Bay Area Commuting Key Statistics and Facts for 2023

Commuting is a big part of life in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here are some key stats about Bay Area commuting in 2023:

• About 2/3 of Bay Area workers work in the county they live in​¹​.
• 3% of all workers commute into the Bay Area from outside the region​¹​.
• 88% of Santa Clara County’s employed residents work in the county​¹​.
• 59% of San Mateo County employed residents commute to jobs in the county, which is the lowest in the region​¹​.
• Four times as many workers commute into the region compared to the number who commute out each day​¹​.
• San Francisco and Silicon Valley import workers from other communities, primarily in the East Bay​¹​.
• San Francisco pulls in a net 150,000 commuters daily, and Santa Clara County brings in a net inflow of nearly 100,000 workers each day​¹​.
• The number of people working from home tripled between 2019 and 2021, from 5.7% to 17.9% of workers, or roughly 9 million to 27.6 million people. In the Bay Area, about 35% of its workforce primarily worked from home​²​.
• Commute times in the Bay Area have shortened the most in the country since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with an average of 6.4 minutes shaved off their daily travel time in 2021 compared to 2019​²​.

Statistics about the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system include:

• BART covers a total of 131.4 miles​³​.
• There are 50 stations in the BART system, which include 19 surface, 15 elevated, and 16 subway stations​³​.
• BART has a total of 669 legacy revenue vehicles with a seating capacity of 72 in both the Rohr-built A- and B-Cars, and 64 in C-Cars and C2-Cars. Additionally, BART has 8 DMU train cars each with a seating capacity of 104​³​.
• The maximum speed of BART trains is 70 mph with an average speed of 35 mph, including 20-second station stops​³​.
• Bart is on time 82.5% of the time.

Good luck on your next Bay Area commute!