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Work & commute in Cross Lanes · A commuter town

96% of Cross Lanes’s working residents leave town for work

Most working residents leave Cross Lanes for work: only 4% work in town. The top destinations are Charleston (32%), South Charleston (10%) and Nitro (3%). Half commute less than 10 miles.

Work in town
4%
175 of 4,142 working residents
Typical commute
10 mi
half travel less, straight-line
Time each way
26 min
Less than WV (27 min)
Work from home
10%
More than WV (9%)
Jobs based here
2,446
A commuter town

What kind of work town is Cross Lanes?

Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · The commute map

32% of working residents work in Charleston

A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.

Winfield: 41 residents work here (1%)Dunbar: 110 residents work here (3%)St. Albans: 83 residents work here (2%)HurricaneNitro: 123 residents work here (3%)South Charleston: 402 residents work here (10%)Beckley: 56 residents work here (1%)Huntington: 101 residents work here (2%)Charleston: 1,312 residents work here (32%)Cross LanesTeays Valley: 123 residents work here (3%)SissonvilleCharlestonSouth CharlestonNitroTeays ValleyDunbarHuntingtonCross Lanes
1
Charleston9.9 mi away
32%1,312
2
South Charleston7.6 mi away
10%402
3
Cross Lanes (in town)right here
4%175
4
Nitro2.7 mi away
3%123
5
Teays Valley8.2 mi away
3%123
6
Dunbar5.2 mi away
3%110
7
Huntington35.8 mi away
2%101
8
St. Albans4.9 mi away
2%83
9
Beckley56.8 mi away
1%56
10
Winfield8.5 mi away
1%41
Everywhere elseother towns and states
39%1,616
The top trips

Where Cross Lanes clocks in

Lines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.

Day and night

Cross Lanes quiets down on a workday

On a workday 3,967 residents head out to work, 175 work right here, and 2,271 people come in from elsewhere.

3,967live here, work elsewhere
175live and work here
2,271work here, live elsewhere
Night and day
At night9,700
Workday8,000
9,700live here− 4,000head out to work+ 2,300come in to work= 8,000on a workday

About 8,000 people are in Cross Lanes on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.

Job hub or commuter town?
0.59jobs per workerCommuter townJob hub

0.59 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute out.

Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.

How far

Half of Cross Lanes commutes less than 10 miles

Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.

10 mi25 mi50 mi65 miCharleston: 32% · 9.9 miSouth Charleston: 10% · 7.6 miNitro: 3% · 2.7 miTeays Valley: 3% · 8.2 miDunbar: 3% · 5.2 miHuntington: 2% · 35.8 miSt. Albans: 2% · 4.9 miBeckley: 1% · 56.8 miWinfield: 1% · 8.5 miCharleston 32%South Charleston 10%Nitro 3%Teays Valley 3%Dunbar 3%Cross Lanes
Cross LanesTop destinations (size = commuters)
52%Under 10 mi2,155 residents
26%10–24 mi1,088 residents
10%25–50 mi402 residents
12%Over 50 mi484 residents

Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.

The jobs

What the 2,446 jobs in Cross Lanes are

2,446 jobs are based in Cross Lanes. Here is what they are, next to the jobs Cross Lanes’s own residents hold wherever they work.

Jobs based in Cross LanesJobs Cross Lanes residents hold

What kind of work

Goods: factories, building, farms6%11%
Trade, transport & utilities20%21%
Services: health, schools, offices74%69%

What it pays

$1,250 a month or less18%15%
$1,251–$3,333 a month35%29%
Over $3,333 a month46%57%

Who does it

29 or younger25%20%
30 to 5452%54%
55 and older23%26%
+3%

Jobs based in Cross Lanes, 2013 → 2023: 2,383 → 2,446. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.

Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.

Time on the road

About 26 minutes each way, about the WV average

From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.

A year of commuting
198 hours

Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.3 full days in the car, bus or train.

Average commute minutes, one way

Cross Lanes26 min
West Virginia27 min
U.S.26 min
Working from home
10%

of Cross Lanes workers work from home, vs 9% across West Virginia. Their commute is the hallway.

About 1 in 10

How Cross Lanes ranks on commute time →

Next door

Cross Lanes and the towns next door

The biggest share goes to Nitro (3%). Darker towns draw more of Cross Lanes’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.

How to read these numbers

What this data can and can’t tell you

  • Every worker, home to work. The Census links each worker’s home block to their main job’s block, for jobs covered by unemployment insurance. That’s most jobs, but not the self-employed.
  • Where the employer says. A job counts where the employer reports it. Some big employers report one address for many sites, which can make a few commutes look longer than they are.
  • Two surveys. Flows, distances and jobs: LEHD 2023. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: the Census American Community Survey.
  • Straight lines. Distances are as the crow flies between home and work. Roads, rivers and traffic make the real trip longer.
Beyond the commute

More of Cross Lanes

Cross Lanes home →

Commuter talk

Getting to work from Cross Lanes, from the people who make the trip.

Town Square →
Weigh in
Is the commute from Cross Lanes worth it?

Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.

Ask neighbors

Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer.

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