Photo: Public domain · Public domainIndianapolis draws more than half of Speedway’s working residents
Only 7% work in Speedway itself; outside it, Indianapolis draws the most (55%, 6 miles). Jobs and income earn Speedway C+; getting around on foot earns it A. For a town this walkable, transit is thin: about 4.0 trips an hour at the evening peak near the typical resident, next to 14.7 in Center Township.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The work figures that set Speedway apart
More than half of Speedway works in Indianapolis
3,629 working residents, 55%, have their main job in Indianapolis, 5.5 miles away. That’s 8 times as many as work in Speedway itself. The commute map ↓
Speedway makes and builds things
49% of the jobs based in Speedway are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Speedway residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 12%. The jobs ↓
Most Speedway residents work close to home
65% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about two in three. Only 8% work more than 50 miles away. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Inside Speedway’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Speedway is better than 38% of U.S. towns, #424 of 593 in Indiana. Job access by car holds Speedway’s grade up (ahead of 92% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (17.5%, U.S. 12.5%).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Speedway could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Where Speedway goes to work
Where Speedway clocks in
55% of workers
7% of workers
4% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
In Speedway, 49% of jobs are in factories, building or farming
9,281 jobs are based in Speedway.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Speedway, 2013 → 2023: 7,829 → 9,281. 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.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Speedway’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Speedway’s workers travel
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
The daily commute in and out of Speedway
On a workday 6,173 residents head out to work, 475 work right here, and 8,806 people come in from elsewhere.
About 17,000 people are in Speedway on a workday afternoon, 18% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.40 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
From Speedway, about 22 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Speedway workers work from home, vs 11% across Indiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 6,127 commuters (the 12% who work from home are left out). Across Indiana: 85% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Good to walk, short on transit: Speedway
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Speedway is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns, #17 of 593 in Indiana. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 4.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, above the 3.3% across Indiana.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 6,983 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). Nearly all residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 68% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about 4.0 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 80% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 8.0% of Speedway households have no vehicle (Indiana 6.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 2% of Speedway’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 2,227 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000, Speedway comes 1,613th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 51 | Whitestown IN | 15,767 | $124K | 2.8% | 1.6% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 92 | McCordsville IN | 13,094 | $111K | 0.9% | 2.4% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 103 | Brown Township IN | 15,523 | $140K | 2.3% | 2.8% | 3% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,611 | Paris KY | 10,130 | $56K | 16.9% | 3.6% | 24% | C+ |
| 1,612 | Waynesboro PA | 11,190 | $67K | 10.2% | 4.9% | 11% | C+ |
| 1,613 | Speedway IN | 14,373 | $60K | 17.5% | 5.8% | 7% | C+ |
| 1,614 | Taylorville IL | 10,522 | $58K | 12.4% | 3.5% | 27% | C+ |
| 1,615 | Alexandria MN | 15,045 | $61K | 12.0% | 3.6% | 56% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Speedway, the top three, the last and three more from Indiana.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Speedway: questions
What is the median household income in Speedway?
$60,147 (±$4,988) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $71,957 across Indiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Speedway?
17.5%, against 12.3% across Indiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Speedway?
22 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Indiana and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Speedway work?
7% work in town.
Is Speedway walkable?
Speedway is more walkable than 90% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 13.7 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Speedway without a car?
2% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. 68% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Speedway, from the people who make the trip.
More of Speedway
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. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.