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Do you clean houses or buildings for a living? Then you’re most likely to take the bus to work. Are you a teacher? You’re probably driving. Wait tables? Odds are good you get to work by Metro. Study the economy? Congratulations—-you have the one job that makes you most likely to walk to work.
These aren’t just random correlations. They have a lot to do with the wages of these jobs, and where they’re located. Only low-wage professions have a high rate of bus commuting among D.C. residents. Likewise, most people in high-wage jobs drive to work. It’s in the middle where people are likeliest to commute by Metro.
Economists are the likeliest group to work in the District—-89 percent of those living in D.C. do—-and so it’s no coincidence that they’re also the only profession that gets to work by foot more often than by any other mode. A higher percentage of doctors and surgeons, by contrast, work in the suburbs than any other profession, and they’re also the likeliest to drive to work (81 percent of them do—-not surprising given that they often need to sprint to work on a moment’s notice).
Meanwhile, writers and authors are the only group that’s most likely to work from home, because we’re a bunch of antisocial misfits.
Here, courtesy of the District, Measured blog from the D.C. Office of Revenue Analysis, is the full breakdown:
This post has been updated to clarify that it refers to residents of D.C. proper, not the region.
Photo via Shutterstock; chart via District, Measured