Patterns of transportation usage impact environmental and transportation planning. These patterns may also reflect issues of poverty, location of employment, the availability and quality of public transit, local land use and environmental policies, or lifestyle choices of residents.

The majority (85%) of commuters in the region drove alone to work in 2017-21, followed by 9% who carpooled, 5% who biked, walked, or used other means, and 2% who used public transportation. These rates have held essentially the same since 2000. Rates of public transportation use in the region were lower than both the state and national levels.

Rates in Monroe County and surrounding counties were similar to the region. Rochester commuters had higher rates of carpooling (12%) and public transit use (7%) compared to the region.

The multi-year figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The bureau combined five years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results, especially in small geographic areas. CGR has noted on data tables the estimates with relatively large margins of error. Estimates with three asterisks have the largest margins, plus or minus 50% or more of the estimate. Two asterisks mean plus or minus 35%-50%, and one asterisk means plus or minus 20%-35%. For all estimates, the confidence level is 90%, meaning there is 90% probability the true value (if the whole population were surveyed) would be within the margin of error (or confidence interval).