Between 2001 and 2005, commuters were still experiencing the euphoria of low gas prices evidenced by their lone wolf commuting habits. More recently, a 25 percent hike in gas prices this spring, still hasn't caused consumers to say "ouch" yet, says a recent Federal Reserve Beige Book report which compiles economic data from the 12 federal banking districts. In fact, consumer spending was up in May. So maybe the U.S. Census Bureau's commuting numbers from over two years ago still have some relevancy.

The Census Bureau just released its American Community Survey for 2005 which has some interesting numbers on commuters. Mainly it shows that we're pretty egocentric, if not narcissistic, as a nation when it comes to spending the world's oil reserves. Between 2000 and 2005, gas prices doubled, but the number of people carpooling actually went down and the use of public transportation stayed flat.

The survey found that driving to work was the favored means of commute for nearly nine out of 10 workers (87.7 percent), with most people (77 percent) driving alone in their cars.

The use of public transportation barely rose -- a 0.1 percent over 2000 levels for the meager 4.7 percent of commuters who used public transportation to travel to work in 2005.

About half of the nation’s public transportation commuters are concentrated in 10 of the nation’s 50 cities with the most workers age 16 or over: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. These cities account for 2.9 million of the nation’s 6.2 million users of public transportation.

Beyond the total number of public transportation users, older cities such as New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. had relatively high rates of public transportation use. However, Los Angeles and Houston, with rates of 10.3 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively, had lower rates than many other smaller cities, including Minneapolis (12.5 percent); Oakland, Calif. (16.5 percent); Portland, Ore. (13.3 percent) and Seattle (17 percent).

"This is a prime example of the value of an ongoing survey such as the American Community Survey," said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon. "With each succeeding year, we’ll be able to see how people respond to changing circumstances, such as rising gas prices."

Which means the survey for 2006 should show some changes, or maybe not. Old habits die hard.

In 2006, gas prices shot up during the summer months and have see-sawed at decades-long highs since. Through March of 2007, with prices above $3 a gallon, research showed drivers exhibited little inclination to cut back on driving.

Some other commuter facts of interest for 2005 include:

• Approximately one in 10 of us (10.7 percent) car pool to work

• About three-fourths of car poolers (77.3 percent) ride with just one other person

• Large cities with some of the highest rates of car pooling include Fresno, Calif. (15.1 percent); Honolulu (15.6 percent); Mesa, Ariz. (16.7 percent); Phoenix (16.2 percent); and Sacramento, Calif., (15.7 percent)

• Portland, Ore., has the distinction among large cities as having the highest percentage of bicycle commuters. Approximately 3.5 percent of Portland’s workers pedal to work, about eight times the national average of 0.4 percent.

• The third most popular option was no commute at all. Approximately 3.6 percent of us worked from home in 2005. Large cities with high rates of home-based workers included Austin, Texas (5 percent); Colorado Springs, Colo. (4.9 percent); Portland, Ore. (5.3 percent); San Francisco (6.3 percent); and Seattle (5.1 percent).

• Boston had the highest percentage among large cities of employees who walk to work (13 percent). Nationally, 2.5 percent of us walked to work, the fourth most popular mode of transportation behind driving and using public transportation.

Published: June 18, 2007

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