From an article in today’s N.Y. Times about Manhattan’s eternal congestion woes: 35.1% of government workers drive to work instead of taking public transportation, second only to workers in “transportation, warehousing and utilities,” at 36.1%. Comparatively, only 15.1% of workers in the retail trade drive into the city, and 14% of finance workers.
Now these numbers are not nearly as pure as they might appear, for they don’t take into account the fact that a lot of finance workers, e.g., already live in Manhattan, or in suburbs well-served by commuter train lines.
Still, it seems unusual that more than a third of all government workers drive into the city, an even higher percentage than construction workers. So why is that?
According to the article, the government workers have a very simple and powerful incentive: “because they have free parking.”
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Free parking isn’t the only reason. Two others come to mind:
1) Many municipal workers are required to live within city limits. In most cases this means “outside Manhattan,” given the cost of housing. As the article itself acknowledges, large stretches of the outer boroughs are poorly served by public transportation and therefore driving can be a better option.
2) City jobs are much more dispersed thoughout the city than are Manhattan-centric private sector jobs. Once again, this puts many workplaces in areas with poor transit service.
Free parking isn’t the only reason. Two others come to mind:
1) Many municipal workers are required to live within city limits. In most cases this means “outside Manhattan,” given the cost of housing. As the article itself acknowledges, large stretches of the outer boroughs are poorly served by public transportation and therefore driving can be a better option.
2) City jobs are much more dispersed thoughout the city than are Manhattan-centric private sector jobs. Once again, this puts many workplaces in areas with poor transit service.
prosa,
your explanation works better if you are able to discern the percentage of municipal workers who live close to a subway stop versus those who don’t, and the percentage of each that ends up driving. the fact is, free parking offers an incentive whether you live close to public transportation or not. it seems like you’re trying to suggest that municipal workers can’t afford to live in manhattan or close to a subway stop, thus they drive.
prosa,
your explanation works better if you are able to discern the percentage of municipal workers who live close to a subway stop versus those who don’t, and the percentage of each that ends up driving. the fact is, free parking offers an incentive whether you live close to public transportation or not. it seems like you’re trying to suggest that municipal workers can’t afford to live in manhattan or close to a subway stop, thus they drive.
A couple questions. I assume the article means NYC government when citing ‘government workers,’ but it never does specify.
Also, are police and firefighters considered government workers? I think that’s going to skew the results.
And what are the hard numbers, exactly how many government employees is this? Just because it’s 35% of the government workforce doesn’t mean that it’s a significant portion of the total number of cars. It could be, but without knowing the hard number, you can not tell.
And the actual quote is somewhat ambiguous: “2000 census data that showed about 35 percent of government workers in Manhattan drive to work…” Is that government workers who live in Manhattan or work in Manhattan, or both?
And there’s certainly a portion of government worker who need to be mobile during the course of their jobs. Do they get a city car and take it home? I guess they could leave it at work and take mass transit home. Are city workers allowed to your city vehicles for personal use?
NYC and Manhattan in particular have definite traffic issues. I’m disappointed the new NJ Transit transfer station right next to the NJ Turnpike in Seacaucus doesn’t have any park & ride type feature. I’d use it on my occaisional visits to the city from Philadelphia.
A couple questions. I assume the article means NYC government when citing ‘government workers,’ but it never does specify.
Also, are police and firefighters considered government workers? I think that’s going to skew the results.
And what are the hard numbers, exactly how many government employees is this? Just because it’s 35% of the government workforce doesn’t mean that it’s a significant portion of the total number of cars. It could be, but without knowing the hard number, you can not tell.
And the actual quote is somewhat ambiguous: “2000 census data that showed about 35 percent of government workers in Manhattan drive to work…” Is that government workers who live in Manhattan or work in Manhattan, or both?
And there’s certainly a portion of government worker who need to be mobile during the course of their jobs. Do they get a city car and take it home? I guess they could leave it at work and take mass transit home. Are city workers allowed to your city vehicles for personal use?
NYC and Manhattan in particular have definite traffic issues. I’m disappointed the new NJ Transit transfer station right next to the NJ Turnpike in Seacaucus doesn’t have any park & ride type feature. I’d use it on my occaisional visits to the city from Philadelphia.
This doesn’t have anything to do with your post, but I wanted to suggest something for you to look at…
There is a new search engine called ChaCha.com. It uses live guides to assist users (searchers) to find something on the Web. However, it’s using an interesting economic motivation that seems contradictory to me…
Guides are paid a small per minute amount to help a user find a web page. Guides are then rated by the user. It’s not clear to me if a guide who is rated an ‘excellent’ for a session is paid more than one that is rated ‘poor’.
As a guide, I know that ChaCha wants us to complete a guided session within 30-60 seconds. However, we get paid more if we drag the session on (up to 10 minutes, at which point we no longer are getting paid). So the motivations of the guides are directly against the motivations of the ChaCha site. I think right now the pay is so minimal that’s its not a big deal, but it is an interesting observation that will need dealt with if the company grows at all.
This doesn’t have anything to do with your post, but I wanted to suggest something for you to look at…
There is a new search engine called ChaCha.com. It uses live guides to assist users (searchers) to find something on the Web. However, it’s using an interesting economic motivation that seems contradictory to me…
Guides are paid a small per minute amount to help a user find a web page. Guides are then rated by the user. It’s not clear to me if a guide who is rated an ‘excellent’ for a session is paid more than one that is rated ‘poor’.
As a guide, I know that ChaCha wants us to complete a guided session within 30-60 seconds. However, we get paid more if we drag the session on (up to 10 minutes, at which point we no longer are getting paid). So the motivations of the guides are directly against the motivations of the ChaCha site. I think right now the pay is so minimal that’s its not a big deal, but it is an interesting observation that will need dealt with if the company grows at all.