1. CLAREMORE INDUSTRIAL PARK
COMMUTING STUDY
OnThe
RoadAgain

2. 2 On The Road Again
OverviewofStudy
E
very 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 down-
town 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 to­taled 1,615 addresses. Geocod-
ing is the process that puts addresses on a map. Non-
physical addresses such as P.O. boxes and rural routes
cannot usually be used for geo­coding. 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

3. 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 ad-
dresses 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 Rog-
ers 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 con-
centrations 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. 4 On The Road Again
CommutingtotheClaremoreIndustrialPark
versustoClaremoreasawhole
T
he 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 refer-
enced 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
Heat map of commuters to the Claremore Industrial Park: 1 square mile areas

5. Claremore Industrial Park Commuting Study 5
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 in-
dustrial 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.
Heat map of commuters to any workplace in Claremore

6. 6 On The Road Again
T
he county pie charts above show percentages for
the top counties from which commuters originate
to work at the Claremore Industrial Park and any-
where 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 Cla-
remore 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 Clare­
more. 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 resi-
dents. This class includes Craig, Mayes, and Washington
Counties. The next class contains counties with between
Rogers, 64%
Tulsa, 22%
Mayes, 5%
Wagoner, 4%
Craig, 1%
Washington, 1%
Others, 3%
Commutingbycountyofresidence
Claremore Industrial Park
Commuters by Home County
Claremore Commuters
by Home County
Rogers,
49%
Tulsa, 18%
Mayes, 5%
Wagoner, 4%
Oklahoma, 3%
Creek, 3%
Washington, 2%
Osage, 1%
Muskogee, 1%
Cherokee, 1%
Others, 13%

7. Claremore Industrial Park Commuting Study 7
about a third and three-
fourths 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 Coun-
ty’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. 8 On The Road Again
Commutetimecomparisons:localandnational
Drive time map of commuters to the Claremore Industrial Park
T
he above drive time map shows Claremore In-
dustrial 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,

9. Claremore Industrial Park Commuting Study 9
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 Bartles-
ville, 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 percent-
ages of various commute times for workers at the Indus-
trial 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 per-
centage 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 min-
utes 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 commut-
ers 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.
46%
31%
18%
3% 2%
32%
38%
18%
7%
5%
29%
46%
18%
4% 4%
28%
36%
20%
8% 8%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
0-14 minutes 15-29 minutes 30-44 minutes 45-59 minutes 60+ minutes
Commute Time Comparisons
Claremore Industrial Park Rogers County Tulsa County United States

10. 10 On The Road Again
Commuterstotheindustrialparkbycityofresidence
C
ommuters 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 signifi-
cant are Broken Arrow, Chelsea, Owas-
so, 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.
Industrial park commuters by city of residence: top 20 cities
What Cities Commuters Come From
Claremore
49%
Tulsa, 11%
Broken Arrow
7%
Chelsea
6%
Owasso
5%
Collinsville
4%
Pryor
2%
Oologah
2%
Inola
2%
Others, 12%
WhatCitiesCommutersCome From

11. Claremore Industrial Park Commuting Study 11
I
n summary, the Claremore Industrial Park contrib-
utes 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 clus-
tered around Claremore, Tulsa, and Owasso. Rogers
County contributes 64% of the industrial park’s work-
force, 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 short-
er 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 cit-
ies. 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 Clare-
more 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 communi-
ty as a place to live for people who work here. Howev-
er, 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.
What’sdowntheroad?

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