OnTheMap analysis showed majority of Lower Manhattan workers commute from outside the district

Elena Volovevsky of the New York State Department of Labor used the Census LEHD OnTheMap tool to examine whether congestion pricing would affect employment in a Lower Manhattan business district. She said the tool allowed the team to approximate where workers lived and commute from when place-of-work detail below the county level was not available in other Census products.

"Using OnTheMap showed us that 89.5% of the people who worked in the area commuted from outside of the business district that was going to be subject to congestion pricing," Volovevsky said. She added the team observed income breakdowns among commuters — roughly 38% of those commuting to the area made $40,000 a year or less — and recommended further study. The presenters noted that, in that policy case, exemptions or refunds were later provided for individuals earning less than $50,000 to address equity concerns.

Context: presenters framed this as an example of how OnTheMap can produce geographic commute flows and demographic breakdowns when finer workplace geographies are required. They cautioned that OnTheMap provides pre‑tabulated characteristics and that some measures are proxies rather than causal estimates.