The report is accessible for download on airsage.com and provides the total number of people, by county, who commute to locations other than where they live. Commutes will include any predominant daytime location over the course of the month; such as work, school, volunteer organizations, etc. The predominant nighttime location is considered the home location.
According to AirSage, benefits of the report include:
- A large sample size. Although the questions from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) are very personal and targeted, the ACS surveys only cover a small fraction of the population (often less than 2%). AirSage has access to roughly one-third of mobile devices across the U.S. population.
- Recent data. AirSage is processing and aggregating data in near real-time. This enables current reports to be delivered in weeks instead of years.
- Actual commute locations. Often self-reported data is often found to be error-prone.
- Data includes all commutes. “All commutes” include not only the narrowly defined “work” which can impact how the population, as a whole, travels. Commutes also include cross-state commutes and intrazonal commutes (commutes within a county).