On The Road Again CLAREMORE INDUSTRIAL PARK COMMUTING STUDY

On The Road Again CLAREMORE INDUSTRIAL PARK COMMUTING STUDY

2 On The Road Again Overview of Study Every day, almost 2,000 people go to work at the Claremore Industrial Park. The park is located in Rogers County in Claremore, OK, north of downtown on Oklahoma Highway 66. The park includes companies such as Baker Hughes-Centrilift, AXH Air Coolers, Pelco Structural, and Caseco. Employees come from Claremore and other parts of Rogers County, but many also commute from other places. The purpose of this study is to examine and discuss where employees are coming from and how long their commutes are taking. After that, results will be summarized and applications of this study will briefly be considered. About the data used This study is based mainly on employee address data supplied by top employers at the industrial park in 2013. No personally identifiable information was included. The initial dataset used here to taled 1,615 addresses. Geocoding is the process that puts addresses on a map. Nonphysical addresses such as P.O. boxes and rural routes cannot usually be used for geo coding. The non-usable addresses were removed from this study, reducing the number of addresses to 1,373. The remaining addresses are shown on the overview map below (except for one in Missouri and one in Norman, OK). Overview map of commuters to the Claremore Industrial Park

Claremore Industrial Park Commuting Study 3 Heat map of commuters to the Claremore Industrial Park: 4 square mile areas Overview map Nearly all of the commuters come from Oklahoma, with one each living in Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri. If one adds in the companies that did not contribute addresses to this study, the total number of employees in the industrial park is estimated to be 1,950. The mean (or geographic) center shows the average location of where commuters to the park live. On the overview map one can see that the mean center shows a slight shift towards Tulsa away from the park. The mean center is a few miles southwest of the industrial park and just southwest of the Claremore city limits. Heat map The heat map above shows the density of commuters to the industrial park by their home locations. Each square on the map is 2 miles wide, so the squares cover 4 square miles each to show broad patterns (compared to the map on the next page). This map shows that most of the commuters come from an area starting around the northeast corner of Rogers County and across Lake Oologah southwest to Tulsa and Broken Arrow. Top source areas for commuters to the industrial park There appears to be three main areas with high concentrations of commuters, listed in order of magnitude: 1. Claremore-Verdigris-Chelsea 2. Tulsa-Broken Arrow-Catoosa 3. Owasso-Collinsville-Oologah Other areas with important concentrations include Pryor, Bartlesville, Inola, and Vinita.

4 On The Road Again Commuting to the Claremore Industrial Park versus to Claremore as a whole Heat map of commuters to the Claremore Industrial Park: 1 square mile areas The next set of maps is a comparison between commuters to the industrial park and commuters to any workplace in the City of Claremore. The first of these two is another industrial park heat map, this time with a smaller cell size (one square mile) to better compare with the Claremore City heat map. Data sources & comparison The Claremore City related map was obtained from the website On the Map (onthemap.ces.census.gov), which contains maps and data about where jobs are located and where workers live who have those jobs. On the Map is put out by the U.S. Census Bureau, and the data referenced was the most recent 2011. The jobs referenced are primary jobs, meaning the jobs that provide the most income in the case where a person has more than one job. Differences between the two maps When comparing these two maps, the overall patterns look similar with a few differences that can be seen if one

Claremore Industrial Park Commuting Study 5 Heat map of commuters to any workplace in Claremore studies them. For example, commuters to any workplace in Claremore are more spread about in the countryside than commuters to the industrial park note the black dots on the Claremore map where there aren t any green squares on the industrial park map. One reason for the differences is that the Claremore Industrial Park employee base is only a part of the total jobs in Claremore. There are 1,373 industrial park workers represented here as opposed to the 10,917 jobs represented on the Claremore map. Also, the industrial park map is based on the number of employees, as opposed to the number of jobs on the Claremore map. Another thing to note is that these two maps are based on two different years the industrial park data came from 2013, and the Claremore data came from 2011. Also, On the Map job stats are based on unemployment insurance records, so work locations are listed as where the records are housed, and some commuters on the Claremore map may be actually going to a workplace in a different city.

