NPR had coverage this morning of a new transportation report on American commuters. The study shows that the duration and direction of U.S. commuters has changed dramatically over the past decades in several ways. Says the report’s press release:
From 1990 to 2000, about 64 percent of the growth in commuting in metropolitan areas was from suburb to suburb, while the traditional commute from suburbs to a central city grew by only 14 percent. As more employers move out of cities to be closer to skilled suburban workers, the suburbs now account for the majority of job destinations.
The latest census data also show that, compared with previous decades, more Americans are leaving for work between 5 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., are commuting for longer time periods — between 60 and 90 minutes — and are leaving their home county to work in a nearby county.
This latter group of ”extreme commuters,” so named by the census bureau in 2003, has risen more than any other class of commuters. Now, eight percent of all Americans commute more than an hour each way.
What does this mean for cultural institutions? If your facility is in the downtown core, it means your potential audience has a longer drive home, and may not even be coming downtown anymore. If your facility is in the suburbs, your audience may be coming home tired and ready to cocoon. But if you’re creative about when and how you connect with an audience, there are lots of interesting ideas awaiting (podcast interviews with your artists for listening in the car, short and early commuter concerts to keep audiences downtown just long enough for the roads to clear, and on and on).
Either way, you’ll have lots of time to think about it on your long drive home.
…and eventually short videos about artists, exhibitions and cultural events to be viewed at home or work via the web.