2025 Regional Commuter Survey

The 2025 Regional Commuter Survey (RCS) provides critical insights into how employed residents of the 20-county Atlanta region travel to work and how these patterns evolve over time.

Over 6,000 responses were collected, well above the target sample of 5,000, and results were analyzed and compared to previous iterations of the RCS, where possible.

Analyzed results can be found in three forms, all available below:

• The 2025 RCS Technical Report (pdf, 5MB)
• The 2025 RCS Summary Report (pdf, 9MB)
• The 2025 RCS Dashboard

Download the anonymized data and data dictionary (xlsx, 5.4MB) which is available for public use.

The key objectives of the RCS are to:

• Document current commute patterns, including mode shares, trip distances, and prevalence of hybrid and remote work;
• Assess awareness, perceptions, and the use of TDM programs, benefits, and services offered by ARC, local TMAs, and employers;
• Identify barriers to and motivating factors for alternative-mode use; and
• Provide statistically robust data to evaluate TDM program effectiveness and inform future planning, policy development, and marketing efforts.

2025 RCS Summary Results & Key Findings

Results from the 2025 RCS illustrate ongoing adjustments in post-pandemic commuting and a settling into a new normal marked by: continued reliance on single occupancy travel; increased hybrid and non-traditional work schedules; and, above all, the continuation of telework, both full-time and occasional, at an increased level compared to the pre-pandemic.

Overall, changes in the workforce’s commuting patterns have been driven by increased teleworking, both workers who do so exclusively as well as those who telework on certain days, especially Monday and Friday.

The decreased regularity of commuting has also coincided with decreased use of alternative commute modes, especially transit and carpool.

Telework levels decreased drastically from pandemic-era peaks when many workers were remote, and today most employees work primarily outside the home. However, a significant portion now incorporate telework into their weekly schedules.

Telework is Here to Stay

In 2019, only 43% of workers reported teleworking. In 2025, this share increased to 60%, a nearly 50% increase.

And there has been a dramatic increase in workers who telework full-time from home (or telework 5+ days a week), which has more than tripled since 2019, jumping from 6% to 20% in 2025. These workers do not commute. This illustrates that while working from home is not as prevalent as it was during the pandemic, it remains widespread among workers today.

Teleworking Peaks on Monday and Friday

A larger share of total weekly telework trips occur on Monday (22%) and Friday (30%) than on the mid-week workdays. The travel commute modes (drive alone, transit, shared ride, and walk/bike) all exhibit the opposite trend, peaking mid-week and having their lowest share fall on Monday and Friday.

Commuting is more prevalent mid-week, and because telework trips are mostly replacing drive alone trips, Mondays and Fridays should see less peak period congestion than the mid-week workdays due to fewer commuters and cars on the road.

Telework is Not Equally Accessible to All

Frontline workers in fields like education, skilled/manual labor, and health do not have the same access and ability to telework as those working in office jobs. While 74% of office workers who commute are able to telework, at least occasionally, only 32% of health workers who commute are able to do so, and in education and skilled/manual, that share is below 30%.

Similarly, a much larger share of commuters with an annual household income over $200K telework (73%) compared to their counterparts in lower income brackets, where the share of commuters who telework varies between 23% and 51%.

Fewer Commuters are Using Alternative Transportation as Their Primary Mode

A commuter’s primary mode is the one they use most frequently to get to and from work. The share of commuters using alternative transportation for their primary mode has declined from 2019 levels across all alternative travel modes, especially carpool and bus.

There has been a substantial increase in the share of commuters using telework as their primary mode, which doubled from 5.8% in 2019 to 11.9% in 2025, and drive alone also saw a small increase, from 79.7% to 81.6%.

Longer Commute Time and Lack of Access to Transit Are Barriers to Alternative Mode Use

Respondents identified a range of challenges that make it difficult to use alternative commute modes. The most frequently cited barrier was longer trip time (47%), followed closely by no transit available for the trip (44%). Other common barriers included preferring the current mode (39%), incompatible work hours (35%), and the need for a personal vehicle either before/after work (23%) or during the workday (19%).

Collectively, these results highlight the influence of travel time, service availability, and schedule flexibility on how commuters view the viability of any given commute mode.