Social Explorer offers a rich set of transportation-related datasets to get your analyses where you need to go. Examine local phenomena, discover nationwide trends, compare communities and more with Social Explorer. Combine datasets from across Social Explorer’s data library offerings for more sophisticated analysis and insights. Hop in and analyze transportation, traffic safety, vehicle ownership, commuting dynamics, mass transit, freight industry, congestion, environmental impacts, and more!
American Community Survey Transportation and Commuting Data in Social Explorer:
The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey tracks several transportation-related characteristics and trends across the nation. Social Explorer has all American Community Survey data years available for easy exploration and comparison. Detailed data about the means of transportation to work allow users to analyze commute times, vehicle availability, comparisons across occupations and more.
For example, comparing the 2019 ACS and 2024 ACS reveals changes in commuting methods during the pandemic era. Nationally, public transportation ridership was 5.0% in 2019 and dropped to 3.2% in 2024 as more employees shifted to other means of transportation or to remote work (up 9.9% to 15.1% nationally). A closeup on cities shows more pronounced changes in terms of both public transit decreases and work from home increases. Explore public transportation patterns around the country, such as the major East Coast cities featured in these side-by-side maps:
Across the country, vehicles continue to dominate how we get around. The ACS has extensive data on available vehicles broken down by a variety of household and work characteristics. Users can analyze such dimensions as zero-vehicle households, vehicle availability by tenure, vehicle availability by household size and number of workers. The following map shows zero-vehicle households across the nation at the census tract level, highlighting areas where public transit could be in higher demand.
Urban cores, particularly in the Northeast (New York City, Boston, Philadelphia) and Chicago, show the highest zero-vehicle rates, driven by dense transit networks that reduce the need for car ownership. Rural counties in the South and Southwest, including parts of Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta, also show elevated rates, often reflecting poverty rather than transit access. Additionally, Tribal lands in the Southwest (Navajo Nation and surrounding counties) stand out with notably high zero-vehicle shares. Social Explorer’s ACS and other data resources are available for further analysis about these communities and trends.
The ACS also has data on how much time people spend traveling to work. The percentage of workers commuting more than 60 minutes was 8% in 2009, and increased to 9.4% in 2019, but started to drop with the onset of the COVID pandemic. The latest ACS (2024 five-year) puts these super commuters at 8.6%. Counter to the national trend, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Mississippi super commuting increased since 2019. Explore the commute and community intelligence further with Social Explorer's vast ACS library, plus data on housing patterns, industry types and more.
Social Explorer’s Specialized Transportation Data and Sources:
Social Explorer’s transportation-related resources go far beyond the ACS and our library keeps growing to support planners, researchers, advocates, journalists, students, and the public. The Urban Mobility Report offers more details and insights into commutes. The Urban Mobility Report is an annual study produced by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute that quantifies traffic congestion trends across major U.S. urban areas, measuring key indicators such as travel delay, excess fuel consumption, congestion cost, and the Travel Time Index for commuters. Social Explorer has the Urban Mobility report from 1982 to 2024 (with rankings available from 2014 onward) for hundreds of urban areas around the nation. The report includes details about the impact of traffic on individuals, economies, and more. Quantify frustrated moments sitting in traffic with the “annual hours of delay” data, or see how expensive these delays can be with “congestion cost.” Commuters in the Los Angeles-Anaheim-Long Beach area experience some of the most grueling traffic with an annual congestion cost of $3,935 per commuter per year and 137 annual hours of delay per commuter (according to the 2024 Urban Mobility Report). The report also tracks travel time, truck traffic, greenhouse gas emissions, wasted fuel and more.
The Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) dataset adds insight to where all these commuters are coming from. Social Explorer has the LEHD from 2002 to 2023. The LEHD also lets you track the flows of commuters by comparing where people live and where they work. Commuter flow patterns reveal which locales draw employees from within their communities and which ones, like DC and New York, attract workers from elsewhere.
Add traffic safety data to your analysis with the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) dataset from the US Department of Transportation–a complete census of fatal traffic crashes on U.S. public roads. Social Explorer has FARS data from 1975–2023 down to the county level. This dataset includes detailed records of traffic-related deaths across the U.S., aligning with Vision Zero principles that prioritize safer road design, speed management, and community engagement. It aids local governments, planners, and researchers in identifying high-risk areas and crafting evidence-based strategies to improve traffic safety and achieve zero fatalities on roadways. FARS data includes detailed information about crashes (date and time, road type, light condition, weather condition, and infractions like speeding, alcohol or distraction). Further details include vehicle type, age and model year, fatalities by age group and sex, seatbelt use, and more. Zoom in on the map of traffic accidents to see how different counties compare.
Los Angeles County has the most traffic fatalities in 2023 (507 deaths). But when adjusted for population size, rural counties with high-speed roads and sparse services (long distances to trauma centers, fewer traffic controls) consistently show the highest rates.
Find a fleet of detailed data on urban transit systems in the US Department of Transportation’s National Transit Database (NTD). Social Explorer has the NTD dataset for multiple years from 2016 through 2024. Users can research and map transit agency ridership, asset details, funding, breakdowns and more.
Transportation-related data also features in our unique updated EJSCREEN Environmental Justice dataset and indices all the way down to the block group level. The Traffic Proximity score captures how close a community is to high-traffic roadways and how much vehicle traffic passes nearby. It is used as an environmental burden indicator in EJSCREEN since traffic volume is a primary driver of diesel particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, and other vehicle-related pollutants. (Related to heavy traffic exposure, EJSCREEN also tracks Particulate Matter and Nitrogen Dioxide.)
Learn more about the freight industry from the Freight Analysis Framework (FAF), produced by Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). This dataset covers freight movement across the United States by commodity, mode of transport, weight, value, and distance. Social Explorer’s data library has selected years of the FAF available from 1997 to 2012 and all years from 2018 to 2024. With FAF, users can rank states by total freight shipped or received (by value, weight, or ton-miles), compare modes of transport (truck, rail, or water), map freight flows, identify freight hubs and more.
An analysis of Social Explorer’s FAF data reveals the top states driving the sector. Texas leads by a wide margin at over $3.3 trillion in freight value shipped — driven by its massive energy sector, manufacturing base, and central position in North American trade corridors. California is second at $2.9 trillion, reflecting its role as the nation's largest economy and its dominance in Pacific trade, agriculture, and technology goods. Illinois ranks third at $1.4 trillion, largely due to Chicago's status as the nation's premier freight rail hub and its central logistics position. These top three states represent 39.5% of all freight value shipped in the nation.
Analyze Truckloads of Transportation Data with Social Explorer:
Social Explorer enables analysis across surveys and geographies all in one easy-to-use system. From the American Community Survey to specialized datasets, rev up your transportation-related community intelligence.
Subscribers can get started or sign up for a free Social Explorer account to try it out today.