Commute time and mode inequality across socioeconomic strata in Bogotá

Introduction: Commute-time inequality is a central dimension of social inequality in Latin American cities, yet the gradient across Bogotá's socioeconomic strata has not been quantified with representative microdata. Methods: Cross-sectional secondary analysis of the 2021 Encuesta Multipropósito de Bogotá-Cundinamarca (DANE). The sample comprised employed Bogotá residents aged 15 years or older with a valid socioeconomic stratum and commute time (n = 68,175; weighted 2,355,227). Weighted means and weighted linear regression with sequential adjustment for age, sex and mode were used, followed by a decomposition of the stratum 1 versus stratum 6 gap. Results: Mean one-way commute time was 60.9 minutes in stratum 1 and 39.7 minutes in stratum 6, a crude gap of 21.2 minutes (95% CI 19.0 to 23.3). Strata 3 to 6 differed little. Public transport accounted for 61.3% of commutes in stratum 1 versus 15.1% in stratum 6, where private cars reached 71.1%. Working from home rose from 14.6% in stratum 1 to 62.1% in stratum 5. Mode explained only 8.7% of the gap; the fully adjusted gap remained 19.9 minutes (95% CI 17.7 to 22.1). Conclusions: Commute-time inequality in Bogotá is a bottom-of-distribution penalty that mode of transport only marginally explains, indicating that residential distance from employment drives most of the gap.