—Albert Hill, Volusia County GIS
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In July 2008, with gas prices fast approaching $4 a gallon, Volusia County Environmental Management asked whether the GIS Team could use its tools to analyze and portray the over 3000 County employee's current driving routes to and from work. Employing existing databases in both the Human Resources and Finance Departments we were able to accurately depict employee start and stop locations and, by employing Esri's Network Analyst extension, show what would be the employee's shortest path from their home to their workplace. These commuting routes were then compared to other information such as existing Park & Ride lots, natural traffic choke points, and current bus routes. The employee "distribution on the landscape" was also analyzed for commonalities. This provided Environmental Management with several potential options for combating the high cost of getting employees to work. This presentation will investigate the approach, the problems found in the source data and the corresponding workarounds, and the compelling results of this analysis for encouraging changes in employee commuting practices.