How New Yorkers Get to Work

Bicycle commuting has risen 59% in a decade, while public transit’s recovery remains incomplete and working from home keeps the commuting population below pre-pandemic levels.

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New York’s commuting patterns have changed considerably over the past decade. Bicycle commuting has expanded, public transit is recovering from its pandemic decline, and working from home remains far more common than it was in 2019. Beneath those citywide trends, the five boroughs have sharply different transportation profiles.

An analysis of American Community Survey data from 2014 through 2024 shows that public transit remains NYC’s leading way of getting to work. But the most consequential change since the pandemic concerns how many workers make a commute at all.

The Worker Population Has Recovered. The Commuting Population Has Not.

NYC was home to approximately 4.07 million workers in 2024, roughly unchanged from 4.05 million in 2019. However, the number commuting outside the home remained substantially lower. Approximately 3.56 million residents commuted in 2024, compared with 3.86 million in 2019. That represents a decline of 7.8%, or roughly 303,000 workers.

The difference illustrates why a recovering worker population does not automatically restore commuting demand. NYC can have approximately as many working residents as it did before the pandemic while fewer of them reported commuting outside the home. That distinction provides essential context for understanding the recovery in public transit commuting.

Bicycle Commuting Has Increased 59% in a Decade

Approximately 69,400 NYC residents identified a bicycle as their primary means of getting to work in 2024, up from 43,600 in 2014. That represents a 59.2% increase over ten years. Bicycles’ share of all workers increased from 1.1% to 1.7%. Among workers commuting outside the home, the 2024 share was approximately 2.0%.

The longer-run increase has been substantial, although annual estimates have fluctuated. Bicycle commuting remained a relatively small part of NYC’s overall transportation mix in 2024, even after a decade of growth. These estimates also capture primary bicycle commuting, rather than occasional cycling, recreational trips, or every bicycle leg of a journey involving multiple transportation modes.

Public Transit Is Recovering, With a Substantial Gap Remaining

The estimated number of NYC residents primarily commuting by public transit increased from approximately 1.35 million in 2021 to 1.98 million in 2024—a gain of 46.0%. Transit’s share of all workers rose from 36.5% to 48.6% over that period. The subway remained the largest individual commute mode in 2024, accounting for 37.3% of workers.

Despite that recovery, the estimated number of transit commuters remained 12.2% below its 2019 level. Public transit accounted for 55.6% of all workers before the pandemic, approximately 7.0 percentage points above its 2024 share. The recovery has therefore been substantial but incomplete. Transit continues to anchor NYC’s commuting system, even as the number of residents primarily using it remains below its pre-pandemic level.

Car Commuting Has Held Up Better Than Transit

Cars, trucks, and vans accounted for 25.2% of NYC workers’ primary commute arrangements in 2024, compared with 26.3% in 2019 and 26.8% in 2014.

The estimated number of car commuters declined 3.7% between 2019 and 2024, considerably less than the 12.2% decline among transit commuters. Among workers commuting outside the home, cars’ share increased from 27.6% to 28.8%.

This relative stability may reflect differences in workplace destinations, transit access, work schedules, and the ability to work remotely. However, commute-mode data alone cannot establish that car commuters require a vehicle to perform their jobs. The category also includes passengers.

What the estimates demonstrate is that car commuting has been more resilient than transit commuting since 2019, despite the broader reduction in residents traveling to work.

The Boroughs Have Very Different Commuting Patterns

Car commuting accounted for 63.3% of Staten Island workers in 2024, compared with just 6.4% in Manhattan. It was therefore approximately ten times as common among Staten Island’s working residents.

Manhattan’s transportation profile was distinctive in another respect: 18.3% of workers walked to work, nearly three times the share commuting by car.

Queens occupied a different position. Cars accounted for 35.2% of workers, narrowly exceeding the subway’s 33.7%. However, public transit modes combined accounted for 45.7%, still exceeding car commuting.

The subway led among individual transportation modes in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Buses were especially prominent in the Bronx, accounting for 18.1% of workers, compared with 7.1% in Brooklyn. These differences show how much a citywide average can obscure. NYC residents face substantially different commuting options depending on where they live.

Manhattan and Brooklyn Account for Nearly Four in Five Bicycle Commuters

Manhattan and Brooklyn together accounted for 78.3% of NYC bicycle commuters in 2024, despite representing approximately 53% of the city’s working residents.

Manhattan had the highest bicycle-commuting share, at 3.0%, followed by Brooklyn at 2.2%. Together, the boroughs accounted for approximately 54,300 bicycle commuters.

Bicycles represented 1.1% of workers in Queens and 0.5% in the Bronx. Staten Island’s estimated share was smaller, although its bicycle sample was too limited to support a firm interpretation of annual changes. Bicycle commuting is therefore concentrated geographically. Its contribution to everyday commuting remains substantially larger in Manhattan and Brooklyn than elsewhere in NYC.

Working From Home Has Retreated From Its Peak but Remains Elevated

Working from home accounted for 12.5% of NYC workers in 2024, down from 24.0% in 2021. It nevertheless remained approximately 2.7 times as prevalent as in 2019, when its share was 4.7%.

That increase helps explain transit’s lower share of all workers, but it does not explain the entire decline. Among residents commuting outside the home, transit’s share fell from 58.3% in 2019 to 55.5% in 2024.

Holding the 2019 commuter mode mix constant, the larger work-from-home share would explain approximately 4.6 percentage points of transit’s 7.0-point decline. The remaining approximately 2.4 points reflect the changed transportation mix among commuters. This decomposition does not track individual workers switching between modes.

The remaining transit gap reflects both fewer workers leaving home for work and a lower transit share among those who do.

The Last Stop

New York’s worker population has recovered, but fewer residents are commuting than before the pandemic. Public transit remains the leading way of getting to work and has regained substantial ground, while elevated work-from-home levels continue to limit the commuting population. Car commuting has held comparatively steady, and bicycle commuting has increased 59% over the past decade, although it remains a small share overall. The borough differences are substantial: Staten Island is predominantly car-oriented, Manhattan stands out for walking, and Manhattan and Brooklyn account for nearly four in five bicycle commuters. Employment recovery alone has not restored New York’s pre-pandemic commuting patterns.

Methodology

Chandan Economics analysis of ACS 1-year microdata through IPUMS USA. Estimates are person-weighted and describe NYC residents age 16 or older who worked in the preceding week, regardless of workplace location. Unless otherwise specified, shares include workers at home. Public transit includes subway/elevated rail, bus, commuter/long-distance train, light rail/streetcar, and ferry, excluding taxis. Transportation categories identify respondents’ primary commute mode and do not measure all trip legs, transit ridership, bike-share trips, or every hybrid-work day. The charts include experimental 2020 ACS estimates for context; the Census Bureau advises against comparing them with standard annual estimates. Headline change calculations exclude 2020. Estimates are subject to sampling error; no margins of error or significance tests were calculated.