Thirty-nine percent commute to Denver from another county

interesting Front Range Traffic Commuter article in Denver Post

 

Thirty-nine percent commute to Denver from another county

 

Most people going to work in Denver drive in alone, and like commuters in the rest of the nation, most work-day travelers are loath to carpool or take public transportation.

But four times as many Denver commuters ride their bikes to work than the national average, and Boulder leads the nation for the number of people working at home, according to statistics released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In fact, the number of local work-from-home employees in the Boulder area — 10. 9 percent — is higher than anywhere else in the country. Medford, Ore., is second, at 8.4 percent, followed by Santa Fe at 8.3 percent.

"I think that's just a reflection of how great this area is," said Jennifer Pinsonneault, director of research and marketing for the Boulder Economic Council. "You have a group of people who can work from home, so they focus on where they want to live. And they choose to work and live here."

The American Community Survey data offered few surprises — at least to those who battle the tangle of rush-hour traffic to get to their jobs in Denver.

For instance, the survey says Denver County has among the highest rates in the nation of commuters traveling to work from other counties.

The census estimates 268,512 people who work in Denver — or about 39.1 percent of workers — commute from another county. Of those, 88,130 workers commute from Arapahoe County, 65,010 from Jefferson County and 57,813 from Adams County.

The estimates are based on 2006-10 surveys.

Meanwhile, 112,382 Denver residents leave the county for work, with 43,930 going to Arapahoe County, 26,148 to Jefferson County and 19,210 to Adams County.

"It is well known that Denver County draws a lot of commuters to work," said Brian McKenzie, a Census Bureau statistician who studies commuting. "This information shapes our understanding of the boundaries of local and regional economies."

The flow from Arapahoe County to Denver ranks 32nd in the nation, well below the three largest flows: from counties near New York City. The traffic from Los Angeles to Orange County, Calif., and its reciprocal flow from Orange County to Los Angeles represented the fourth- and fifth-largest flows, according to the survey.

The survey also showed that in 2011, 70.4 percent of workers in Denver County drove to work alone, compared with 76.5 percent nationally.

At the same time, 9.3 percent of Denver County workers carpooled in 2011, compared with 9.7 percent nationwide. In 2011, 6.5 percent of all workers in Denver County used public transportation — excluding taxicabs — to get to their job, compared with 5 percent nationwide.

Also, about 2.4 percent of all workers in the county biked to work in 2011, compared with 0.6 percent nationwide.

Getting to work in the metro area is slightly less time consuming than in other parts of the country, the survey noted.

The average one-way commute to work for people living in Denver was 24.1 minutes, while the national average was 25.5 minutes.

And about 5.2 percent of all workers had a commute of 60 minutes or more in 2011, compared with 8.1 percent in the nation.

McKenzie said 23 percent of workers with long commutes — 60 minutes or more — use public transit, compared with 5.3 percent for all workers.

"The average travel time from workers who commute by public transportation is higher than that of workers who use other modes," McKenzie said. "From some workers, using transit is a necessity, but others simply choose a longer travel time over sitting in traffic."