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What's it worth to avoid the commute?

Survey asks commuters: Would you rather stay closer to home?

By EDIE GROSS

Date published: 6/16/2003

Residents invited to take part in poll

What would you give up for a shorter commute to work?

Ten grand in salary? Twenty grand? Your firstborn and your left kidney?

Now's your chance to say so. The Fredericksburg Regional Alliance has teamed up with George Mason University's Center for Regional Analysis on a commuter survey designed to measure how far local residents are commuting and what they'd do to reduce that travel time.

The survey is available on the Web at surveyhost.com/commuter until the end of this month.

The alliance, which is responsible for attracting new businesses to the area and encouraging existing firms to expand, can use the results for economic development, president Gene Bailey said.

The study should show how many residents would be willing to give up jobs in Northern Virginia and Washington for the chance to work closer to home and just what kinds of salaries they're looking for, Bailey said.

"More than 15,000 communities in America are looking for their share of newly created jobs and wealth," he said. "With that said, it becomes extremely important to have as much information as we can to work with those CEOs who are in a state of mind to expand and relocate."

Nearly 38,000 people--or 31 percent of the commuters living in the city of Fredericksburg and the counties of Spotsylvania, Stafford, Caroline and King George--head to Northern Virginia and Washington each day, according to figures from the 2000 Census.

Almost 80,000 residents--or 67 percent of the commuting population--travel 20 minutes or more to work each day, according to the Census Bureau.

The first part of the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance survey, which is costing about $45,000, is similar to the census in that it records where each respondent is from, where he is heading and how he is getting there.

The survey also records the salaries, education levels and occupations of those who participate.

The second section of the survey gets a bit more personal, asking respondents how long they'd like their commutes to last and whether they'd be willing to take a pay cut to achieve that time savings.

There is space at the end for participants to list what it would take for them to consider accepting a job in the Fredericksburg area.

"The respondents can send a message," said public-policy professor Stephen Fuller, director of George Mason's Center for Regional Analysis. "It isn't a way to complain. It's a way to vote for better jobs."

Fuller said he will analyze the surveys and make results available by this fall. The more commuters who respond, the easier it will be to lure big corporations and government agencies to open or expand offices here, Fuller said.

"Being able to encourage some companies closer in to Washington to maybe open up a branch in Fredericksburg is one strategy," he said. "Another is just to put this work force out there to anybody and say, 'Look what you can have if you come here.'"

Staff writer Janet Marshall contributed to this report.

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Date published: 6/16/2003