A survey is showing that most people who can telecommute or work remotely are still doing so, despite many local businesses trying to recall workers to the office.
The results of the survey were published in the Commuter Connections’ 2022 State of the Commute Survey Report by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
The survey is taken every three years, which means the last survey was in 2019 before most people had even heard of COVID-19.
A few highlights:
- Two-thirds (66 percent) of survey participants reported teleworking at least occasionally, up from 35 percent in 2019.
- Drive alone commuting accounted for 41 percent of weekly commute trips—the lowest share of these trips recorded since the survey began.
- Driving alone continued to be the primary mode of transportation for those who are going into the office or workplace.
- Transit experienced a threefold decrease in weekly commute trips since the last survey, accounting for 8 percent of trips in 2022 versus 24 percent in 2019 with commuters citing pandemic-related health concerns with shared travel modes.
The full survey report presentation is available here.
This month in Alexandria, we're likely to see even fewer people taking public transit as work on the Blue line and Yellow Metro rail lines essentially cuts off Alexandria from the rest of the system. Workers are connecting the new Potomac Yard station to the rest of the system and starting tunnel repairs north of Alexandria.
