Garder Quoted in AP Article on Maine Commuting Times
Per Garder, a civil engineering professor at the University of Maine, was quoted in an Associated Press article about commuting times in Maine’s largest metropolitan area. Workers in the Portland-South Portland area enjoy shorter commuting times than the national average despite the area’s status as an employment hub for the state, according to the article. Commuters in the area spent an average of 24.1 minutes getting to work in 2013, slightly less than the national average of 25.8 minutes, the article states. About three-fourths of Maine’s workforce commutes alone by car, and because Maine has few major employers and they aren’t concentrated in one city, many workers commute long distances every day. “We have seen the same trend as the rest of the U.S. — that people are moving out of the service centers and living not only in nearby suburban municipalities but even ex-urban places 30 minutes away or so,” Garder said. “Workplaces on the other hand seem to be concentrating to the traditional urban centers.” Fosters.com, Sun Journal and the Portland Press Herald carried the AP report.