Community Corner

Do You Carpool?: Find Out How Carpooling Varies by Neighborhood in Glen Ellyn, Wheaton Area

In 2011, there were 437,637 total commuters in DuPage County. Of those commuters, 33,985, or 7.8 percent, carpooled.

In an area of homes north and west of County Road 13 and High Lake Road in   Winfield, over 22.3 percent of commuters choose to carpool to work, according to a Crain's Chicago Business interactive map that looks at carpooling. 

This is far above the 11 percent average of carpoolers among the three million residents in the six-county Chicago area who drive to work, according to the Crain's interactive map, which was compiled from five-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau 2012 American Community Survey. 

Carpooling can vary greatly be neighborhood. As few as 1 percent of commuters carpool in a neighborhood northeast of N. Main Street and Roosevelt Road in Glen Ellyn while around 13 percent of commuters carpool in an area east and west of North Main Street and Front Street in Wheaton, according to the Crain's interactive map. 

In 2011, there were 437,637 total commuters in DuPage County, according to Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning data.

Of those commuters, 359,499, or 82 percent, drove alone to work; 33,985, or 7.8 percent, carpooled; and 30,394, or 6.9 percent, chose to take public transit, according to the CMAP data, which was pulled from the 2011 American Community Survey, five-year estimates.   

A Commute Options survey found the reasons commuters chose for driving alone included: 41 percent wanted more flexibility for running errands and emergencies; 40 percent found public transit inconvenient and 12 percent reported telework was impractical or unsupported, according to data compiled by the Metropolitan Planning Council and the January 2014 DuPage Energy Summit. 

See how carpooling varies by neighborhood throughout the Chicago suburbs on the Crain's website

How do you get to work each day? Do you carpool? Tell us why you have chosen to — or not to — in the comments section. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here