The most detailed national information source on all forms of local travel is the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), which was last conducted in 2009. The NHTS and its predecessor, the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey, have measured the characteristics of households and their travel once or twice each decade since 1969. The Federal Highway Administration plans to conduct a new NHTS in 2015.

Between 1960 and 2000, commuting questions were included in the long form of the decennial census. Journeys to work have been measured annually by the Census Bureau in its American Community Survey since 2006. Detailed information for census tracts within cities is calculated from multiyear averages.