daily commute. Workers spend an average of 54.22 minutes commuting to and from work in Seattle each day. That’s about five minutes higher than the national average of 49.1 minutes.
Washington, D.C. — one of the more vocal cities when it comes to trying to attract more people in the form of Amazon’s second headquarters — is the worst place on the list in terms of drive time at 60.42 minutes. San Francisco (59.20), Chicago (58.50), New York (57.92) and Dallas (54.95) complete the top five.
Average round-trip commute times:
A long commute isn’t necessarily the most stressful commute, the survey reveals. Four different cities take over the top rankings in this category, with Los Angeles leading the way, followed by Miami, Austin, Phoenix and San Francisco.
Seattle falls to 17th in the stress ranking. Something about not actually moving on Mercer Street can be very calming, apparently. Or, perhaps, that view of Mount Rainier from the SR 520 bridge is enough to make the long drive home all so zen.
Robert Half commissioned an independent research firm to collect the data from more than 2,700 workers in 27 U.S. markets. The survey was conducted in September.
They should totally come back to Seattle in November (or any of the next six months after that) when it’s really raining to see how those numbers hold up.
And check out the Robert Half site for recommendations on how to offer some solutions to workers who view commute times as a top concern.
