By Sara Kidd - GIS, Data, and Analytics Manager
Understanding where and how Hampton Roads workers commute to work is a crucial aspect of planning for the region. The new Commuting in Hampton Roads website provides interactive visualizations of commuting data to support planners, researchers, and policymakers who are working in transportation planning, economic/workforce development, and land use planning by offering valuable insights into the daily movement of workers throughout Hampton Roads.
This website visualizes the web of commuting flows between localities, the number of workers who commute outside of their home locality, mean travel times to work, transportation mode preferences, and number of vehicles available to workers. It also compares Hampton Roads to other large metropolitan areas of similar size (1-4 million in population). In fact, Hampton Roads is one of the most interconnected regions in the country with approximately 45% of workers commuting outside of their home locality.
The Commuting Flows page has maps and charts of the locality-to-locality commuting flows. These are based on data from a special American Community Survey (ACS) product by the US Census Bureau, last released in 2023. These data describe incoming and outgoing commuting for a locality and the number of workers that commute within the locality where they reside. The remaining four pages each highlight additional data describing aspects of commuting from the standard ACS product.
The commuting flows data is also summarized into a single table for reference and can be downloaded here as a document.
The website is best viewed on a desktop, but it is also available for mobile devices. Visit https://www.hrpdcva.gov/commuting to access Commuting in Hampton Roads in a new window.