If you round off to the minute, Wyoming and South Dakota are the only states with average commute times under 17 minutes. According to Thrillist.com, the Cowboy State is beat only by South Dakota for the shortest time getting to work - 16.9 to 16.6 minutes. Yes, they beat us by 0.3 minutes.

Wyoming has other bordering states with short drives. North Dakota is third and Montana fourth. Nebraska is sixth and Idaho ninth. It's probably also not a surprise Colorado is further down the list at 30th. The Greenie’s rank must be skewed by the Greater Mile High metro. And I can personally tell you, it’s good to not have to live and drive in Denver anymore.

Should we give you no more than two guesses what state is dead last, with the longest commute time? New Yorkers commute almost twice long as we do, 33.4 minutes (whether by subway, ferry or driving).

As Thrillist notes, “You might be surprised by how similarly lengthy many peoples' commutes are around the country.” See their commute time map for all other state’s ranks, including Washington D.C., which is also one of the worst five, along with Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts. California’s 29.4 minutes barely missed the worst 5 at 6th worst. “The Riverside Freeway … is the worst commute in the U.S., averaging an hour to travel 20 miles during rush hour.”  That’s in a smartasset.com report on Worst Commutes in America.

The claim for Worst Metro Area in America, according to Marketwatch.com is East Stroudsburg, PA, along the state border with New Jersey. That's a whopping one way travel time of 38.6 minutes.

So why does Wyoming not have long commutes? You already know the answer to that is simply smaller towns. Even our largest town, Cheyenne, just isn't that from Little America to the east side.

I have a brother who lives in Greenwood, South Carolina (population 5,000 something). Over the holidays I was visiting, and one day about lunchtime, I mentioned that if they had a particular franchise in town, I'd pick us up take-out. He said, "Yeah, but it's all the way on the other side of town." I say, "Oh, so it's what? A whole few minutes instead of a couple?"

I like towns like that.

More From 101.9 KING-FM