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454 HELICOPTER AIR SERVICE PROGRAM Size of Commutation Market In 1960 there was a total of 10,060,000 workers in all US metropolitan areas who commuted across city or metropolitan area limits out of a total of 39,420,000 workers. (Table IV-1.) Of the commuters, 63.2 per cent commuted into the central city from other parts of the metropolitan area, and 10.9 per cent commuted from outside the area into the metropolitan area. The remaining 25.9 per cent were "reverse" commuters, workers who lived in the central city and worked in other parts of the metropolitan areas. As might be expected, the large metropolitan areas provided the bulk of the commuters. Areas of over 1,000,000 in size accounted for 52.4 per cent of all commuters and areas from 500,000 to 1,000,000 accounted for an additional 18.4 per cent. The relationship between commuters into the central city and total workers in the metropolitan areas does not seem to vary much with population size except in the under-100,000 group where only 6.9 per cent of workers commute into the central city. The "reverse commuters" have been growing in size over the decades and in 1960 accounted for 6.6 per cent of total metropolitan area workers as well as over 25 per cent of all commuters. This statistic indicates the growing importance of the suburb as an employment center whose pull reaches into the central city itself. it would appear, however, that this group probably does not represent much, if any, potential for air service because it would have the problem of getting from the suburban landing site to widely scattered job sites. This would not be a problem with the suburban dweller who would probably drive to the heliport to be deposited in a highly concentrated job area downtown where he could either walk or take a short trip on a bus or subway to work. The city dweller arriving at a heliport would not have the benefits of this mass transportation for the final leg of his journey. Length of Commutation Trip There are no US Census data for length of commutation trips in US metropolitan areas which would be comparable to the 1960 Census data shown in Table IV-1. Therefore, it is impossible to tell how far all US metropolitan-area workers commuted to work or to define precisely the number which might represent a potential for vertical-lift aircraft. In order to estimate the percentage of total commuters who travel over distances representing possible applications of vertical-lift aircraft, it is necessary to rely on special local transportation studies which have been conducted in certain of our large metropolitan areas. One of these is a recent study, Journey to Work, conducted by the New York-New Jersey Transportation Agency. This study disclosed that 18.7 per cent of all Mid-Manhattan worked lived outside of New York City. Of these suburbanites, 82 per cent journeyed an average straight-line distance of 9.3 miles each way. The remaining 18 per cent averaged 35.4 miles. The average for all suburban commuters was 14 miles. In Chicago only 7 per cent of those who use mass transportation into the central business district come from distances more than 16 miles from the Loop. Only 2.5 per cent journey an average of 24 miles\1. In Kansas City 93.4 per cent of all commuters spend less than 30 minutes traveling to work. Data for St. Louis are roughly the same. In converting these travel times into speed, one sees that only 5 per cent of these commuters are traveling more than 5 miles, and of these 5 per cent, about one half commute 18 miles or more. [---] \1 Chicago Area Transportation Study, State of Illinois, County of Cook, City of Chicago in cooperation with US Department of Commerce, 1959-62. IV-3
