Thurs. Mar. 06, 2003 

Region's commuting times grow
43% jump in workers living outside Mecklenburg
DIANNE WHITACRE & TED MELLNIK

More than 110,000 new jobs in the 1990s and more workers willing to travel greater distances have made Mecklenburg County an even bigger employment hub.

Census numbers for 2000 released today show that 146,211 people who live outside Mecklenburg -- some of them as far away as San Diego -- work in the county. That's a 43 percent increase since 1990.

Almost 1 of 3 Mecklenburg jobs are held by noncounty residents. Tens of thousands of these commuters flood the interstates and thoroughfares each morning. Others fly in for jobs in the city's banking sector from places like Baltimore, New York and Santa Fe, N.M.

"County lines don't mean much anymore," said Dennis Rash of UNC Charlotte's transportation studies department.

"People drive more," said Joe McClelland, a Charlotte transportation planner. "Twenty years ago, Stanly County seemed a million miles from Charlotte and now it's not."

More suburb-to-suburb commuting adds another dimension. Cabarrus added 36 percent more jobs in the past decade; Union, 30 percent; and Iredell, 24 percent. As these mini-job centers expand, so do the numbers of commuters to Rock Hill, Concord and Mooresville.

The ebb and flow illustrates the classic commuting pattern: People live where houses cost less and work where jobs pay more.

The price? More time behind the wheel and more congestion on the roads. Commuting times have increased more than 20 percent in the past decade for most area counties. The growing reliance on cars fed the region's sprawl and dirtied its air.

Not surprisingly, residents in counties with lagging economies must drive farther to find work. The number of jobs in Gaston dropped 7 percent; its residents' average commute time jumped 25 percent. In 1990, 26 percent of the Gaston workers left the county to find jobs. In 2000, the number rose to 37 percent.The biggest wave of Mecklenburg workers comes from Union, York, Gaston and Cabarrus counties. Each sends more than 22,000 commuters daily, and together the four account for 20 percent of Mecklenburg's work force.

Sherry Smith, a financial analyst, makes the 37-mile drive twice a day between northern Iredell and the Coliseum area. For $10,000 less, she said, she could work closer to home.

Seven of her 15 co-workers live outside Mecklenburg, including one from Kingsport, Tenn. "People I know aren't afraid to commute for a good job," Smith said.

In Cabarrus, almost half the working residents drive to jobs outside the county. Meanwhile, more than a third of the Cabarrus jobs are held by commuters from nearby rural counties.

In broad strokes, thousands of rural residents head into the suburban counties for work, while tens of thousands of the suburbanites commute to Charlotte.

Laurie McBroom drives 22 miles each way from her Union County home to her job in southwest Charlotte. "I don't think it will change," she said. "Charlotte has the jobs, but it is pretty filled up (residentially). As people move here, it seems like they go out to the suburbs."

Her family chose Indian Trail for its lower taxes and home prices.

But UNCC's Rash says commuting has a steep cost. "We are developing about 41 acres of open spaces daily as we spread out. We are institutionalizing a pattern of commuting that produces more congestion and sprawl."

He would like to see improved regional planning to tackle shared problems, and outlying counties to join the Charlotte-Mecklenburg rapid-transit plans.

Each day, an estimated 21.5 million miles are driven in Charlotte-Mecklenburg -- a 34 percent jump since 1990.

Barry McGee helps put a face on huge numbers like that. McGee lives in Charlotte and works for a building products firm in Salisbury. A co-worker's wife lives in Salisbury and works in Charlotte. They're part of that increasingly complex regional pattern of drive, drive, drive.

"It has gotten to the point there are so many people and not enough jobs," said McGee, whose company located in Salisbury because real estate prices were cheaper than in Charlotte.

Two years ago, he worked out of his home. Now he drives 112 miles round trip.

"I need a job," he said, "and that is what I do."