More workers in the region crossing county lines for jobs (Philadelphia: employment, living in)

[captainmidnight]

Interesting data here (based from 2010): More workers in the Pittsburgh region crossing county lines for jobs | TribLIVE

9% of Allegheny County workers commute to other counties in the region for work, the lowest percentage in the region. That is a pretty low percent, but makes sense due to Pittsburgh and Oakland being in the county. So most workers in Allegheny county are living within the same county. I wonder if Westinghouse would have stayed in Monroeville what that percentage would be?

The highest percentages are Armstrong and Beaver counties.

As a whole, 23.9% (up from 22.7% in 2000) of our region's workers commute to other counties, which is below the national average of 27.4%.

61% of the workers drive alone in their car and 23% use public transit. Those aren't too good, wish it would be higher on the public transit end. I'm sure these numbers are being analyzed by Rick Fitzgerald and his fellow advocates in Harrisburg for a regional transit system.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by bmantz65

61% of the workers drive alone in their car and 23% use public transit. Those aren't too good, wish it would be higher on the public transit end. I'm sure these numbers are being analyzed by Rick Fitzgerald and his fellow advocates in Harrisburg for a regional transit system.

I'm not sure the regional public transit could improve those numbers. The outlying counties already have bus service into downtown Pittsburgh. I'll bet a large percentage of those drivers don't work where public transit goes. Not everyone works downtown. Many people work in the business parks in Allegheny County suburbs and other places other than the city.

[hinsey86]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I'm not sure the regional public transit could improve those numbers. The outlying counties already have bus service into downtown Pittsburgh. I'll bet a large percentage of those drivers don't work where public transit goes. Not everyone works downtown. Many people work in the business parks in Allegheny County suburbs and other places other than the city.

When I lived in Seattle this was the issue for me. They had great bus service from the suburbs (first time I saw bike racks on busses) but their destinations were limited and I worked off the beaten path. But the busses were used heavily by the downtown business population.

Hubby goes from Beaver now To Butler and previous to our recent move was Allegheny to Butler as was I. Now I just go out to the yard for work!

[greg42]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I'm not sure the regional public transit could improve those numbers. The outlying counties already have bus service into downtown Pittsburgh. I'll bet a large percentage of those drivers don't work where public transit goes. Not everyone works downtown. Many people work in the business parks in Allegheny County suburbs and other places other than the city.

Yeah, that part is tricky. In my case, I live where public transit doesn't go. Or, at least, it would be stupid of me to drive several miles the wrong way to get my own county's transit. I could take a bus from the Warrendale park and ride but since there are two of us going downtown and my parking is covered it is similar in cost.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I'm not sure the regional public transit could improve those numbers. The outlying counties already have bus service into downtown Pittsburgh. I'll bet a large percentage of those drivers don't work where public transit goes. Not everyone works downtown. Many people work in the business parks in Allegheny County suburbs and other places other than the city.

AFAIK about 100,000 people work in Downtown Pittsburgh (the same amount as 1950!), and another 30,000 or so work in Oakland. Let's say there are another 20,000 jobs with good transit access, (UMPC hospitals in the city, Allegheny General, North Shore offices, etc), and you have a maximum of 150,000 jobs which could be defined as highly accessible by mass transit.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by eschaton

AFAIK about 100,000 people work in Downtown Pittsburgh (the same amount as 1950!), and another 30,000 or so work in Oakland. Let's say there are another 20,000 jobs with good transit access, (UMPC hospitals in the city, Allegheny General, North Shore offices, etc), and you have a maximum of 150,000 jobs which could be defined as highly accessible by mass transit.

Exactly. 150k is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall metro population of 2.3 million.

As Greg mentioned, the high fares doesn't justify using public transportation if two household members can drive together.

I'd like to see that extra money put into reducing fares. Reduced fares would increase ridership. Once ridership is increased, the system could be viable on reduced fares.

[greg42]

To be fair, the bus I'm speaking of is the cushy private Lenzner run from Warrendale. It costs $5 each way or $200/month pass. Still good for one person riding but not if you have two. For all those single drivers, which is the majority, this is still a good option if the timing works out well. These buses if anything are fuller than they used to be it seems. And the parking lot now fills up regularly. If I was coming down here alone I'd probably try to shift to this bus and have employer cover that pass instead (it's cheaper than the parking space). Although probably what we're ultimately doing is moving out of downtown. Looking to cut cost and we have fewer people in office now and none of us live downtown. No specific need to be here. We'll probably be out in N. Hills somewhere eventually.

[Hopes]

I took the bus into town until my son started going into town too. It didn't make financial sense for us to both take the bus.

[pman]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I'm not sure the regional public transit could improve those numbers. The outlying counties already have bus service into downtown Pittsburgh. I'll bet a large percentage of those drivers don't work where public transit goes. Not everyone works downtown. Many people work in the business parks in Allegheny County suburbs and other places other than the city.

that's correct, regional public transit in and of itself wouldn't solve that. if a commuter rail line frmo greensburg were 20% faster than the bus, it could capture a proportion of west moreland to east liberty and downtown than the bus currently captures but simply having the westmoreland and allegheny county buses under one agency does little. in fact, most of SEPTA's routes exist either within the city or within the suburbs and the major exceptions operate much like the county buses in SWEPTA land. land use is a much bigger factor...where the jobs are. the one big exception in the Philadelphia area is the reverse commuters on the train to Paoli where shuttle buses connect people to employment ni the great valley corp ctr (a spread out cluster of 25k jobs).PAT has already increased it's share of downtown workers over the last five years. if the county put as much money improving transit as they did subsidizing garages (which disincentivizes transit use) you'd be talk.

[Evergrey]

Several of my friends work in outer-county office parks like Southpointe and Cranberry... but love city living... so they do a reverse commute from Pittsburgh. I imagine this will become more common as more young professionals are interested in living in the urban core... even if their job is way out in BFE.