Drive Times

Access to a suitable workforce is a significant location factor for a business and the length of the drive to and from work is an equally important consideration for employees, especially since gasoline prices have escalated so much recently.  Currently over one-quarter of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's workers commute in and out daily from another county, a daily ebb and flow of over 140,000 commuters.

Fifteen sites in Mecklenburg County were chosen for this study.  The resulting Labor Shed boundries give a general picture of how far a "typical" driver can go within 15 and 30 minutes on an "average" day after leaving each site during the afternoon rush hour.  Variations in the weather, accidents, or road construction projects will cause these times to vary, as will driving habits of individuals.  These travel time boundaries do not represent every traveler's experience on every day but are simply a rough approximation of relative travel times.

The following maps show the Labor Shed boundaries and the associated table shows the population, households and the number of residents who were employed in a range of occupational categories within the 15 and 30-minute Labor Sheds. Read the Labor Shed Report

The statistics show that, while there are substantial differences among the various locations, there is a large pool of potentials employees to draw on from each of the locations.  The maps and the accompanying tables provide a useful measure of the relative employees access to each location.

For more information on how this study was conducted please contact the Research Department.