Who Super-Commutes in the Largest Western US Metros? A Latent Class Analysis of the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles

Commute distances and durations have been increasing in the US, as have very long “super-commutes,” with the latter garnering significant popular attention and speculation about who super-commutes and why. We examined this question for the San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles, which combined are home to one in 13 US residents. We used latent class analysis of census commuter data to categorize four types of super-commuters. We found these groups to be both collectively heterogeneous and mostly distinct. These findings suggest that the circumstances motivating super-commuting are both myriad and regionally specific.