Dozens of questions: Gas is much more expensive in San Diego than in Houston. Does this affect commuting habits?

People drive fewer miles to work in San Diego, but gas prices alone might not be responsible 

by MAYA CHARI | July 3, 2025

Editor’s note: We recently collaborated with Marketplace to create “The Marketplace Dozen,” a dashboard of key economic indicators that provides a quick read on the health of the economy. Naturally, the data raises almost as many questions as it answers. Our Ten Across data journalism fellow, Maya Chari, who is also the chief technical architect of the Dozen, set out to answer some of them.  

Gas prices vary widely from one metro area to another, though they tend to follow national trends. For example, as of May 2025, gas was $4.75 a gallon in San Diego — almost two dollars more per gallon than in Houston, where it was $2.68. Regional differences in gas prices are caused by factors including distance from supply sources, number of gas stations in the area, and state and local regulations and taxes. 

Consumer behavior around gasoline is often cited as an example of inelastic demand, meaning that consumers will continue to buy roughly the same amount of gasoline regardless of the price because they lack alternatives. That becomes even more true during periods in which gas prices fluctuate rapidly.  

San Diego and Houston are both heavily car-dependent cities. According to American Community Survey data, only around 3% of commuters in each city regularly use public transit. Despite that similarity, commuters in Houston, where gas is cheaper, were actually slightly more likely to share rides to work than those in San Diego. A smaller share of San Diego residents drove to work, but that appears to be mostly attributable to more people working from home. 

Consistent with the incentives provided by gas prices, the average length of commutes is slightly longer in Houston than in San Diego. In 2023, according to American Community Survey data, commuters in Houston traveled an average of 27.6 miles to work, compared to 23.5 miles in San Diego. The mean commute time in the United States was 26.8 minutes. 

But in the country as a whole, it isn’t necessarily true that people drive further to work in cities with cheaper gas. According to our look at the data for 10 U.S. cities in which most (75% or more) commuters drove to work, gas prices didn’t appear to be correlated with commute lengths.  

Housing prices, however, do appear to be correlated with longer commutes. A 2016 Redfin analysis found that residents of expensive cities tended to drive further to work. Researchers at the University of Arkansas and the University of California also found high housing costs to be a significant driver of extra-long commutes in California. Another study found a relationship between increased urban sprawl and commute times.  

Here again Houston and San Diego buck the trends. As of 2025, the average price of a house in Houston was slightly lower than the national average, and much lower than in San Diego, according to Zillow data.  

Sprawl is probably the culprit behind Houston’s slightly-longer-than-average commute times. Both Houston and San Diego are relatively sprawling, but Houston is, by many measures, especially spread-out. 

So, in these two large cities, both of which have relatively limited public transportation, Houston’s sprawling design leads to longer commute times. San Diego’s somewhat less sprawling design seems tied to the metro’s somewhat shorter average commute times — despite the higher housing costs.  

While many Americans would likely prefer to live closer to work, especially in areas of the country with high gas prices, rising housing costs and sprawling city design might push them further away from their workplaces, resulting in longer — and more expensive — commutes. 

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