Remote and hybrid work has altered our understanding of where and how we do our jobs — as well as what days of the week we decide to make a trip into the office.
A new survey released Thursday from the University of Washington’s Mobility Innovation Center and Commute Seattle reveals travel trends that have taken root three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data, collected last fall, is further evidence of the shift in habits that is impacting Seattle’s downtown core.
Among the findings:
- Seattle workers are more likely to physically commute to their workplace on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. In the Center City, 39% of people telework on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Monday and Friday, they are much more likely to telework with 57% of people teleworking on Friday.
- Center City commuters used public transit 46% of the time in 2019. The number dropped to 18% in 2021 and was up to 22% in 2022.
- Drive-alone commute trips to the Center City declined since 2019, from a rate of 26% during that year, to 25% in 2021, and 21% in 2022.
The Downtown Seattle Association estimates that 341,0000 people work downtown. Commute Seattle says one out of 10 people who work in the city took the survey. “Center City” refers to an area that stretches from South Lake Union and Uptown south to Pioneer Square and the International District and west to east from the waterfront to Capitol Hill.
The mid-week in-person trend is backed up by what small business owners are seeing and feeling around parts of downtown Seattle and South Lake Union, where Amazon, Google, Facebook and other large tech companies have offices.
“We’ve been pretty good Tuesday through Thursday, but Mondays and Fridays are hard,” Ellie Galus, a bar manager at Sam’s Tavern in South Lake Union, told GeekWire during a visit last month.
Amazon’s call to require corporate and tech workers back in the office at least three days a week was welcome news to restaurant owners, food truck operators and others who have been impacted by the lack of foot traffic since remote work took hold in 2020.
During DSA’s annual “State of Downtown” event this week, the organization’s president, Jon Scholes, said, “There’s a lot at stake,” in getting workers back to the office in the urban core. “We built a physical economy, not a virtual one. And it has fed this tax base that has been so important to the quality of life that we’ve created in this city.”
Scholes praised Amazon’s mandate to bring workers back, as did Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell in his “State of the City” address on Feb. 21.
Beyond days of the week and transit usage, the commute survey also looks further into other travel trends, such as how travel behavior is impacted by home location and housing type, as well as how income impacts travel options.
