A strong urban transport system is crucial for city efficiency, given the need for mobility in cities. This article uses Census of India (2011) data on transport to examine work-related commute among Indians at the state and city levels. At the state level, it finds a strong positive correlation between workforce participation rate and proportion of commuters. It also finds a strong positive correlation between the proportion who commute on foot and those who use bicycles. States characterised by extensive usage of public transport are the ones that account for a greater share of workforce participation. At the city level, the article finds that the smallest cities are most conducive for those who commute on foot or bicycles, whereas cars are preferred by commuters in high-income cities. In mid-sized cities, commuters tend to use two-wheelers. Commuters across all the selected cities walk for long distances spanning between 6 and 10 km. This indicates the need for further examination of public transport and infrastructure in these cities.

Given the conspicuous lack of adequate research on commute time in the Indian intra-urban context, the research questions we answer in this article are: what is the average commute time to work for residents? What does this imply for the city’s effective labour market? What are the determinants of commute time to work? This article studies the questions for a large Indian city, known for its traffic gridlocks. Given that published data on journey-to-work is not readily available for Indian cities, we report findings from primary surveys of commuters travelling to work in Bengaluru. The actual time taken by commuters to reach their workplace is 42.45 minutes one-way, implying an insignificant reduction in the city’s effective labour market since 2001. We use geographic information systems to map the sectoral flow of workers and their origins and destinations within the city. Estimating regressions of the determinants of commute time, we find that workers in government jobs travel longer to get to work, elevation has a negative effect on commute time, and commute distance positively impacts travel time. The contribution of the article is the report of an Indian city’s commute time and its determinants, which can be used to influence policy. JEL Classification: R12, R41, R42

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