Garden of Eden · Photo: IveGoneAway · CC BY-SA 4.0Jobs and the daily commute in Lucas
The average commute takes 11 minutes each way, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. Working from home is the commute for 3% of workers (Kansas 12%). Only 3% work in Lucas itself; outside it, Russell draws the most (24%, 21 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
A workday in Lucas: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 98 residents head out to work, 3 work right here, and 136 people come in from elsewhere.
About 370 people are in Lucas on a workday afternoon, 11% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.38 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.
The towns that employ Lucas’ residents
Where Lucas clocks in
24% 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.
Lucas works in goods: 70% of its jobs
139 jobs are based in Lucas.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Lucas, 2013 → 2023: 96 → 139. 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 Lucas’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A commute of about 11 minutes in Lucas
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Lucas workers work from home, vs 12% across Kansas. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 189 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Kansas: 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.
The distance from Lucas to work
About 23% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
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.
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 Lucas: questions
What is the median household income in Lucas?
$43,125 (±$13,299) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $74,275 across Kansas and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Lucas?
12.8%, against 11.3% across Kansas and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Lucas?
11 minutes each way on average, against 20 across Kansas and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Lucas work?
3% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Russell (24%, 21 mi), Hays (13%, 44 mi), Gorham (4%, 29 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Can you get around Lucas without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 3% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Lucas, from the people who make the trip.
More of Lucas
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.