Geospatial Processing Tools to Enhance Longitudinal Employer- Household Dynamics Commute Data

Michael Wohlstadter
John Posey
East-West Gateway Council of Governments

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not represent the official positions or policies of the East-West Gateway Council of Governments.

This article introduces ETURAS, a suite of software tools designed to analyze commute patterns using Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) data. LEHD offers detailed information on workforce housing patterns, job locations, and transportation connections between home and work. ETURAS enhances the analysis of changing commute patterns by linking LEHD to road network files, allowing estimates of commute distance. ETURAS also offers visualization tools, including the generation of dot density maps showing changes in the place of work for residents of any user-defined geography (UDG) and changes in the place of residence for workers in any UDG. This article will demonstrate ETURAS’s output using two analysis areas as examples. Case studies offer two main conclusions: (1) ETURAS enhances the ability of planners to analyze locational affordability and balancing jobs and housing; and (2) although LEHD is a powerful tool for analyzing commute patterns, it is necessary to validate LEHD using other data sources and local knowledge.