6 On The Road Again Commuting by county of residence Claremore Industrial Park Commuters by Home County Claremore Commuters by Home County Washington, 1% Craig, 1% Others, 3% Others, 13% Wagoner, 4% Cherokee, 1% Mayes, 5% Tulsa, 22% Rogers, 64% Muskogee, 1% Osage, 1% Washington, 2% Creek, 3% Oklahoma, 3% Wagoner, 4% Rogers, 49% Mayes, 5% Tulsa, 18% The county pie charts above show percentages for the top counties from which commuters originate to work at the Claremore Industrial Park and anywhere in the City of Claremore, respectively. Commuters to the industrial park Nearly all of the commuters to the industrial park (97%) live in Rogers County and counties that border it such as Tulsa. See the first map on the next page, Share of industrial park commuters by home county. Rogers County has the largest percentage of commuters with 64%. Tulsa County is next with 22%, followed by Mayes and Wagoner with 5% and 4%, respectively. About 5% of the industrial park workers live in the remaining counties. Commuters to any workplace in Claremore By comparison, out of commuters to any employer in the City of Claremore, less than half live in Rogers County at 49%, and only 18% live in Tulsa County. Mayes and Wagoner Counties make up 5% and 4% of this group, respectively, just as at the industrial park. Oklahoma, Creek, and Washington Counties contribute at least 2% of commuters each. The remaining commuters come from counties that contribute 1% or less of the total number. The source for this data on commuting to the City of Claremore is the 2011 On the Map data. It may seem high that 3% of Claremore workers live in Oklahoma County, where Oklahoma City is, most of which is 2 hours or more from Rogers County. One explanation for this is that some employees might come to Claremore to stay for the week while working. Another is that some company headquarters in Claremore could have branches in Oklahoma City, which could cause people that work at an Oklahoma City branch to counted as working in Claremore. As noted before, in On the Map, employees can be counted at the location where unemployment insurance records are housed rather than the actual workplace. Commuters per capita by county The map at the bottom of page 7 shows how many commuters there are to the industrial park per thousand residents in a county. This measure provides an idea of what share of a county s workforce is employed at the Claremore Industrial Park. As seen on the map, the industrial park s home county of Rogers has the most commuters per capita with about 10 per thousand residents. The next class of counties is about ten times smaller, with about 1 per thousand residents. This class includes Craig, Mayes, and Washington Counties. The next class contains counties with between

Claremore Industrial Park Commuting Study 7 about a third and threefourths of one commuter per thousand residents. This class contains four counties: Nowata, Osage, Tulsa, and Wagoner. Among these the most notable is Tulsa County, with just 0.51 commuters per thousand residents. Although Tulsa County contributes 22% of the industrial park workforce, that amount is just a small part of Tulsa County s labor pool due to its large population. Finally, several outlying counties have 0.16 commuters per thousand or less working at the industrial park. Share of industrial park commuters by county Industrial park commuters per thousand residents by county

8 On The Road Again Commute time comparisons: local and national Drive time map of commuters to the Claremore Industrial Park The above drive time map shows Claremore Industrial Park commuters superimposed on areas that represent the shortest drive time from each commuter s residence to the industrial park. Commuters that can get to the industrial park in less than 15 minutes include those in and around Claremore, Verdigris, and Foyil. Those that are 15-29 minutes away include areas in and around Oologah, Collinsville, Owasso,

