Census: More Maryland and Virginia drivers commute to another county than other people in the U.S.

By Ashley Halsey III, Washington Post

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More than 51 percent of Virginians and 47 percent of Maryland residents drive to another county for work. Only New Jersey, whose workforce feeds into Philadelphia and New York, comes close.
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[B' Spokes: If we drive more just to do daily activities like work, is the metric "crashes per miles driven" an accurate comparison of how safe it is to drive in Maryland compared to elsewhere? MDOT would like you to think it is, I think it's a lot like saying a breakfast sandwich of one egg and one sausage is healthier then a breakfast of two eggs and two sausages so people in Maryland will typically have three breakfast sandwiches because they are healthier per unit eaten. That's to say it's not how you dived up the totals but what you normally do in a course of a day is the important information.] .
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/census-more-maryland-and-virginia-drivers-commute-to-another-county-than-other-people-in-the-us/2011/09/21/gIQAfA8cmK_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/census-more-maryland-and-virginia-drivers-commute-to-another-county-than-other-people-in-the-us/2011/09/21/gIQAfA8cmK_story.html</a>;

by B' Spokes

Like most people I live a hectic life and who has the time for much exercise? Thanks to xtracycle now I do. By using my bike for daily activities I can get things done and get an hour plus work out in 15 minutes extra of my time, not a bad deal and beats taking the extra time going to the gym. In case you are still having trouble being motivated; the National Center of Disease Control says that inactivity is the #2 killer in the United States just behind smoking. ( http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/bb_nutrition/ ) Get out there and start living life! I can carry home a full shopping cart of groceries, car pool two kids or just get lost in the great outdoors camping for a week. Well I got go, another outing this weekend.
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  • Census: More Maryland and Virginia drivers commute to another county than other people in the U.S.
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I think this has got to be based partly on how Maryland and Virginia define a "county".

Virginia has 39 cities that are independent of the county that surrounds them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Virginia). Many of these (e.g. Lexington, Buena Vista, Emporia, Galax) are small towns; one may live in Rockbridge County and commute to the "city" of Buena Vista, whereas an equivalent commute in most states (from a rural area to a nearby small town) would not involve crossing a county boundary. Larger cities (Roanoke, Charlottesville, Richmond) are also separated by a county boundary from their suburbs. Similarly, in Maryland, every commute in and out of Baltimore City crosses a county line.

In most states, cities lie in the same county as many of their suburbs. Fulton County, GA includes most of Atlanta as well as suburbs and exurbs; Cook County, IL contains Chicago and many suburbs; Essex County, NJ contains Newark and many suburbs; etc.
That may be true for Virginia but the last time I looked at the travel data for Maryland it really struck me how many who live in Frederic County work out of the county and how many who work in Frederic live out of the county. Something is seriously not right there. And with BRAC coming they are predicting a fair amount living in Harford County but working in Anne Arundel County. That's not going to be a fun commute. I still think there are things a miss in Maryland. It's hard for me to articulate what they are but I feel if we ever get up to having the average percentage of bike commuters those things that all people enjoy will be in place. The world may not revolve around cycling but we sure do act as indicators of what's right and wrong with place development.