Every year, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute issues a report documenting the price of road congestion on American roads. This 2025 report is notable for Minnesota commuters because it documented that the “average Twin Cities car commuter now spends a record 73 hours a year stuck in traffic.”
This is an increase after a COVID-pandemic drop in commuters on the road.
To further illustrate what a waste of time and resources Minnesota’s lack of road investment is for commuters, think about this: In 73 hours, “you could drive from Minneapolis to Los Angeles and back in that amount of time – with almost a day to spare.”
Instead, Minnesota commuters spend that time stopped in rush hour traffic while watching empty light rail cars pass by.
And while we’re discussing where best to target limited government transportation funding, (more transit vs. roads vs. more bicycle-dedicated lanes) consider this from Randall O’Toole’s transportation newsletter:
“For nearly a decade, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies (CTS) has published annual “Access to Destinations” reports, using data from the 50 largest U.S. metro areas. Their individual tables focus on the extent to which a given mode (auto, bike, transit) enables users to reach a fraction of available jobs within a given time period. I have not been able to find a CTS table that directly compares access to jobs by auto, bicycle, and transit.
“My Reason Foundation colleague Marc Scribner crunched the numbers from CTS’s 2023 data to enable direct comparisons between modes.”
“For all 50 metro areas, the average results for jobs reachable within 30 minutes are:
- cars 42.2%
- bikes 2.1%
- and transit 0.9%
In 50 minutes:
- cars reach 84% of jobs
- bikes reach 5.4%
- transit 4.5%
The same general pattern prevails in the large majority of the 50 metro areas.
For example, Kansas City residents can reach:
- 60% of jobs by car in 30 minutes
- 1.7% of jobs via bike
- 0.5% via transit
In Minneapolis, the comparable numbers for 30 minutes are:
- 49% via car in 30 minutes
- 2% by bike
- 0.8% by transit
And within 50 minutes in Minneapolis, it’s:
- 87% of jobs by car
- 5.2% by bike
- 3.9% by transit
The good news for cyclists is that in the large majority of metro areas, biking beats transit for access to jobs. However, bikes are in a distant second place after cars.”