6 - Boulder Economic Council Commuter Study MEMORANDUM
TO: Planning Board
FROM: Chris Meschuk, Planner
DATE: August'7, 2008
SUBJECT: Boulder Economic Council Commuter Study
This past month, the Boulder Economic'Council (BEC) released a report on commuting patterns
for individuals working in the city of Boulder. This study was recently reported in the Boulder
County Business Report, a copy of the article is attached to this memorandum.
The city also estimates the commuting patterns of our workers as part of our projections and
community data. This memorandum summarizes the methodologies and results of the two
studies.
The BEC survey was conducted in Mazch 2008, through a survey of employers asking for their
employees home zip code. A total of 22,557 employees were reported, from 44 employers. This
was an employees-based approach.
The city of Boulder (COB) estimates are based on January 2008 estimates of population and total
number of employees. This study is a household-based approach.
When comparing the results of the two studies, although the approach and methodologies aze
opposite, the results are as follows:
COB BEC
Live and Work in Boulder 35% 32%
Commute into Boulder 54% 68%
Commute out of Boulder 11% n/a
The BEC study results aze derived from data reported directly from employers. The results from
the study estimate [hat 32% of employees live and work in Boulder. The remaining 68%
commute into the city. The study results also showed that a total of 67% of employees surveyed
lived in Boulder or Boulder County.
The city of Boulder study starts with our estimated number of households, and develops a labor
force (the population of workers) using a factor of 1.3 workers per household. Then, based on
community survey data, we calculate that 81% of our total labor force works in Boulder, resulting
in our resident labor force. By subtracting our total job estimate from the resident labor force, we
conclude that the remaining 54% of our workers commute into the city to work. Using the same
calculation of our resident labor force and the remaining 19% or residents who live but do not
work in Boulder we conclude that 11% of our residents leave Boulder to go to work. The
remaining 35% therefore, live and work in Boulder.
If you would like a copy of the BEC report, or have questions on the comparison of the estimates,
please don't hesitate to contact me at (303) 441-4293 or at meschukc@bouldereolorado.eov
Boulder County Business Report -Online! Page 1 of 2 .
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8/1/2008 - 1:37:05 PM
Study indicates majority of workers in Boulder commute from other
cities
By Ryan Dionne
BOULDER -Only 32 percent of employees who work in Boulder live within city limits, according to
a recently released Boulder Economic Council study.
While she's the first to point out only 25 percent of Boulder employees were surveyed, Jennifer
Pinsonneault thinks the numbers show that more people are commuting.
"I feel pretty comfortable with the overall trending data that we're probably seeing an increase in
commuting over the 2000 census," said Pinsonneault, the council's project manager.
That data in the study, 2008 Employer Survey of Commuting Patterns, was collected from 44
Boulder businesses that responded to an a-mail asking in what ZIP code each of their employees
resides. Those 44 companies accounted for a total of 22,557 employees.
Some of the employers that responded were the University of Colorado at Boulder, Ball Aerospace
& Technologies Corp., Celestial Seasonings, IBM Corp. and Denver Boulder Couriers.
The study showed that 68 percent of Boulder employees -excluding people who work from home
- live outside Boulder. The highest percent (17 percent) of employees in the survey live in
Longmont.
Chris Grealish, co-owner of Denver Boulder Couriers, said his company participated in the survey
because transportation times directly relate to his business' welfare. If more people are
commuting into Boulder, there's bound to be more traffic meaning delivery times could be
impacted.
Though many of his employees who work only in Boulder live in the city, some of his delivery
drivers travel throughout the Front Range and deal with traffic daily.
"Ultimately, trying to help the workforce spend less time commuting, spend less money
commuting...will help everyone," Grealish said.
In the past, the Boulder Economic Council has partnered with other councils to conduct a similar
study, but fewer companies typically participated. Now that it has gathered the data, Pinsonneault
said the Boulder Economic Council plans to make the survey an annual project.
While the 2008 survey results have been analyzed, Pinsonneault hopes Boulder-based companies
will still contact her to participate.
"We want to get more people participating in this," she said. "The more data we get -the more
data points -the more confident we can get."
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Boulder County Business Report -Online! Page 2 of 2
While the survey included employers, such as IBM Corp., with many full-time employees, it also
included businesses in the accommodations and food industries that typically employ part-time
workers.
As the data shows, almost 50 percent of employees in those two industries live in Boulder. That
could be attributed to the fact that those industries often pay less than others and part-time
employees often live closer to work in order to commute less, she said.
On the other end of the spectrum was the "information" sector in which about 13 percent of
employees lived in Boulder, the data shows.
Pinsonneault said the data shows most people who commute to Boulder live along transportation
corridors, and often live in close proximity to where they work. For instance, if an employee works
in North Boulder and commutes, she likely lives north of Boulder instead of south of the city.
"If it makes sense then you kind of feel more confident in your findings," she said.
The findings from the Boulder Economic Council's survey are not far from those of a similar study
the city completed in January.
The city's study looked at the number of people who commuted into or out of Boulder. It used
Boulder's population, the number of housing units in the city and the state's average number of
workers per household, said Chris Meschuk, the city's long-range planner.
After some number crunching, Meschuk said the study showed 54 percent of employees who work
in Boulder live outside the city, and 35 percent live and work in Boulder. The rest commute out of
the city.
While the council and city estimates don't entirely align, one discrepancy could be that the city
considered people who live in Boulder and work from home, and the economic council didn't.
Pinsonneault hopes the numbers will help companies learn more about employee transportation
habits and ultimately help them develop programs to ease travel such as ridesharing.
Contact Ryan Dionne at 303-440-4950 or a-mail rdionne@bcbr.com.
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