Claremore Industrial Park Commuting Study 9 50% 40% 30% 20% 46% 32% 29% 28% Commute Time Comparisons 46% 38% 36% 31% 18% 18% 18% 20% 10% 0% 7% 8% 8% 4% 5% 4% 3% 2% 0-14 minutes 15-29 minutes 30-44 minutes 45-59 minutes 60+ minutes Claremore Industrial Park Rogers County Tulsa County United States northeast Tulsa, Inola, Pryor, and Chelsea. Those 30-44 minutes away are mostly in Tulsa, Sand Springs, Broken Arrow, Vinita, Nowata, and Skiatook. The areas in the 45-59 minutes band are mostly rural except for Glenpool and Sapulpa. Just outside of an hour s drive time are Bartlesville, Tahlequah, and Muskogee. The drive time map data was used to calculate the industrial park commute time percentages on the comparisons bar chart above. The commute time comparisons chart shows percentages of various commute times for workers at the Industrial Park and in Rogers County, Tulsa County, and the U.S. as a whole. The data for the chart for the industrial park came from our survey as mentioned above. The data for Rogers County, Tulsa County, and the U.S. came from the American Community Survey 1-year estimates for 2012. Commuting times to the industrial park Referring to the chart, 46% of industrial park workers drive less than 15 minutes, and 77% drive less than 30 minutes. Only 23% have a commute of over 30 minutes, and only 5% drive more than 45 minutes. So a large percentage of industrial park workers have reasonable drive times. This is especially apparent when compared to the U.S. average, as is discussed next. Industrial park vs. the U.S. average To compare with the U.S., workers at the Claremore Industrial Park generally have shorter commutes than the average American. The most striking statistic is that only 28% of Americans as a whole drive less than 15 minutes to work, as opposed to 46% for the industrial park. Moreover, only 64% of Americans commute for less than 30 minutes as compared to 77% with the industrial park. Also, 36% of Americans have a commute time of over 30 minutes, and 16% drive 45 minutes or more. Commuting times to Rogers County The drive times for Rogers County residents were mostly between those of the industrial park and the U.S. average, but tended to be closer to the U.S. average. Only 32% of Rogers County workers drive less than 15 minutes, but 70% drive less than 30 minutes. Also, 30% of commuters have a drive time of over 30 minutes, and 12% of them drive 45 minutes or more. Industrial park vs. Tulsa County Comparing the Claremore Industrial Park with Tulsa County, the percentages are very similar except that the Claremore Industrial Park has more commuters with under 15 minute commutes, while Tulsa County has more 15-29 minute commuters. In fact, in these two categories, the percentages are almost reversed for the industrial park and Tulsa. Only 32% of Tulsa County workers drive less than 15 minutes, but 74% drive less than 30 minutes. Also, 26% have a commute of over 30 minutes, and only 8% drive more than 45 minutes.

10 On The Road Again Commuters to the industrial park by city of residence Industrial park commuters by city of residence: top 20 cities Commuters to the Claremore Industrial Park come from a variety of cities, as can be seen from the map and chart on this page. Claremore stands alone at the top with 680 workers and a share of 49%. Tulsa is next with 157 workers and an 11% share. Of the rest, the most significant are Broken Arrow, Chelsea, Owasso, Collinsville, and Pryor, each having a share of between 2 and 7 percent. Tulsa and Broken Arrow, when taken together, provide 18% of the industrial park workforce. Other areas with significant contingents include places as far away as Bartlesville, Sand Springs, Coweta, Salina, and Vinita. Owasso 5% What Cities Commuters Come From Inola 2% Oologah 2% Pryor 2% Collinsville 4% Chelsea 6% Broken Arrow 7% Others, 12% Tulsa, 11% Claremore 49%

Claremore Industrial Park Commuting Study 11 What s down the road? In summary, the Claremore Industrial Park contributes a large number of quality jobs to people who live in Rogers County and surrounding areas. Most of the industrial park workers live in areas clustered around Claremore, Tulsa, and Owasso. Rogers County contributes 64% of the industrial park s workforce, while Claremore contributes 49%. Although Tulsa County contributes almost a fourth of the park s workforce, that number of workers is only a small part Tulsa County s workforce. Workers at the industrial park tend to enjoy shorter drive times compared to the U.S. average. Workers at establishments anywhere in Rogers County have commutes that are a little shorter on average than workers at Tulsa County establishments. Industrial park employees are concentrated mostly in a few cities. In particular, 72% of the park s workforce comes from the top four cities of Claremore, Tulsa, Broken Arrow, and Chelsea. Where to go from here? Possible applications of this study include local and regional planning, business planning, tourism, and economic development. One application of this study relates to assessing the image of Claremore with respect to community branding. This branding includes two main functions: 1. To encapsulate what is special about the Claremore experience so more people will want to live, work, play, and shop here 2. To develop an esprit de corps among current residents so they are better able to appreciate and articulate what is great about the area Nearly half of Claremore Industrial Park workers make their home in Claremore, and almost two-thirds live in Rogers County. Therefore, one could make the case that there is a level of satisfaction with the community as a place to live for people who work here. However, should that number be higher? Could Claremore be made more attractive as a place to live for the people who commute here from other places, and could it be done without compromising what is great about Claremore? Answering those questions will be left to those who wish to pursue the matter further.

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